While the Cape Town Central police precinct may be amongst the biggest in the country, with some of the top numbers of cases reported in the recently released crime statistics, the station reported a decrease in these crimes.
This was according to Cape Town Central police station commander Brigadier Gerda van Niekerk, who was speaking at the monthly community police forum meetings on Thursday, March 5.
“It may not be nice to be number one in the country for certain crimes, but the reduction in cases should be celebrated as a small victory,” she said.
She presented the police statistics for the third quarter of last year, from October 2025 until December 2025.
The station ranked number one in the province and second in the country with 2 571 community-reported serious crime cases. This was 636 cases (19.8 percent) less than the previous year.
The community-reported crimes are made up of contact crimes, including murder, sexual offences, attempted murder, all assaults, all robberies, carjacking, residential and non-residential robbery; arson and malicious property damage; property-related crime, including burglary, theft out of, from, or of motor vehicles and stock theft; and other crime, including theft, commercial crime, and shoplifting.
Cape Town Central police station ranked number one in the province and country for other serious crimes, which include theft not mentioned elsewhere, commercial crime and shoplifting. The police reported 1,240 cases, 164 cases fewer than the previous year for the same period.
The station also ranked the highest in the province and country for property-related crime, with the highest number of cases - 512 - which was 309 cases less than the previous year.
Brigadier Van Niekerk also highlighted theft out of and from a motor vehicle, with 383 cases reported, which was down by 263 cases from the last year.
For theft not mentioned elsewhere, Cape Town Central was the highest in the country and the province with 857 cases, which was down by 133 cases from the last year.
The station recorded 373 common robbery cases, which made them number one in the country and province. This was 66 cases fewer than the previous year.
The station also came out tops for commercial crime in the province and seventh in the country with 328 cases, which is six cases less than was recorded last year.
Fourteen sexual assault cases reported during this period placed the station second in the country and the province. This was ten counts higher than last year during the same quarter.
Burglary at non-residential premises took tenth place in the province and 100th in the country, with 25 cases reported. This is 17 cases less than reported last year.
Brigadier Van Niekerk said she would like to celebrate the crime prevented by police action, confiscation of dangerous weapons, liquor, and drugs. They were number two nationally with an increase of 700 cases.
The increase in these crime categories is a result of proactiveness and due to several arrests made during operations.
"I believe this played a big role in the decrease in our crime," she said.
CPF chairman Marc Truss said there have been quite a few new changes, including the re-enlisting of 62 police detectives, bringing in their experience, and the cadets, "fresh eyes and ears", coming into play.
"We are the biggest station in the Western Cape and one of the biggest in the country. It is a difficult station because we have people coming into town and leaving town. There is a lot of movement," he said.
He said the number of residents might be low, but that there were close to a million coming in and leaving during the day.
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