Dear Editor,

IN the light of recent events in Ogle, I write to you with high hopes that my letter catches the eyes of the relevant authorities who will work with residents from this area to restore Ogle back to a safer, secured community.First, let me express how disturbing it was to learn of a neighbour being robbed in broad daylight by armed men posing as customers. This is where I stress the need for police officers to be a little more active and given the fact that Sparendaam Police Station is within five minutes, by the time police arrived on the scene, the gunmen were long gone. Why was this? I’m still pondering reasons why it took them so long to arrive, but I’m here to highlight the need for their presence both in the day and night. As someone who grew up and has lived in Ogle for well over 15 years, surely, I can say that safety has deteriorated, thus I am calling for heightened security and very quickly too.

It is not out of the ordinary to have persons lurking, strange vehicles and motorcyclists driving up and down pretending to live there when in truth they are scouting the area. These so-called imposters are who pose a threat to our community, raising uneasiness and fear for women, especially single-parent moms. To know that you can’t risk walking to the shop should you run out of an item and or coming home from work at night, or your children from school raise many safety concerns. If we can get our police officers onboard with us to cut back on these regular incidents by patrolling the streets and its environs consistently with spot checks during the day as well as night, there would be no invitation to lurk.

Additionally, I’d like to address the issue of street-lighting. If there’s no lighting in smaller streets such as Temple Street, then there’s the problem of not enough street lamps on main roadways as in the case of the Railway Embankment where some corners are lit and others are not. For instance, after crossing over the Railway Embankment bridge, streets on either side are without lights. The same is true at night for Airstrip Road leading into the Eugene F. Correia airport. Now this is where I emphasise that being the second main airport of the country, don’t you for the most part feel a need for safety upon entering and or exiting the only road accessible to and from the airport? Further, imagine a tourist or an airport employee working an odd-hour shift, coming off from work and having to walk that road alone in complete darkness, given that public transportation don’t always run and taxis aren’t always available at that hour of night. Crime prevention is everybody’s business.

Regards,
Larraine Lee