Community Crime Watch Seychelles goes nationwide |26 July 2023

Mr Lespoir

Community Crime Watch Seychelles has this week gone national, with a group in each district.

Before going national, the community – initiated on the social media platform Facebook – had fourteen groups, which were more or less focusing on regions, such as west coast, which included districts such as Port Glaud and Grande Anse Mahé.

Now all 26 districts have their individual group, with their own administrator.

“It is important that each district has its own group so that it can be more focused. If something happens at Port Glaud, we do not need to disturb Anse Boileau,” explained the co-founder, Christopher Lespoir.

Furthermore, Mr Lespoir explained that in each group, there is the relevant authority officers. “However, it is not only about crime. One of our roles is to keep the community together. It is merely a group of people looking out for each other.”

He cited a car accident last year, where there was nobody around to assist the victim and this was promptly attended to, after an alert was issued on Crime Watch.

In another recent example, an alert was issued for assistance after a lady was attacked on a trail.

“Within minutes, we can see that these incidents are being reported in Crime Watch, enabling the community to protect one another,” said Mr Lespoir.

Community Crime Watch Seychelles presently has 13,000 members. It also has a specific district WhatsApp group for all the members. Any person in Seychelles can become a member, by accessing the Facebook page, to find their district. From there they can click the link and will be sent directly to the WhatsApp group. A person can join multiple groups. There are no membership fees.

Mr Lespoir stated that it is important to have people speaking out against anti-social behaviour as they cannot be prisoners in their own districts.

“It has to stop, it does not matter the source of the problem, they have absolutely no right whatsoever to put a community to fear. This is what Crime Watch stands for. We are launching a message to everyone involved in these types of behaviour that we will work with the authorities, and we will take back the community!”

Crime Watch has the support of the local authorities including the blessing of the police.

“To me, it is not as simple as waiting for the police for something to happen. The police face their own challenges,” he stated.

Crime Watch was founded by Georgette D’Offay, an inhabitant of Au Cap, who wanted to fight against weekly disturbance, vandalism and other anti-social activities at her home.

Ms D’Offay came up with the idea to create the Crime Watch group on WhatsApp to give the public a platform to vent out their concerns happening in their areas.

Since 2015 there has been a lot of efforts to bring the authorities on board, which finally materialised.

“It involved a lot of lobbying because a certain branch of the government saw us as collaborators with the offenders or as their competitors, but we are not that at all,” explained Mr Lespoir.

He stated that Community Crime Watch Seychelles should be a deterrent, with crime perpetrators fully aware that over 5,000 eyes are watching them, prior to committing any offence, and to quiver with fear.

Following the nationwide campaign, Community Crime Watch Seychelles is now targeting other future projects such as introducing a mapping system where a citizen would be able to send an alert to the police via their mobile phone to give out their location for instant assistance.

“At the press of a button, the command centre will immediately know where you are,” explained Mr Lespoir.

Mr Lespoir also intends to lobby the National Assembly for the introduction of electronic tags for people released from remand, so they could be easily tracked in the event of criminal activities.

The community also plans to advocate for amendments to certain criminal laws to review the sentences, considered to be too mild.

The long-term plan is to turn Community Crime Watch Seychelles into a fully-fledged private security firm. “We have noticed that there are people who are willing to pay to get a fast response. We have private sectors who will be on-board. This does not mean that the community part will go away, it will remain and that will be our primary goal.”

Mr Lespoir said the structure is still in discussion and it could be one which works in collaboration with the police like in South Africa.

Sunny Esparon