'Ghost Squad' nabs thousands of badly behaved drivers in Cape Town

An invisible layer of policing deployed on the roads, known as the"Ghost Squad", is netting nearly 8,000 traffic offenders a month in Cape Town.

The city hailed the success of its undercover team of traffic officers on Tuesday, exactly 10 years since the Ghost Squad was launched in 2009.

"Cape Town's Ghost Squad was a first for the country and just one of many innovative approaches to enforcement that we have undertaken in this city," said Cape Town's MMC for safety and security, Alderman JP Smith.

"The dedicated officers who spend most of their nights policing the poor choices of road users, like illegal street racing, have provided a layer of invisible policing that has caught thousands of suspects in the act."

The squad started with 12 traffic officers and an inspector, using unmarked vehicles and working irregular hours, to clamp down on serious offences such as reckless, negligent and drunk driving.

In the first few months after the launch, the squad was averaging 2,210 offences per month but now logs an average of 7,986 offences a month.

The squad uses dashboard and body cameras and is due to be equipped with new vehicles and technology during the financial year. Skipping red traffic lights, not wearing safety belts, overloading, using cellphones while driving and number plate offences are included in a long list of transgressions they police on the road.

"We have a culture on our roads of behaving reasonably well only when we see marked police or traffic vehicles. The Ghost Squad has done tremendously well in tackling errant motorists who commit serious moving violations, which could lead to crashes and result in serious injury or even death," said Smith.