Pinelands Police Station

In the early days of Pinelands there was a Police Training Depot with stables for horses in the area of the Oval and the tennis courts. There was a further camp on the Ndabeni border. When the training depot left the area in 1926, there was no police presence and in 1929 Garden Cities considered providing land for a cottage police station. In 1938 Garden Cities took the step of granting land to the Police but this was not taken up. The following year, Garden Cities then took the decision to sell site 528 to a private individual on condition it was leased for a Police Station. Eventually Mr Korte purchased the site on the corner of Central Square where the Police Station remained until 2007.  Over the years the accommodation became inadequate, and the detective branch was moved to Maitland in 1990. The detective branch returned in 1996 to a SAPS-owned home on Forest Drive.

One of the first Community Police Forums was formed by Peter Henry and Cllr Watkyns in 1995, and a call was made for a new police station. Over the years political leaders were lobbied with no success, despite Pinelands being listed at one stage in the top five in line for a new station. The owner of the property decided to sell the premises in 2006, forcing the Station to find new premises. The proposals to build a new station on either Julianaveld or the unused SAPS land on Avonduur was ignored.  

The next year, the station and the detective branch moved into the SAPS building on Jan Smuts Drive near the boundary of Pinelands. It was to be a temporary measure due to lack of holding cells, causing prisoners to be ferried to either Maitland or Kensington and there was no lock up facility for the storage of evidence. The station therefore does not meet the minimum requirements and the quest for a full station continues.