Crime stats - we’re not ready for what is to come
Most community members are aware of their area’s crime statistics, and it remains justa statistic, until your home becomes just another number.
Following the recent surge in break-ins, specifically home invasions, Lowvelder spoke to Hi-Tech Security to obtain some statistics and estimates on the matter.
Callum MacPherson, regional operations manager, provided some numbers and brief explanations to go along with them, while Johnny Kerswill, Hi-Tech CSG Lowveld’s manager, shared his predictions for moving forward during Level 3 of the lockdown.
Some crime categories, as classified by Hi-Tech, include the following:
Residential break-in: When perpetrators gain access to the inside of a house.
Business break-in: When perpetrators gain access to the inside of a business.
Aggravated robbery: When a weapon is aimed at a victim during a robbery.
Common theft: Theft of any loosestanding objects, for example a bicycle in a yard.
MacPherson mentioned that these statistics were only those crimes that they as a company are aware of and that numbers were likely quite a bit higher. A crime such as common theft, particularly, often goes unreported.
Kerswill said their greatest problem before lockdown was break-ins in urban and rural residential areas. The main target during that time was electronic equipment.
“Since March 26, we have seen a decline in break-ins. Those prior to lockdown were usually carried out by unorganised opportunistic groups.
“What we have also noticed, is that in the past, your normal opportunistic group was not armed, but now you are finding more organised syndicates that carry out those types of break-ins.
“We then began finding that during the last part of Level 4 of the lockdown, there was an increase in break-ins, especially in the rural areas and on estates.
“This time, the main target was not electronic equipment. It was more for food, clothes and specifically, the guys are looking for weapons. Where the break-ins take place, the perpetrators want to know where residents’ safes and where their weapons were.”
He predicts that these incidents will increase along with the levels of lockdown being lowered.
“And we will find that more and more people are going to turn to criminal action to get normal items such as food to satisfy their basic needs.”
He also stated that when times are financially tough, security services are done away with first – both private residents and business owners. He said we are not ready for the surge to come.
“We find more and more that perpetrators breaking into cars or homes are armed. And these are unlicensed weapons. We have to prepare ourselves for this increase. Not just for residential break-ins, but robberies that can take place on the street, vehicle hijackings and break-ins into vehicles.”
He warned that people should also be especially careful when going to shopping centres as they are “a good shopping area for criminal groupings.
Vehicles are identified at shopping centres and then followed home. From there they plan a way forward.”
“We will find that more and more people are going to turn to criminal action to get normal items such as food to satisfy their basic needs.”