New anti-crime tactics needed

INCIDENTS of prisoners escaping from jails, hijackings and daring armed robberies dominating the headlines lately have raised serious concerns about rising crime in the country.

After reading about some of these crimes, including the violent cash heists in Johannesburg and the recent Mthatha High Court shoot-out, it was clear to me that we are not safe at all from hardened criminals.

In fact, in the light of the multiple cash heists, I have developed a serious phobia regarding malls and I get hot flushes each time I walk past those ugly cash-in-transit vans because I feel that a cash heist could be imminent, and that I might just be caught in the crossfire.

Surely working as a guard for these cash-in-transit companies has become one of the most dangerous jobs in the country!

Then I had the unfortunate experience of witnessing two security guards being shot at close range. After that a strange thought hit me: can’t someone invent a bullet-proof bodysuit that

Tprotects one from head to toe as opposed to those scanty vests that only protect the chest?

Surely, most security personnel would not mind looking like an astronaut as long as they were fully secure in their body vests!

I think our malls in the Eastern Cape are also vulnerable to armed robbery; unless there is some classified security information that is not available to the public. For starters, I have not seen any “stop and search” security systems at mall entrances . . . as for police visibility . . .

The question is, are criminals simply able to drive into malls with serious weapons undetected?

Heaven help us if those hardened robbers from big cities like Johannesburg ever decide to try their luck out in the relative calm of the Eastern Cape.

For starters, I wonder how long it would take for our tactical response teams to get to a robbery scene, seeing that it took the Johannesburg team more than 20 minutes to show up at a recent crime scene.

Maybe the poor police officers are also scared of taking part in these high intensity fire exchanges with hardened robbers that they conveniently only arrive at the scene once the robbers have left. Talk about good timing! And they are so scared for good reason – we are now confronted by a new breed of criminals who are more daring and skillful than before. Indeed, gone are the days of township conmen with straw hats and pen knives!

On a good day, this new hardened breed can take on the police firepower challenge without qualms.

Our security bosses in the province have to rethink ways of effectively responding to this new breed of criminals.

Potential robberies have to be foiled before they happen or at least the response to a distress call must be prompt and effective.

Surely we can’t still be having incidents of prisoners disarming the warders and escaping from prisons or daily mall robberies if our police force has done its homework?

Clearly the current strategies for countering robberies and hijackings have not been enough to combat such crimes.

Although private businesses have the immediate responsibility of ensuring the security of their properties, it is ultimately the state’s responsibility to protect all citizens. Otherwise all of us will have to wear bullet-proof vests whenever we go shopping.