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Is truck-jacking making an unwelcome return?
An intensive research programme, followed by a meticulously run crime prevention programme to solve the hijacking-crisis on South African roads, made major headway as statistics improved dramatically from 2002 to 2005.
But during the past two years, the ghost of the past returned and the figures reflect that truck and car robbers have become the scourge of South African road users once again.
From 2005 to 2008, car hijacking in South Africa increased from 12 434 per annum to 14 201 in 2007/2008, while the number of truck hijackings increased from 829 in 2005/2006 to 1 245 per annum in 2007/2008. Truck hijacking increased by 39.6% from 2006/2007 to 2007/2008.
The combined hijackings of cars and trucks were 15 446 during the previous financial year, or 42 hijackings per day nationally.
Dr Rudolph Zinn, a lecturer in Forensic Investigation at Unisa, conducted an intensive research programme on vehicle hijackings in 2002 and 2003. His research has led to a dramatic drop in hijackings on South African roads, particularly of truck hijackings.
Dr Zinn investigated the willingness of convicted and incarcerated motor vehicle hijackers to provide crime information to the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Department of Correctional Services.
The value of information provided by sentenced motor vehicle hijackers served as an additional source of crime information.
Dr Zinn said through the aid of his research project, he was able to formulate a profile of motor vehicle hijackers serving their sentences in correctional centres in Gauteng, and could determine their modi operandi.
The information could be used to supplement existing crime information from which crime intelligence could be derived.
Crime intelligence could be used for more effective intelligence-led police interventions as well as for more effective management of correctional centres.
Startling findings
Through his research, Dr Zinn was able to assemble a profile of the modi operandi of hijackers. The most hijackers received an order beforehand regarding a specific type of vehicle, a model or a specific type of cargo.
The majority of truck hijackings takes place because of inside information received from workers at the firm or drivers or support personnel on the delivery trucks about the routes, delivery points and what is being transported.
The cargo is sold within hours after the hijacking and the vehicles are generally reassembled, which means that parts of other vehicles are being used to make the hijacked vehicle impossible to trace.
This ‘camouflaging’ of vehicles takes place within eight hours after the hijacking operation has been carried out.
The hijackers are mostly field workers from a bigger syndicate, with nearly all hijackings occurring on the roads during peak traffic hours.
The motive is covetousness and not survival, and hijackers see it as an easy way to make quick money and to score ‘big’ in a relatively short time span.
Delivery points are particularly vulnerable and are generally decided upon beforehand with the help of an inside informant.
A more effective crime prevention strategy
For the first time, more specific and detailed crime intelligence was available for detectives to determine a profile of the perpetrators, possible accomplices, where the vehicles and cargo might be sold, where the markets are, as well as the modi operandi of the hijackers before, during and after the event, their escape routes and the origin of the firearms.
The officers also assembled a better plan to prevent these hijackings.
Commissioner Johan de Beer, head of the national detective team at the time, assembled special anti-hijacking task teams that specialised in the prevention as well as the investigation of these type of crimes.
Advocate Jan Henning, a senior manager at the National Prosecuting Authority head office at the time, discussed the research project and decided to form special courts to specialise in the prosecution of hijackers.
The media reports on these projects and the heightened public awareness also played a pivotal role in preventing these hijacking operations.
Companies started marking their cargo as a way to identify whether it was robbed. They also conducted polygraph testing with workers who were hijacked while carrying out deliveries.
Staggering results
There was an almost instant improvement and a dramatic downturn in hijacking incidents, particularly among trucks.
Car hijacking came down from 15 846 per annum nationally in 2001/2002 to 12 434 in 2004/2005, while truck hijacking decreased from 3 333 per year in 2001/2002 to 986 in 2002/2003.
“It is a general and scientific known phenomenon that criminals move to a softer target or another crime if there is a heightened focus on a specific type of crime,” said Dr Zinn.
Dropping the guard
Asked why he thought there was an increase in hijackings since 2005/2006, Dr Zinn said: “I suspect we became complacent about the hijackings. That is partially because of more media focus recently on robberies at private homes and because of the violent nature of these incidents. Hijackings are nowadays seldom highlighted in the media.
“This is a general trend internationally, that if a specific type of crime or threat drops in frequency because of successful crime prevention initiatives, the public loses interest in it, and then the crime prevention operations start focusing on other crimes.
“As a result, the crime prevention operations that were originally used in that specific crime, are scaled down, neglected or totally abandoned.
“As I interpret it, that was exactly what happened with hijackings and the measures against it are being applied in a less stringent manner, and that is being used by criminals to their own advantage,” said Dr Zinn.
The shifting to different type of criminal activities also takes place because of heightened public awareness.
Criminals would move to another mode of activity as soon as this type of criminal activity becomes a hard target and too risky.
The increase in hijackings is also taking place because communities and areas focus more on safeguarding their homes and immediate vicinity against robberies in their living areas.
There are more patrols around residential areas, while more residential areas are becoming gated communities.
This safeguarding of communities has made this type of crime a harder target for criminals, so that they have reverted back to hijacking as a softer target.
Counting the cost
Dr Zinn says the increase in hijackings on South African roads could have a great influence, particularly on indirect costs such as increasing safety measures to monitor vehicles, using tracking devices, vetting of personnel by the use of polygraph testing as well as safety and support vehicles to guard delivery trucks.
The hijackings of trucks could see a dramatic increase in assurance premiums, and could dent the confidence of clients in the efficiency of deliveries.
One should also take note of the so-called psychological impact.
A previous report by SAPS, quoted by Dr Zinn, stated: “The increase in motor vehicle hijackings and the theft of motor vehicles have both considerably contributed to the heightened levels of fear of crime in South Africans.
“These kinds of crime inhibit the freedom of movement and economic advancement of people,” it says.
“Furthermore, they have had a considerable negative impact on South Africa with reference to the loss of property and the psycho-social damage resulting from trauma and fear that the victims and the public broadly experience.”
A word from the Road Freight Association
Gavin Kelly, technical and operations manager of the Road Freight Association of South Africa (RFA), says the increase in hijackings are obviously bad, and his summary is that criminals have returned to their old hijacking ways because they once again see trucks as a soft target.
A scaling down of operations by SAPS because of a lack of capacity may also have contributed. They decided, for example, to dissolve the Flying Squad,
he said.
“There are no alternatives to road, as rail only works for bulk cargoes over distances, while air freight may be beneficial between major centres or between countries.
“The Road Freight Association engages in awareness programmes for their members and constantly informs them about prevention initiatives,” says Kelly.
“We also make them aware of so-called trucking hot spots or no-go areas. Trucking devices are also designed in a way that alarm companies and drivers when they enter hot spots.
“But obviously we don’t have a way of controlling what happens to any of those drivers. We try and assist our members to increase measures to prevent these type of hijackings,” adds Kelly.
The RFA also uses public forums where, in association with SAPS, they address members of different role-players in the road transport industry on safety prevention.
In 2008 Kelly, together with a high profile member of SAPS, addressed the Transported Asset Protection Association on prevention measures.
Fanie Heyns
