Vehicle Crime Academy – Private sector training!
The Vehicle Crime Academy – with over 50 years of investigative crime experience – aims at training the private sector in vehicle theft and crime prevention.
Any organised crime cannot be planned or committed without the use of a vehicle. Syndicates are especially careful not to let their transport lead the authorities back to them.
This is a major factor influencing vehicle theft. Many vehicles are stolen solely to commit other crimes. The most common examples include: ATM bombings, burglaries, cash-in-transit heists and even planned attacks on police officials.
When considering the vehicle theft statistics from released by SAPS for 2013/2014:
- 12 212 vehicles, including trucks, were hijacked
- 56 870 vehicles were stolen
- Approximately 45% of all stolen vehicles are recovered annually
- 60% of stolen vehicles are cloned and used amongst us
- 30% leave the country’s borders
- 10% are chopped up for spares
Perhaps all of us need to play a role in reducing these figures and the impact that this crime has on our lives.
According to the head of the Vehicle Crime Academy, André Barkhuizen – for the first time ever, accredited training is now available for the private sector to assist the SAPS in combatting the above scourge.
“Vehicle crime poses risks to the public, private and corporate sectors. The facilitators of the Vehicle Crime Academy collectively have 50 years of vehicle crime investigation experience and collectively 80 years of crime investigation experience. We do not only provide theoretical training, according to prescribed unit standards, but also have an on-site exhibition centre which can also be made mobile, for practical training,”
says Barkhuizen.
Institutions which should consider the Vehicle Crime Academy training program are:
- The banking fraternity
- Customs and excise
- Department of Transport (DOT)
- Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID)
- Information technology industries
- Insurance industry
- International Trade and Administration Commission (ITAC)
- Metro Police Services
- Microdotting industry
- National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)
- Private investigators
- Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC)
- Salvage industry
- Security industry
- South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) and the National Regulator of Compulsory Standards (NRCS)
- South African National Defence Force (SANDF)
- South African Police Service (SAPS)
- Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) which is an organ of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
- Tracking industry
- Traffic Police
- Vehicle dealers
- Vehicle manufacturer representatives
- Vehicle testing centres
The grand opening of the Vehicle Crime Academy will be on 3 September 2015. Industry players and media officials will be in attendance to learn about the organisation.