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Level 1: Cash-in-transit robbery season is coming say crime experts
Crime research experts have warned that CIT robbery season is upon us after Mzansi entered lockdown Alert level 1 last week.
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Bad news for Mzansi and cash security companies, lockdown alert level 1 will witness an increase in Cash-in-transit (CIT) heist robberies, researchers said on Monday 4 October. The violent robberies spiked in late 2019, before taking a huge downturn when COVID-19 broke out in March 2020.
WHY LEVEL-1 WILL MEAN INCREASED ROBBERIES
According to the research from UCT’s Centre of Criminology, CIT robberies were at a high in 2019 going into the first quarter of 2020, before the armed crimes took a welcomed dip in lockdown alert level 5.
Since Mzansi moved lower down the alert levels, starting at level 4 to level 3, the CIT robberies showed a spike.
“The heists decreased by 50% during the middle quarter of 2020. However, the robberies increased in the second and third quarter of 2020 by more than 50% compared to the previous year,” said UCT’s Annie Kok.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
With the onslaught of increased CIT robberies now expected in alert level 1, what best response actions can South African law apply? The experts believe law officials need to collaborate to deliver smart crime responses and apply actionable plans.
“This requires sophisticated crime intelligence, the expertise to turn knowledge and information into actionable strategies, and of course coordination from all relevant stakeholders,” Kok added.
Fidelity Services Group spokesperson Wahl Bartmann, assured the nation that the teamwork with police and different private security response have already set the ball rolling ahead of the level 1 robbery spike.
“There has been an organisation that has already been set up. We are all getting together to share resources, information, and intelligence. We are working with police who have people that are stationed for these operations,” Baartman said.
Meanwhile, the most recent CIT heist was reported last Thursday 28 September, where about 30 men attacked a Fidelity cash vehicle in Pretoria on Sunday, 26 September. The armed suspects were traveling in at least seven different vehicles and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash.
