Vehicle-related crime rapidly returning to pre-lockdown levels

While South Africa experienced a drop in vehicle crime during the lockdown, activities are returning to normal levels as the country’s restrictions are being lifted.

Tracker data, recorded from the 1.1 million installed vehicle base, reveals a 90 per cent reduction in the number of vehicle recovery activities nationally during the first week of the lockdown, as compared to the average weekly vehicle recovery activities pre-lockdown.

This is in line with a preliminary police report that noted a decline in trio crimes, namely car and truck hijackings, business robberies and house robberies, down to 2 098 in the first week of lockdown from 8 853 during the same period in 2019.

“The decrease in vehicle crime activities during lockdown can be attributed to fewer vehicles on the road and a higher presence of law enforcement.

“Since the ease of lockdown restrictions, vehicle-related crimes have increased,” said Ron Knott-Craig from Tracker South Africa.

It is predicted that vehicle-related crimes will increase even more.

“We are already seeing an escalation in crime activities as vehicle movement increases and we expect to get back to pre-Covid-19 vehicle crime levels.

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Like the rest of the country, criminals are resuming their activities under eased restrictions.

“Under last week’s level four restrictions, we recovered a vehicle, in partnership with law enforcement, which was being moved across a transnational border,” he said.

During the first three weeks of lockdown, hijackings attributed a higher percentage of the Tracker vehicle recovery activities compared to theft.

The pre-Covid-19 Tracker average for hijackings and theft was a 50/50 per cent split.

The initial lockdown period saw an average of 63/37 per cent split in the favour of hijackings.

This returned to a more even split during the extended lockdown period where Tracker noticed an increase in vehicle movement with more citizens on the road as regulations were eased.

The slant towards hijackings during lockdown is most likely an opportunistic tactic, with criminals preying on vehicles out in the open, while most other vehicles would have been securely locked away.

Further crime trends noted by Tracker included a noticeable increase in vehicles being targeted for their loads, particularly food items and fast-moving consumable goods.