Cops to profile car guards at shopping centres
Such profiling would involve police obtaining information about the car guards and placing it onto their systems.
Police said they will in future profile car guards at shopping centres “to check whether they are really supposed to be there”.
This comes after police recorded an increase in the number of vehicle-related crimes in Pretoria, according to SAPS district commissioner in Tshwane Major General Hilda Mohajane.
“How could it be that crime was still taking place while car guards were there?” she asked.
Mohajane announced this new measure to tackle theft out of motor vehicles at shopping centres in Pretoria during an O Kae Molao operation held in Akasia and Pretoria North last week.
“In Pretoria North, we had a lot of cases in which people’s vehicles are broken into while they are busy shopping and their property stolen,” Mohajane said.
She said it was concerning that this was taking place at shopping centres where there were security guards who were supposed to guard the cars while the owners did their shopping.
“So the question is: are these car guards doing what they are supposed to be doing?”
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The said profiling would involve police obtaining information about the car guards and placing it onto their systems.
“They will then be checked to see whether they have any previous cases on their records or whether their fingerprints appear on vehicles that were broken into,” she said.
She said car guards whose fingerprints were found on vehicles that were broken into would then be “picked up” as suspects.
Despite questioning the occurrence of theft of motor vehicles under their watch, Mohajane commended those who were doing their jobs as intended.
“We want to thank people who are diligently guarding cars,” she said.
“But we also need to warn those that break into cars that we and malls’ management will deal with them.”
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