Sharp decline in vehicle theft

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

I had my car stolen september last year, and got it back in 1 piece! Cops were absolutely amazing in this case - with the detective phoning often giving me updates regularly. Good news to hear it's on the decrease though!

Best was my ex-father-in-law that when he got his bakkie back after 3 months, they fixed everything ... unkown to the thief he (ex-father-in-law) was struggling to sell his piece of junk (1400 Nissan) with its broken CV joints, steering play, broken doors, etc.

Then when he got it back it was like new, no questions to where the replacement parts came from though. Needless to say he kept the bakkie for a couple of more years.

 

[phoneJunky]

Best was my ex-father-in-law that when he got his bakkie back after 3 months, they fixed everything ... unkown to the thief he (ex-father-in-law) was struggling to sell his piece of junk (1400 Nissan) with its broken CV joints, steering play, broken doors, etc.

Then when he got it back it was like new, no questions to where the replacement parts came from though. Needless to say he kept the bakkie for a couple of more years.

Lol, did the criminals sell it to someone and then someone fixed it our did the criminals fix it. Because if someone got conned then it would just be too bad.

 

[JohnGalt]

Pity though that farm murders (for cellphones) has increased !

Cite evidence please. Farm murders were far higher in the mid 90's than now.

 

[LazyLion]

Lol, did the criminals sell it to someone and then someone fixed it our did the criminals fix it. Because if someone got conned then it would just be too bad.

buying stolen goods is just as bad as stealing them yourself.

 

[JohnGalt]

50% is still too much.

Let me know when the ANC government and the cops are able to stamp out the other 50%. :erm:

LOL. What a hard to please bunch of whingers we are. The United states for example has a far higher car theft ratio than us. That was before the 50%. But yes, good to aim high.

 

[Frankie]

Cite evidence please. Farm murders were far higher in the mid 90's than now.

HA HA HA

The Rooster (aka Kill-A-Whitey) can thumb suck and post loads of BS, and then ask others to "cite evidence" .

 

[The Philosopher]

BEWARE OF STATISTICS, is it 50% of absolute numbers or 50% of prevalence?


edit: also if the crime is down, then our insurance premiums should decrease too

 

[Lightscribe]

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/ar...omplacency-says-insurance-industry-2010-05-12

Motor vehicle crime had decreased by 50% since 2002 - this according to the South African Insurance Association (SAIA).

Motor vehicle crime involved vehicles being taken from their rightful owners by means of theft, hijacking and/or fraud.

SAIA on Tuesday handed over R1,7-million to the Business Against Crime (BAC) initiative to continue with its efforts to combat crime in South Africa.

SAIA had directed more than R10-million to BAC South Africa over an eight-year period.

SAIA chairperson Ronnie Napier said that while "incidences of vehicle theft had reduced greatly over the years, there was no room for complacency concerning crime".

The association's donation for the first time flowed from all of its members this year, and not only SAIA's motor insurance members.

http://www.mylocal.co.za/google/search?hl=en&q=decline+in+vehicle+sales&cr=countryZA

Decline in demand means decline in supply. The dealers using hijackers to meet demand, simply have less clients.

An interesting fact mentioned by 5fm, is that about 1/3 of stolen/hijacked vehicles are broken down for spares, about 1/3 are resold in SA and about 1/3 are taken out of the country.

 

[Lightscribe]

If one looks at the recent increase in sales, as cited in some of the articles in the http://www.mylocal.co.za/google/search?hl=en&q=decline+in+vehicle+sales&cr=countryZA link, one could predict an increase in theft/hijackings again.

 

[JohnGalt]

I don't know how many cars are stolen a years in South Africa but here are some stats for the U.S.A.

http://www.auto-theft.info/Statistics.htm

according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports. In 2006, 1,192,809 motor vehicles were reported stolen.

Now there's 6 times the amount of people in the U.S than here but let's be fair and double that to account for the fact that more people own cars (but not more than double as many people ride buses and subways compared to here) . So we must must divide that to reach a comparable figure. So for us to be worse for vehicle theft than the U.S we'd need to have (99 400 cars stolen a year. How many cars on S.A roads ? 5 million seems about right. We only have +-10 million people in the middle class and most families share one or two cars. . And many people are too young or old to drive their own car (around 33% of those people). I mean 1 in 10 is pretty fair for a poor country I think

So if that's true then if we had the same percentage of vehicle theft as the states we would have 99 400 cars stolen out of 5 million each year. Or 1 in 50.3 per year to be compatible with their numbers.

Which sounds to me a lot more than is the actual case.I'd be surprised if 1 in 500 were stolen here a year. So there in that simple comparison you can see how vehicle theft is really not a big deal in South Africa relatively speaking.

 

[to0kenZA]

Maybe its because we can not afford new cars....

Only joking!!!!! it is good news. // flame suit.

It's kinda funny that you say this because -- I just got my 2010 Polo and I must say, the new cars are very anti-stealable It has no locks on the outside other than the one on the driver's side. If you unlock the car with the key or manage to open the door in any other way than using the central locking, the alarm goes off regardless whenever you try to start the car. However, when the car is started with the legit key, the alarm only sounds very briefly and it goes off. I was also told by the dealership that the car cannot start at all without the digitally programmed key. So I'd say the awesome new countermeasures within new car security systems must be one of the reasons for the decrease in car theft, obviously

 

[Lightscribe]

I don't know how many cars are stolen a years in South Africa but here are some stats for the U.S.A.

http://www.auto-theft.info/Statistics.htm

Now there's 6 times the amount of people in the U.S than here but let's be fair and double that to account for the fact that more people own cars (but not more than double as many people ride buses and subways compared to here) . So we must must divide that to reach a comparable figure. So for us to be worse for vehicle theft than the U.S we'd need to have (99 400 cars stolen a year. How many cars on S.A roads ? 5 million seems about right. We only have +-10 million people in the middle class and most families share one or two cars. . And many people are too young or old to drive their own car (around 33% of those people). I mean 1 in 10 is pretty fair for a poor country I think

So if that's true then if we had the same percentage of vehicle theft as the states we would have 99 400 cars stolen out of 5 million each year. Or 1 in 50.3 per year to be compatible with their numbers.

Which sounds to me a lot more than is the actual case.I'd be surprised if 1 in 500 were stolen here a year. So there in that simple comparison you can see how vehicle theft is really not a big deal in South Africa relatively speaking.

The most popular route used to smuggle illegal goods into South Africa was the heavy transport road from Zambia to South Africa used by large trucks and trailers. Ivory, copper, cobalt and large quantities of Mandrax were transported in this way by the newly formed syndicates. Occasional cash flow problems and the frequent inability by South African purchasers to pay in hard currency, led to barter transactions becoming common.

Motor vehicles stolen in South Africa soon became key items in the barter trade. They were driven across the borders in payment for illegal goods supplied from the north and sometimes shipped by way of containers to countries along the African coast and beyond. Police who followed these developments, are of the view that the rapid expansion of cross-border criminal transactions in the second half of the 1980s, led to an ever growing demand for stolen cars to enable South African criminal groups to pay for the goods received.

As a result, car hijackings dramatically increased in South Africa and became a common way of speeding up payment. Towards the late-1980s, transnational crime in the Southern African region was becoming a lucrative enterprise, only marginally hampered by policing activities on both sides of the borders.

South African crime statistics relating to the theft of motor vehicles, and statements made by the police management at the time, confirm the tendency of stolen vehicles increasingly being taken across South Africa borders. The number of reported thefts of motor vehicles had risen from 36 762 in 1980 to 59 936 in 1987, a 63 per cent increase. In response, the police took the first steps to form special police units for the exclusive purpose of investigating motor vehicle theft cases in 1984. These units became part of the formal structures of the police in 1986 when the Vehicle Theft Units were constituted country-wide. Cases of vehicle hijacking were recorded as motor vehicle theft as the police at that stage did not have a separate crime code for the recording of vehicle hijackings.

During 1986, the reported theft of motor vehicles had shown a steep rise compared to the previous year. In this year, 59 436 cars were reported stolen compared to 48 584 during 1985 — a 22 per cent increase.22 No explanation was offered in the annual police report for this phenomenon other than a reference to the security situation in the country. In his report to Parliament for 1987, the Commissioner of Police specifically referred to the increasing occurrence of the theft of motor vehicles. The explanation which he offered, was that "[t]he increase in the number of motor vehicles on South Africa’s roads has emerged as a contributing factor to the prodigious increase in the number of vehicles that are reported stolen annually."

http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/Monographs/No28/OrganisedCrime.html

Vehicle theft is one of the most pervasive crimes
in South African society. Due to the fact that
many vehicles are hijacked, and the owners hurt
or killed in the process, vehicle theft has become
one of the single largest contributors to a negative
image of the country as a lifestyle or investment
option in the global village. To emphasise this
point there were 12.9 thefts or hijackings per
1000 vehicles in 2004.

In 1997 the National Vehicle Crime (NVCP)
project, approved by Cabinet and facilitated by
Business Against Crime, began looking at ways of
reducing vehicle theft. This was a very important
time to consider these things as the rate of theft
and hijacking had reached 17.5 vehicles per 1000
- the highest ever recorded.

Since its inception in 1997, the NVCP has initiated
a number of interventions across both the private
and public sectors, resulting in a year-on-year
reduction in the actual number of motor vehicle
thefts and hijackings since 1998. During 2004, as
an example, a total of 96 390 vehicles were stolen
and hijacked (the lowest since the new
democracy) from the national vehicle population
of 7 479 178, including the growth of almost 430
000 new vehicles and light commercials.

http://www.veridot.co.za/site/user_data/files/Science_in_Africa_Article.pdf

Between 2001/2002 and 2004/2005, crimes in all three these categories reduced substantially. In 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 burglaries continued with its downward trend, while vehicle theft and car hijackings showed a marginal increase. According to the latest 2007/2008 statistics released by SAPS, car thefts reduced by 7.9% and burglaries by 4.7%; hijackings are however still on the up, showing a further increase of 4.4%.

http://www.insurance-south-africa.co.za/short-term-insurance/understand-short-term-insurance.htm

Vehicle Theft and Hijacking

The theft of motor vehicles declined consistently from 1994 to 1996, and then increased during 1997 and 1998. Some 104 303 vehicles were reported stolen during 1994, by 1996 this had decreased to 96 715 (a decline of 7.3%). Between 1996/97 there was an increase of 4%, between 1997/98 an increase of 6.8% (to 107 513 vehicles).

The incidence of car hijackings reported to the police has increased consistently since 1995 (the first year in which the CIAC kept separate figures for this type of crime). In 1995 some 6 683 carjackings were reported. This increased to 12 860 (1996), 13 011 (1997), and 15 111 (1998).

While carjackings increased by 126% from 1995 to 1998, the reported incidence of the hijacking of trucks increased by 241% over the same period. Namely, from 1 695 reported incidents in 1995, to 5 773 reported incidents in 1998. Of the twenty most common serious crimes reported to the police, the hijacking of trucks has experienced the highest increase since 1995. Reported carjackings experienced the second highest increase over the same period.

http://www.csvr.org.za/wits/papers/papmsal.htm

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