In July this year an added layer of security was added to larger shopping malls around Gauteng combining the specialist information from the extensive Vumacam licence plate recognition cameras with specialist shopping centre tactical teams.

Leon Muller, District Manager for Fidelity ADT says Fidelity has added these specialist tactical teams to support the centre security officers and patrol and reaction vehicles in the area. ‘The combination is proving highly successful with at least 2 – 3 vehicles being flagged every week.

The system is set up in such a way that as soon as a suspicious registration or vehicle is spotted it is flagged and checked against a national data base. Very often the plates could be cloned or the car could have been reported stolen or involved in a prior robbery. The information is then shared with the tactical teams on the ground.

A great example of this working in practice occurred on the 6 November, the Fidelity Shopping centre tactical team received a lookout alert on the Merlyn Mall LPR cameras that a black Mercedes C200 wanted by Hartbeespoort SAPS had entered the mall.

Reacting quickly the Fidelity Shopping centre tactical team located the vehicle at the Damelin open parking lot nearby, blocked the vehicle in and called Tracker SA and highway Patrol for backup. The team kept the vehicle and driver on site until SAPS arrived.

The vehicle was impounded and driver handed over to SAPS for further questioning.

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Compiled on behalf of Fidelity ADT by Cathy Findley Public Relations.