Tracker concerned that ‘lesser crimes’ are helping to fuel violent crime in SA

‘Let’s Take Our Country Back’, urges vehicle tracking company

Tracker has launched a thought-provoking video to show the very real link between the so-called ‘lesser crimes’ in South Africa and violent crime syndicates. The two-minute video illustrates, to graphic effect, how by supporting piracy and other counterfeit crimes, South Africans may unknowingly be fueling violent crime in the country.

‘There are various groups and organisations spreading important messages that piracy is obviously wrong and is like any other form of theft and while we certainly support this view, we believe that there is another critical point we can add to the conversation,” says Gareth Crocker, Tracker’s Communications Manager.

‘Over the years, Tracker – together with the valued support of the South African Police Service – has managed to shut down hundreds of chop shops and crime syndicates. As you can imagine, many of our vehicle tracks lead us into these large criminal lairs. And so often when we arrive on the scene, not only do we discover other stolen and hijacked vehicles, but we also find racks of counterfeit clothing, drug making equipment, boxes of pirated DVDs and CDs, fake identity documents, tools commonly used in house attacks and sometimes even explosives used in both ATM bombings and cash-in-transit heists. So the whole point of our campaign is to conscientise South Africans to the fact that if they are buying pirated or counterfeit merchandise they may unwittingly be helping to fuel violent crime in South Africa,’ says Crocker.

‘People mistakenly believe that piracy in particular is confined to groups of people involved only in counterfeit crime. What they don’t realise is that often these groups and individuals have strong ties to violent crime syndicates.’

Rallying South Africans together

‘Our primary objective is to create awareness that violent criminal syndicates don’t care how they make their money, just that they do. This obviously means that many of them are involved in a wide range of crimes. If the public starts to understand that if they support the so called ‘lesser crimes’ they may inadvertently be supporting violent crime, then we believe we can change some of that behaviour,’ says Crocker.

‘So much of vehicle crime in South Africa is driven by the need for spare parts on the black market. We also want people to realise that a stolen or counterfeit item may not have blood on it, but that does not mean that blood wasn’t spilt in acquiring it. It’s an important message.’

To view the video entitled ‘Let’s Take Our Country Back’, visit Tracker’s website on http://www.tracker.co.za/ or click on the following link to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/TrackerNetworkSA

Over the past 13 years, Tracker has recovered some 48 000 stolen and hijacked vehicles which, together with the support of the SAPS, has resulted in almost 8500 arrests. The company has also helped to shut down hundreds of chop shops and crime syndicates.