Vehicle crime fighters honoured at SAPS/Tracker awards function
The SAPS Phoenix Rapid Response Unit, Superintendent SJ McIntosh (the recent recipient of the annual Emergency Hero of the Year Award) and Inspector MP Mamabolo from the SAPS Mamelodi East Task Team, yesterday (August 23, 2007) scooped top honours at the 2007 Tracker/SAPS Awards Ceremony held at the Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria.
The function honours those law enforcement officers and units whose efforts, in using Tracker's technology, have over the past year made a significant impact on the recovery of stolen and hijacked vehicles and have thereby contributed to the fight against vehicle crime in South Africa. Tracker is the only vehicle tracking company in South Africa to formally partner with the South African Police Service, with its vehicle tracking technology installed in some 1100 police vehicles and 42 aircraft.
The event, traditionally attended by government ministers, high commissioners, various dignitaries from the SAPS and influential business leaders, pays tribute to the top individual police officers and units, as judged by Tracker and senior police officials, over the past year. Below is the list of nominees for both the Top Individual Officers Award and Police Unit of the Year:
Top Individual Officers:
* Overall winner: Superintendent SJ McIntosh - SAPS Mamelodi-East Task Team
* Overall winner: Inspector MP Mamabolo - SAPS Mamelodi-East Task Team
* Captain A. Hanekom - SAPS Upington Radio Technical Unit
* Inspector Radebe - SAPS Marquard Visible Policing
* Sergeant Chaela - SAPS Marquard Visible Policing
* Inspector CS Meyer - SAPS Maitland Radio Control
* Detective Inspector AD Dayanand - SAPS KZN Provincial Task Team
* Senior Superintendent G Nayager - SAPS Sydenham
* Captain AR Fick - SAPS Naledi
* Captain P Basson - SAPS Area Task Team Soweto
* Inspector Joubert - SAPS West Rand Flying Squad
* Captain S Marais - SAPS Duncan Village Communication
* Constable Mushi - SAPS Rustenburg
* Sergeant Bezuidenhout - SAPS Komatipoort Dog Unit
* Inspector P Stander - SAPS Komatipoort Organized Crime
Top police units:
* Overall winner: SAPS Phoenix Rapid Response Unit
* SAPS Ermelo Dog Unit
* SAPS Port Elizabeth Flying Squad
* SAPS Bloemfontein Flying Squad
* SAPS Mthatha Flying Squad
* SAPS Maitland Radio Control
* SAPS North East Rand Radio Control
* SAPS Gauteng Airwing
The three recipients of the main awards each received a trophy and a certificate and a monetary donation (R3000) was made on their behalf to a charity of their choice.
The selected charities were:
* Phoenix Child and Family Welfare - the Sahara - SAPS Phoenix Rapid Response Unit.
* SOS Children's Village in Mamelodi - Superintendent SJ McIntosh and Inspector MP Mamabolo.
Says Tracker's Managing Director, Pierre de Clerk: "After 11 years of working together we firmly believe that the Tracker/SAPS relationship is one of the most successful public-private sector partnerships ever seen in South Africa. Together, we have recovered more than 35 000 stolen and hijacked vehicles which has resulted in more than 6700 arrests and the shutting down of some 300 chop shops and crime syndicates."
"I would like to pay tribute to the selfless efforts of all those police officers who constantly risk their lives so that we may live in a better, safer South Africa," commented de Clerk.
To pay tribute to the sacrifices made by police officers throughout South Africa, Tracker sponsors the Tracker/SAPS Police Bursary Fund as a part of its formal Corporate Social Investment campaign. The Fund provides tertiary education bursaries to the children of police officers who have been killed in the line of duty and is currently helping to educate 11 students at Universities and Technikons around the country.
Judges' citations on the winners
Top Police Unit: SAPS Phoenix Rapid Response Unit
In the period leading up to June 2005, there was a substantial increase in hijackings in the Phoenix Policing Precinct. This prompted the establishment of the "Phoenix Rapid Response Unit" under the command of the Crime Prevention Head, Senior Superintendent Nic Kleynhans.
"A request was made to Tracker to allocate a Police Tracking Computer (PTC) to this team to assist in their duties. In 2006, the team achieved the following successes:
* The recovery of some 300 wanted motor vehicles, of which more than half were Tracker- fitted.
* The recovery of no less than 50 firearms of different calibres.
* Cash in excess of R4 million.
* The apprehension of more than 350 suspects for crimes including cash-in-transit heists; armed robbery, hijacking and theft of motor vehicles.
Congratulations to the entire unit for a sterling performance.
Top Individual Officers: Superintendent SJ McIntosh and Inspector MP Mamabolo from the SAPS Mamelodi East Task Team
The partnership between these two officers was forged in 2004 when Superintendent McIntosh was transferred to Mamelodi SAPS. A task team was soon established which included Inspector Mamabolo.
It wasn't long before their partnership began to bear fruit.
Between 2006 and 2007 the pair arrested several of South Africa's most wanted criminals, including Sello "Oupa" Maake, who was recently sentenced to 139 years imprisonment for numerous house robberies in Mpumalanga.
The 10-member task team, led by Superintendent McIntosh and Inspector Mamabolo, also started targeting vehicle crimes in Mamelodi and in 2006 seized more than 400 vehicles, averaging more than one car a day.
Both members are always available to help when called upon by Tracker, often getting out of bed in the middle of the night to respond to a vehicle track.
Both members have become highly skilled over the past three years and have developed a reputation for recovering almost every vehicle they track in the Mamelodi area.
Both men were transferred to the new Mamelodi East police station in September 2006, where they again work in the task team together.
Inspector M P "Paul" Mamabolo is 39 years old and has been an Inspector for 8 years. He is married and has three children. As a result of a serious motor collision in 2005, he currently only has approximately 45 percent use of his right arm.
Superintendent S J "Mac" McIntosh is 37 years old and has been a Superintendent for 3 years. He is currently engaged and has a seven year-old daughter. He was also the joint recipient of the recent "Emergency Hero of the Year" Award for 2006/7, where he helped save 17 people from burning shacks in Mamelodi East.
Successes of the Tracker/SAPS partnership
The Tracker/SAPS partnership has been in place since 1996 and has made significant inroads in the fight against vehicle crime.
A. Tracker/SAPS vital stats
Over the past decade, the following has been achieved (based on Tracker's customer base of some 460 000 vehicles):
Recoveries 35 238 *
Arrests 6719 *
Chop Shops and Syndicates exposed 301 *
* The most in Africa, by any vehicle tracking company.
B. Interesting Tracker/SAPS facts:
* Tracker and the SAPS have successfully recovered a Cape Town businessman's vehicle 12 times over the past five years. Tracker submitted the case to Guinness in the United States believing it to be "The World's Most Stolen Car" . However, an official from Guinness replied that no suitable category existed for the feat but was certain that it was a world record anyway.
* Several years ago, Tracker and the SAPS recovered a stolen vehicle and discovered cash boxes on the back seat carrying more than R20-million. The vehicle had just been used in a cash-in-transit heist minutes before.
* In addition to stolen and hijacked cars, the Tracker-SAPS partnership has recovered a wide array of stolen and counterfeit goods over the years including ice cream machines, solar panels, heavy-duty earth moving equipment, drugs, counterfeit fashion labels, illegal identity documents and passports and even wild game.
* Over the past decade, Tracker's recoveries have saved the economy more than R3-billion in replacing stolen and hijacked vehicles alone.
* What do the following blockbuster films and famous book have in common: Gone in Sixty Seconds, Die Hard 4.0 and The DaVinci Code? They all carry references to LoJack - the global leaders in vehicle tracking and Tracker's partners in the United States.
* Statistics reflect that more than half of hijacking cases reported to Tracker occur while people are leaving or arriving home.
Get the latest issue of FAnews