Criminals watch out: police car unit beefed up
A NEW elite SAPS crimefighting task team has already had its share of successes, but now they will be even more of “a thorn in the flesh of thugs”.
And the acting provincial commissioner Major-General Bheki Langa vowed that there would be no place for criminals to hide.
Members of the provisional Trio Crimes Task Team yesterday took delivery of a dozen brand-new high-performance cars to tackle the triple-aggravated hijackings, house robberies and business robberies.
The Trio Crimes Task Team was formed in January after the provincial police management identified that criminals involved in the string of ag- gravated crimes were showing resistance to the various interventions being implemented.
Monday’s shoot-out between a criminal gang and the police in Hammarsdale proved that criminals had no intention of surrendering, said police spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker.
Langa said “criminals need to feel the heat, and the recent confrontations with criminals is just an indication of things to come”.
The Trio Crimes Task Team includes members from visible policing, intelligence, detectives, tactical response teams, metro police and the National Intervention Unit.
Brigadier Tefo Mpete, of the provincial operational command centre, reminded the task team yesterday, ahead of them getting their new fleet, that when the group started, they had struggled to get cars.
However, despite this challenge, they had managed to bring crime, particularly car hijackings, down.
Another 17 new vehicles will be delivered to the task team next week.
Twelve new cars will not be marked with police signage, giving the police the element of surprise.
“They will only be visible when the blue lights and the sirens are on,” said Naicker.
The lights and the sirens have to be fitted, and until they are booked into the workshop, the elite unit will still have the benefit of portable lights and radios.
The dozen cars will mainly be operational in the eThekwini area, but they will also be available to be deployed elsewhere. The 17 new vehicles will be spread around 10 of the 17 police cluster regions, including the eThekwini, iLembe, Pietermaritzburg and Port Shepstone areas.