Tighter security measures around the access to safes that store firearms at police stations are needed to deter gangs from robbing them.
This is according to crime experts who said organised criminal groups were targeting smaller police stations in semi-rural or rural areas that are considered low-crime areas because of limited staff.
Crime expert at the University of Stellenbosch Dr Guy Lamb said police stations in quiet isolated areas were easy targets for criminals who often planned their attacks in advance.
“Police need to look at improving the safety of the safes such as the mechanism what banks have. If someone comes to rob a bank they are unlikely to get away with much. Limiting access to the safes and not have those at the front desk holding the keys to the safe,” Lamb said.
On Wednesday, the Devon police station near Heidelberg, about 50km southeast of Johannesburg, was ambushed by three armed men who took off with 10 firearms after forcing police officers on duty to unlock a safe.
The trio allegedly staged a hijacking and went to the locked police station and screamed for help, prompting the police who had for years been fearing they would be robbed, to unlock the gate.
“Smaller police stations that have a small number of police on duty are vulnerable targets. You would have these criminal groups specifically targeting police stations in the early hours of the morning or late at night when police vigilance may be down or when some are out on patrol, leaving one or two colleagues behind at the station,” Lamb said.
“In those circumstances, the robbers outnumber the police and force them to access the safe.”
He said while the security measures needed were all dependant on the circumstance of each police station, there is a need for small police stations to improve management and oversight of policing staff.
“Equipping smaller police stations with the necessary capacity and making sure that police staff are vigilant at all times will help deter such crimes. Some of these groups are well organised and some aren’t, so the situation here requires better crime intelligence and focus on groups that are looking to steal firearms.”
Lamb said the reason gangs were targeting police stations was that they often get more returns as opposed to targeting individual gun owners.
“If you target a normal firearm owner, you are going to typically get a handgun and probably limited amount of ammunition versus if you target a police station... you are going to get long guns, semi-automatic weapons."
This, he said, is convenient for gangs who are involved in fights over drug territories and are trying to outshoot one another or gangs who are involved in cash-in-transit robberies.
Gareth Newham, head of justice and violence prevention programme at the Institute for Security Studies, said fighting these kinds of robberies was difficult but measures such as having metal detectors and limited access to the codes of the safe where guns are kept would assist the police in reducing the risk of being robbed.
“These criminals plan their attacks very carefully. They study the police station, move in and out to see where the weaknesses are and they attack when there are very few staff on duty.
“You can improve target hardening measures to make it more difficult to access the police station if you are carrying a weapon and make it more difficult to access firearm safes, but very determined criminals will usually find a way to get the firearms that they want.”
sibiyan@sowetan.co.za
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.