SMART IDEA: Big Business steps up to help SAPS with AI and smart phones
The private sector is partnering with police to combat crime using digital tools such as AI and smart phones, with plans to roll out a groundbreaking project across four provinces.
This emerged last week at a Cape Chamber event aimed at addressing crime and restoring investor confidence. The event formed part of the Cape Chamber’s Systemic Dialogue Network (SDN) series that gathers key economic stakeholders to collectively address – and unlock - specific growth impediments.
Guests heard input from multiple high-profile speakers representing a broad spectrum of academia, government, and business. Several firms were also represented, including insurance stalwart Santam which detailed their efforts to help SAPS use digital technology to fight crime.
“Santam has committed to supply the police with 100 cellphones (30 Gauteng, 30 WC, 20 KZN and 20 Limpopo) as an initial phase to enhance the SAPS Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) project,” Santam’s Dr Jerry Chetty confirmed this week.
Santam is already partnering with SAPS on another CCTV monitoring project involving AI that has shown positive results. “This is already in place in high-risk crime areas. We have noted some successes related to the recovery of stolen vehicles,” Dr Chetty said.
A measure of the private sector’s concerns around crime was the lengthy ‘to do’ list emerging from the Cape Chamber event, which was divided into two sessions, the first looking specifically at crime and the second at investor confidence in the Western Cape.
Panelists addressing the crime issue included deputy provincial police commissioner Major General Preston Voskuil, who outlined SAPS resource limitations, notably around staffing and vehicles. SAPS vehicle-related expenditure consumes a large proportion of available budget “leaving very little for anything else, especially around things like technology and innovation,” Voskuil said. The Western Cape currently has about 20 000 police with a fleet of 4000 vehicles -- “a resource-hungry form of policing”, Voskuil said.
Cape Chamber chief executive John Lawson said a business model approach to economic impediments such as crime could ultimately benefit broader society. “We are saying that many of these gaps can be addressed by identifying and accelerating practical solutions. The people who are losing money (due to issues such as crime) can help finance the technology that helps them reduce that loss,” Lawson said.
“It is not charity or a donation; it’s about figuring out how to help the police and save the private sector money.”
“Maybe people underestimate how many gaps can be plugged like that. We seek and challenge people to be innovative, to find ways where we can claw back money lost to crime, and by finding out how to make the safety and security systems - including SAPS - work better.,” Lawson said.
John Lawson
CEO of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry