How technology can combat SA's crime crisis

Experts advocate for innovation and job creation as key solutions

- BONGANI HANS

HOT on the heels of the release of the quarterly crime statistics, which showed a drop in the murder rate, crime experts are debating how technology can be used to put a further dent in the crime rate.

This debate has heated up following President Cyril Ramaphosa's meeting with US President Donald Trump, where South Africa's crime scourge was paraded for the world to see.

In the international media briefing, attended by Ramaphosa, Trump, government officials on both sides and South African golfers, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen as well as billionaires Johann Rupert and Elon Musk, the crime situation in the country was put in the international spotlight.

Rupert pleaded with Trump to assist the country with technology to bring crime under control. He went as far as to say that US-based Musk's Starlink, which is a satellite constellation system designed to provide internet coverage, could also help South Africa deal with the problem.

The former chief executive officer of the Institute for Security Studies, Professor Johan Burger said this week technology is important in preventing and combating crime, but also said job creation was most important.

Burger made an example of drones, which are fitted with a crime detection system, saying they could reach places where police could find it difficult to go with vehicles or on foot.

"If there are no access roads, the drones go and identify where there are firearms. The system can pick up where the shooting took place and immediately relay that information back to the operation rooms," he said.

He also made another example of the Eyes and Ears Initiative (E2), the Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system, which he said had already made an impact.