Durban - JUST in time for the festive season, the metro police are rolling out new hi-tech crime-fighting vehicles that are expected to keep criminals on their toes.
On Monday metro police spokesperson senior superintendent Parboo Sewpersad said the vehicles would be fitted with automatic number-plate recognition cameras. The cameras would conduct stolen vehicle checks, and look for warrants of arrest and unpaid fines.
There will also be a dashboard camera taking visuals of events happening around the vehicle.
As the vehicles patrol the city, they will constantly share information through an inbuilt wi-fi connection with other vehicles and the operations centre.
Sewpersad was speaking at the Govtech conference at the International Convention Centre in Durban, where the government, small, and medium enterprises and big businesses are sharing information and offering solutions to challenges facing the country.
The second phase would include body cameras and tasers for officers.
The project would begin in the inner city with the eight VW Golf 7s patrolling and targeting crime hot spots.
“We are looking at the festive period to launch this vehicle with the technology,” said Sewpersad.
The body cameras are expected to help when officers arrest drunk drivers, because the footage could be used in court.
The vehicles were developed in partnership with Microsoft.
Mark Coutts, from Microsoft partner Aurecon, which was involved in the project, said the system was developed over about five years.
A hand-held device - which would print fines and tell people when to go to court - was also in the pipeline. It was designed to prevent bribery.
Coutts said the devices cost about R450 000 a car.
The five-year development period was to ensure it was hard to hack or circumvent the system.
“It is quite a robust system,” he said.
To ensure that warranties were intact, the technology was custom-built and not retrofitted.
Phoenix Community Policing Forum chairperson Umesh Singh welcomed the initiative and said technology should be used when it became available. If successful, the project should be rolled out to other areas.
Singh added that it could help with identifying stolen vehicles.