From September this year, it became compulsory for all new vehicles requiring a South African Police Services clearance to be installed with micro-dots.
While this is expected to reduce theft of new vehicles, theft of older vehicles may well increase.
Micro-dotting is not expected to reduce insurers premiums because the bulk of premium costs are driven by vehicle accidents, not theft or crime. That said, insurers welcome micro-dotting because it may well contribute to reduce the rate of future premium increases.
DNA TRACE
Micro-dotting involves printing miniature silicone chips with unique identification numbers – legible only when magnified – and then spraying these chips on to the underside of a vehicle and into the engine compartment.
Since it is impossible to find and remove all the dots, police will use them to identify vehicle owners by cross-checking numbers on the National Information System (Natis) data base. The process is expected to deter thieves and illegal auto-parts receivers because vehicles, or even their parts, can at any stage be traced back to their correct owner.
“The advantage of this system is that since the micro-dots are practically undetectable and are sprayed so broadly within the vehicle, they will allow police to trace a vehicle even if the engine number is defaced or destroyed,” says Gari Dombo, managing director of Alexander Forbes Insurance.
WHAT ABOUT OLDER CARS?
Theft of older, undotted vehicles may well increase as these vehicles won’t be micro-dotted until they are sold and re-registered.
That said, “there is nothing to stop owners of older vehicles personally installing micro-dots and, if the vehicle is stolen, informing the police of the unregistered micro-dots on the vehicle”, advises Dombo.
“Either way, from now on it will be much more difficult to clone vehicles. Chop shops will also find it harder to distribute parts since each part can now be easily linked to its Natis-registered vehicle of origin,” says Dombo.
Simply placing a sticker on a vehicle, indicating that it has been micro-dotted may well act as a powerful deterrent to theft.
WILL CROOKS ADAPT?
The upshot is that in future, vehicle theft and auto-parts crime is expected to become less of a factor – until the fraudsters improve their ways, that is.
“One only has to consider how the security features of our bank notes are constantly improved to see that it might just be a question of time before criminals circumvent current micro-dotting technology,” adds Dombo.