26 Aug 2018

Criminals are sophisticated individuals who keep abreast of security advancements, senior superintendent Agreement Mapeu has said.Addressing the Serowe business community during a crime prevention meeting Friday, he said criminals were very smart to the extent of identifying and exploiting weaknesses within a business.

The meeting, aimed at exchanging ideas and coming up with innovative strategies to fight crime, heard that just like normal platforms, criminals held meetings to devise ways of advancing crime. In organised crime meetings, senior superintendent Mapeu said, criminals were assigned roles just like in a regular setup and some would be sent to scout locations to establish big money making businesses for future attack.

The majority of break-in incidents, which he said were prevalent in Palapye and Serowe, were well orchestrated, a sure sign that there was insider involvement.

He said many workers within a business were easily lured with  special treatment by would-be criminals so they could siphon information from them.

Senior Superintendent Mapeu warned against divulging any business information to strangers who he said traversed the length and breadth of the country looking for opportunities to exploit.

In the Serowe policing area, a total of 81 break-ins were recorded in 2016, 77 in 2017 and 35 already in 2018, he said.

 He noted that some former police, military and security officers were part of criminal syndicates and therefore provided expertise on how to evade security detection whilst executing their activities with high precision.

Senior Superintendent Mapeu observed that businesses were attacked during opening and closing hours and advised owners to entrust at least two of their employees the responsibility of opening and closing offices.After the realisation that businesses were devoid of vigilance within their systems, he encouraged business owners to appoint an employee to conduct surveillance within the business in addition to security guards and CCTV cameras.

For his part, Detective Mmoloke Kgosimore of the Criminal Investigation Department called for internal controls in every business observing that a ‘good number of businesses in this country’ did not have rules and regulations.

In such scenarios, employers struggled to charge employees with contravention of laws because they did not exist in the first place, he stated.

Welcoming participants, Kgosi Serogola Seretse commended Serowe Police for partnering with the community in combating crime and called for nourishment of the relationship so as to nip crime in the bud.

However, Kgosi Seretse censured his people for employing illegal immigrants who turn out to be criminals.ENDS