printer friendly version

Independence delivers

André Mundell was involved in the South African Police Force for 21 years, during which time he was assigned to the Crime Investigation Unit. He then left SAPS and became involved in the security industry.

Through his notes and inspections of thousands of crime scenes and interviews with both the victims and the perpetrators alike, he saw similarities as to what the opportunities were that allowed or encouraged crime to occur. He then developed the Art of Reverse Crime Engineering, which would allow crime to be prevented before it occurred, simply by removing the opportunity.

“A crime can only occur if three aspects are prevalent in the situation, namely: desire, ability and opportunity,” explains Mundell.

Desire: we cannot affect the desire of the criminal. This is due to his or her upbringing, background, circumstances.

Ability: we can only affect the criminal’s ability, whether strength or intelligence by making the situation more difficult e.g. stronger bars or more sophisticated systems.

Opportunity: This is where crime prevention opportunities lie. By removing the opportunity, we can combat crime. Criminals are generally opportunistic in nature. Give them the chance – they will take it.

He says there are many opportunities for criminals because:

1. Victims have a poor level of knowledge or none at all in the best means to secure their properties.

2. Victims are not in control of their security before or after the crime occurred.

3. Victims seldom have security plans for the future.

4. Victims have never had a proper security risk assessment conducted.

These issues led to Mundell defining the value, need and process of an independent security risk assessment.

Once he began noticing similarities in his research, he began to blog about it. The public reaction and questions asked inspired him to create Alwinco (derived from 'Always in Control'). An independent risk assessment company was unheard of, but he believed the services would fill a niche.

“South Africans view crime incorrectly,” Mundell says. “It is a negative subject and no one really wants to talk about it. This is the wrong perspective.

“Action is only taken once you are a victim (or know someone). Solutions from the 1980s, such as guard dogs, a security official at gate, or an alarm system cannot work against modern criminals. All security aspects need to complement and reinforce each other.”

A new view or perspective regarding security was realised. This included external crime (from outside), internal crime (employees, inside jobs) and extreme crime (grudges, disgruntled workers, mob mentality, alcohol, narcotics and muti). Security managers, building managers and the top echelons of management including CEOs and MDs began to see the need and value of the security risk assessment.

Today budgets are only changed once the top individuals see the need for security. It is an investment, not expenditure. Once risks are realised, the true value of security is seen. Preventing a crime will cost far less than the replacement of equipment, confidential data, vehicles, lives, and so forth.

“Since leaving the police force I have conducted close to 300 security risk assessments on various buildings and structures,” he says.

“We do not receive any financial gain from manufacturers, suppliers, installers. Most assessments conducted by other companies today are product based, meaning the assessor does it for free or at a minimal charge. His or her pockets are lined by the products and services recommended or sold. The mistake in this scenario is that often the client or end user is not completely aware of the risks as the provider will overlook the problem if their products cannot fix the problem.”

He adds that Alwinco offers the opportunity to train individuals interested in conducting independent security risk assessments. “Until now, however, we have not encountered anyone (except internationally) who understands the concept.”

Share this article:

Further reading: