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Load shedding presents an opportunity for crime

For South Africa, load shedding will remain a reality for the foreseeable future and as the winter season approaches, the pressure on our power grid will increase even more.

Richard Phillips, joint CEO of Cash Connect Management Solutions, warns that while the retail sector is already being victimised by unacceptably high levels of crime, we can reasonably expect that criminals will try to take advantage of power outages, to further exploit vulnerable retail targets.

Phillips says, “When load shedding does occur, alarm systems are sometimes disconnected allowing bandits to take advantage of the store’s vulnerability. With the knowledge that most business systems run on electricity and battery back-ups last only a few hours, criminals can be expected to plan their break-ins and armed attacks during power outages. They also know that in many instances surveillance cameras don’t work when the power is off, thereby increasing the store’s vulnerability to attack.”

There has already been a significant increase in armed attacks on businesses with over 51 armed robberies a day being perpetrated across the country and it’s highly likely that we will see a further increase in robberies targeting businesses during periods of load shedding.

It is therefore crucial that retailers and business owners are extra vigilant and improve security to protect their cash, staff and customers from an armed robbery.

Phillips provides the following tips for business owners to reduce their risk for armed robbery during load shedding:

• Check your load shedding schedule and plan ahead.

• Prepare an operating plan for during times of load shedding and as far as it may affect your customers, communicate your plan to your customers in advance.

• Inform your staff that the business has put tight security measures in place to avoid an armed robbery during load shedding – this will make the insider participants wary of encouraging their accomplices to go ahead with an attack.

• Ensure that your security systems are connected to your standby power supply or UPS systems.

• Ensure that your surveillance cameras are in a working order.

• Ensure that your alarm system is connected at all times and is linked to an armed security company.

• If your alarm has been triggered and your security company performs an onsite security check, it is important to not only evaluate the outside perimeter, but also ensure that the inside of your building has been assessed. Instruct your security response provider to notify you as soon as your alarm has been triggered, this affords you the opportunity to join your armed response provider in the process of checking the outside and inside of your premises.

• If you don’t make use of a cash management service, change your cash deposit days at banks or ATMs when load shedding is due to take place in your area – this way you don’t have to be delayed by sitting in traffic with large amounts of cash while traffic lights and ATMs are out of order.

• Ideally ensure that as much of your cash receipts are deposited into your cash deposit machine at all times and remember not to use your vault during load shedding or power failures unless you have backup power supply.

Unfortunately, many business owners still think that their lightweight devices are enough of a deterrent for robbers and that their money is secured. Indications would suggest that lightweight devices are forced open 86% more times than categorised cash management devices.

Only cash vaults that are built to SABS CAT 4 standards currently come close to being impenetrable. Incidents in which the criminals succeeded in retrieving the cash from inside these vaults amount to less than 0.01%.

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