This situation is slowly changing, and statistics show a decline in road crimes, but their complete elimination requires actions not only from the Police.
Complaints were directed at the police, accused of sluggish procedures and a lack of effective methods to combat crime. However, no one considered that the problem might lie in the method of supervising the driver carrying valuable cargo. It turns out that most vehicles travel without any security, let alone additional protection or even a convoy. Among transport companies, the belief still prevails that as long as the problem does not affect them directly, any moves related to additional security are basically unnecessary. Between 1998 and 2003, a total of approx. 900 hijackings and thefts of trucks and delivery vans took place, including over 400 using the “fake police officer” method. The “apogee” of hijackings was reached in 2000 – when there were 238 such cases. The problem was recognized earlier, and not only the police, but also the companies themselves began to care for the security of their cargo. The police established special groups to combat crime in road transport and developed preventive and prophylactic methods. Companies, on the other hand, began to use additional technical security measures. It worked, because in the following years the number of hijackings dropped by half. The most endangered regions are still the Masovian, Łódź, and Greater Poland voivodeships.
These are routes leading to and from the largest logistics centers in the country and lie at the intersection of international communication routes. The Bermuda Triangle is a radius of approx. 100 km around Warsaw. Most criminal groups originate mainly from the capital or its surroundings, making it easier for them to move around their territory, as well as to hide and sell the goods later.
As a police officer
Criminals often use police accessories such as uniforms and vehicles mimicking police patrol cars, and they use firearms. Their main goal is to steal the cargo, not brutal hijackings with beatings of drivers. Mostly, they count on the naivety of the vehicle drivers. Criminals assume that there will always be someone who falls for the fake “police officer”. Preparing a police car takes a few dozen seconds; it is enough to stick white tape on the side of the door and put a “rooster” light used, e.g., in taxis on the roof, and from a distance at first glance it looks like a real patrol car, especially at night. Such a hijacking takes 2-3 minutes, so it is a very fast and effective method. To prevent this, the police introduced, among other things, new markings for patrol cars.
Using a spike
The spike method involves driving a spike into one of the vehicle’s tires (during a stop, e.g., before a railway crossing), and then tracking the car until the driver stops to change the tire, in order to attack then.
It must be stated that drivers no longer stop so naively in the event of air loss in one tire. Most often, they try to reach a safe parking lot or gas station. Among other more sophisticated methods used by bandits are roadblocks, cutting brake lines, and faking a car accident.
Check the driver
However, it happens that it is the drivers who cooperate with criminals and “set up” the cargo for them, subsequently faking a hijacking. Fighting and detecting this type of crime is very difficult. It is estimated that this practice may even reach 50% of all hijackings. Entrepreneurs who rent or hire drivers without checking their background beforehand, e.g., certificates of no criminal record or requesting references, are particularly sensitized here. Unfortunately, Polish law does not allow checking the background of an employed worker. Some have developed their own, but legal, methods of controlling the carrier.
It often happens that the forwarder whose services were used had several subcontractors, and these in turn had subsequent subcontractors, making it difficult in such a chain to trace who acted and on whose behalf. It is best to demand from the forwarder, before rendering the service, a list of drivers who will transport the goods. This method is also effective in protecting against fake carriers who brazenly steal goods almost “legally”. This involves obtaining legal transport documents, e.g., by collecting offers from carriers, supposedly for transporting some goods. The second stage is submitting an attractive transport offer to the previously targeted victim company in order to obtain the order. Further on, everything goes smoothly – “legal export”, and the disappearance of the car.
It is best to develop your own methods
XXX is one of the companies that experienced firsthand what the lack of an appropriate security system means. Between 1996 and 2001, their transports were hijacked 11 times, of which 8 cargoes along with trucks were lost. Even though the cargoes were insured, the losses were enormous. Each theft was followed by an increase in the insurance premium, because the insurers themselves also lost.
– We suffer significant losses due to theft and cargo hijackings in road transport. The insurance offer is preceded by an analysis of the claims history of a given client or group of clients. The procedures and security measures used by the client to minimize such risk are taken into account. Their presence affects the reduction of the insurance price. After all, an insurance contract cannot be treated as protection against the risk of theft or hijacking of a means of transport. Damage prevention is a strategy that is more beneficial in every respect – comments an insurance company representative. After a thorough analysis of incidents at XXX, it was decided to take radical preventive steps. Help was sought from the National Police Headquarters, which provided initial tips regarding threats and, above all, preparing drivers on how to behave at the moment of a hijacking attempt. Later, the technical security market and the company’s capabilities to use them were checked. Risk management was introduced, i.e., identifying dangerous regions, selecting employees, selecting subcontractors, convoys, etc. Preventive activities were initiated, including strict route specification, establishing contact with police departments, telephone monitoring of drivers, employee training, selection of the transport company, and additionally GPS systems were installed. Finally, a monitoring station was established. A system built in this way practically eliminated hijackings and thefts in this company.
The basis – analysis…
It is a pity that so few companies analyze this problem in such detail. A necessary condition for avoiding a hijacking is properly preparing drivers for proper behavior in a threat situation. Of course, it is very important to equip vehicles with technical security measures, such as GPS systems. Unfortunately, most cars do not have any technical security, and drivers leave vehicles in unguarded, unlit parking lots or gas stations, without camera monitoring. The police point out that contrary to the decreasing statistics, there are actually more hijackings. Frequently, when criminals abandoned the hijacking for some reasons, the driver did not report this fact to the police, assuming that nothing happened. Nothing could be more wrong. Threat. Unfavorable factors in the fight against crime are legal loopholes exploited by criminals, e.g., when registering vehicles originating from a crime or when disposing of stolen goods – at much lower prices than legal ones available in stores, which encourages this type of practice. Stolen goods often end up in wholesale networks and large stores. However, until there is an awareness of the problem that each of us can fall victim to a bandit hijacking and we do not take any security and preventive actions in advance, criminal groups will continue to brazenly take other people’s property, and we will all lose on it.
The development of the article’s topics will be the content of experts’ speeches during the 3rd National Business Security Conference, organized by JDS Consulting on November 22-23, 2004, at the BOSS Conference and Training Center in Warsaw. You can find more information at: www.kkbb.info or www.jds.com.pl
You are welcome