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cropper's column
Page 63
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New measures to stop high jacking
• In New York City a new group has been initiated in an all-out effort to combat hijacking. The group comprises a combination of the motor carrier industry with the police and is thus similar in principle to truck theft prevention measures in Great Britain. Such a combination of forces is crucial to the success of all such schemes; these matters cannot be left to the police by themselves.
When Sir Robert Peel founded the British police force in early 19th century, this was intended to assist the responsible citizen who till then had had the full responsibility of preventing crime. Historically it was (and still is) the duty of all able-bodied men to assist in maintaining law and order but too often people fail to take their fair share of responsibility.
In New York the new Trucking Industry Committee on Theft and Hijacking (TICOTH) is composed of officials of the Department of Transportation, the Justice Department, the New York State Motor Truck Association, the American Trucking Associations, who have now joined with personnel of the New York City Police Department. The Committee is particularly planning ways and means of improving helicopter surveillance of hijacked trucks in America's largest city. The value of helicopters for this purpose was successfully shown in December 1971 in an actual hijacking in New York. Helicopter police spotted a hijacked vehicle loaded with £25,000 worth of vodka and relayed messages to ground police in unmarked cars who closed in and arrested two men.
The group is looking into:
A marking system capable of handling all trucks operating in and into New York City;
The size, colours, materials and coding to be used on vehicle roofs; Electro-magnetic coding systems for trucks which could be 'monitored by helicopters; Improving systems and hardware to increase the effectiveness of helicopter surveillance; The availability of equipment or money to aid these joint efforts of police and trucking industry.
A characteristic of all professionals is the tendency to regard themselves as completely self-sufficient, and to spurn any collaboration with non-professionals. The stricture could be truer of the police than of other professions, seeing that they can often stress the need for secrecy. It is valuable to learn that, in New York and in Great Britain, the police are prepared to participate in schemes for jointworking. The parallel British scheme of Vehicle ObserverCorps was recently described by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner as "a perfect example of crime prevention co-operation between industry and police".
Ralph Cropper