`There is no close season for. 4. lorry thefts'
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WHEN sums running into millions of pounds are stolen from mail trains and when convicted criminals are spirited away from prisons which )ride themselves on their security, the' road transport verator may wonder whether there is anything he can lo to make his vehicles completely thief-proof. The :xpert on crime prevention would give the answer; cornOrting as far as it goes, that the determined crook or gang )f crooks would be able to defeat most security measures )ut would not find it worth the trouble so long as there vere easier pickings elsewhere.
A few years ago, when it appeared as though operators vere concentrating their efforts on halting the alarming ncrease in the number of lorry thefts in the Metropolitan Lrea," the more .farsighted prophesied that the thieves vould soon learn to take the line of least resistance. If hey were thwarted in London there were plenty of other owns. What evidence is available shows that the prophets vere right. Reports from all over the cou,ntry suggest hat it is no longer appropriate to rely on the estimate nade four or five years ago that between one half and wo thirds of all lorry thefts were perpetrated in London.
Credit for the present situation in London is almost ntirely due to the activities of the vehicles security cornnittee set up by the Road Haulage Association, with epresentatives from British Road Services, the railways. he Traders Road Transport Association, the London :hamber of Commerce and other organizations, as well .s Scotland Yard and insurance interests. To say this a no way reflects on the work which the police have coninued to do. A fair assessment is that their resources ad, been stretched to the limit and that further progress lepended on the efforts of road operators to help themelves. In this more recent phase they have had ample lace co-operation and the fact has been acknowledged nore than once by the committee and by its chairman. 4r. J. I. Brown.
lurch Basic .Work Done The committee has now reached the point where much ,f the basic work has been done. The 12-point security Ian which has been drawn up covers the screening of [rivers, the payment of bonuses and rewards and the -nposition of penalties; the protection of vehicles by -mobilizing or warning devices, frequent inspections and he removal of evidence which ,would tell the thief which gnition key he needed; safe parking and the avoidance ,f routine; and measures designed to be of help to operators 4 general, such as reporting suspicious load transfers. emoving names from vehicles which are sold and seeking dvice whenever it seems necessary.
In a word the most effective security is a function of oth the individual and the group. The next logical step 1/ the committee was an attempt to link operators together hrough the machinery of the vehicle observer corps. The lea] was to ensure that as soon as possible after a vehicle vas reported stolen every street in London would be visited a search of it. The mobility which helps the thief was called in to frustrate him. Whether the ideal has been achievedis another question; probably not. But the figures of successes scored by the London corps, and *of vehicle thefts in general throughout the area, are at least encouraging.
They justify proceeding to the next stage, which may be more difficult. Hitherto much of what has been done has seemed novel and therefore interesting. In comparison consolidation can be tedious. Surprisingly few operators have taken all the advice of the committee to heart and practised it consistently. The less alert majority have remained fatalists_ According to circumstances their password to apathy has been either that it would not happen to them or (once it has happened) that lightning never strikes the same place twice.
The enthusiasm of the few, is not enough. It cannot cantinue to achieve results without the co-operation of the many. Operators must be persuaded to help themselves more than they have done in the past. Every vehicle should present a major problem' to the crook. In addition operators must learn to help each other. The formation of observer corps outside London. is a good sign, but here again the early enthusiasm may be deceptive. -Having made the initial effort operators must he Prepared to carry on.
The danger signs are already clearly, to be seen. There is the member of an observer corps who once in a while yields to his reluctance to patrol his sector of streets when called upon. He finds that nothing happens and his conscience is a little less strong on the next occasion. Before long he has become a dangerously weak link in the security chain. Other people who find out what he is doing —or rather what he is not doing—are tempted to follow his example. After all, they would argue, of what use is a net when there are known to be holes in it? The trickle of defections could soon become a flood.' .
A parallel case involves the operator who installs a satisfactory security system and then goes to sleep on it. Even security specialists guarding vehicle parks have made mistakes, so that the danger cannot be taken lightly: The moment of carelessness is what the thief is waiting for. He at least never lets up except perhaps when he is on holiday, and he has no difficulty in keeping the date secret. Recent cases have shown that there is no close season for. hi-jacking and lorry thefts. It is more than likely, all the same, that the activities of the criminals will now begin to increase with the approach of the longer winter nights and of Christmas.
Now is the time for a renewed effort towards the perfect ‘,ehicle security which can never be achieved. The thief will never be completely discouraged. He will answer ingenuity with ingenuity. The most to he hoped is that he will look for some other booty which can be won with less troubl,e. Road operators for their part should determine to keep the gains they have made and to consolidate them. A nation-wide grid of observer corps is not out of the question and each new security measure narrows the scope for the enemy.