Hi-tech number plate recognition cameras boost fight against rural Eastern Cape crime

Daily Maverick

4 days ago

Advanced surveillance cameras equipped with automated number plate recognition are helping law enforcement in the Eastern Cape crack down on rural crime syndicates—from stock theft to violent robberies.
Hi-tech surveillance cameras are quietly tightening the net on rural crime across the Eastern Cape — from livestock theft near Kariega to violent robberies in Gqeberha. In several recent cases, authorities say automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology has played a crucial role in tracking down suspects and recovering stolen goods.
One of the country's largest security camera operators, Navic, is expanding its network in the Eastern Cape, increasing coverage across key rural and urban areas.
These cameras dealt a major blow to a stock theft syndicate operating along the outskirts of Nelson Mandela Bay in May, following a two-month investigation in which Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras played a crucial role in the arrest of three suspects.
Around the same time, three suspects were apprehended after authorities in Kirkwood and Kouga linked their vehicle to surges in business break-ins, all with a similar modus operandi.
In Gqeberha, a vehicle was linked to a series of rape and robbery cases, and after it was tracked down in Motherwell, two suspects were arrested and an illegal firearm was recovered.
Evident from these incidents is that vehicles are often an important tool used in the commission of criminal activities, and if their movements can be traced, an arrest is likely to follow.
Camera networks
The National Vehicle Intelligence Cloud, or Navic, is one of the country's leading camera networks. In the Eastern Cape alone, its number of cameras has more than doubled since the beginning of the year.
'We currently have 782 ANPR cameras and about 4,000 overview cameras, most of which are situated in the Eastern Cape,' Navic agent Brett Barlow said.
He said more than 1,500 active police members have access to the Navic system, while another 3,000 carefully vetted people, including security operatives, could also access the network.
'Security companies, private businesses or even farmers in rural areas have integrated Navic into their systems. And this broadens everyone's reach, as each new player expands the network.'
The system is fully integrated into the private security sector and public law enforcement agencies and provides real-time information on vehicle movements along main arterial roads across the country.
An ANPR camera is constantly scanning number plates for all vehicles passing by its lens. This information is fed into the Navic system, and registration numbers are compared against a database of plates for vehicles of interest (VoI).
Once a VoI is flagged, nearby cameras will monitor movements until it flags the same vehicle. This allows the system to plot potential routes and continue to track the suspicious vehicle's movements.
These routes are then fed to security and law enforcement agencies, who then conduct operations to stop and search the vehicles in question, often leading to the arrest of suspects.
'Much of what we do is also very sensitive, so we can't share all our information. But I can say that Navic has been instrumental in the fight against cash-in-transit heists and kidnappings across the province, particularly in the eastern region,' Barlow said.
Powerful tech is a game-changer
In May, Grant Moore, operations director of CityWide Security, told Daily Maverick how ANPR tech was changing the game for local enforcement.
'The technology is so powerful that we can build profiles over time,' Moore said. 'It gives us a sense of who is moving where, when … and that kind of intelligence helps us respond faster and smarter.'
He said, 'We can start seeing patterns. What's been flagged in Kariega might show up hours later in Summerstrand. We wouldn't catch that without plate recognition systems tied to alerts.'
Moore was speaking during an unrelated investigation where number plate alerts helped lead to the recovery of stolen goods and the arrest of a suspect in Gqeberha.
Privacy and accountability concerns
As camera networks grow and ANPR systems become more deeply embedded in public law enforcement, they've also sparked broader conversations around privacy, data access and accountability.
In Johannesburg, where private surveillance company Vumacam has installed thousands of security cameras across the city, civil society organisations have raised concerns about who owns the data, how long it's stored, and what safeguards exist to prevent misuse.
Similar questions were raised in Cape Town earlier this year, when drones and long-range CCTV cameras deployed to monitor beaches drew criticism from privacy advocates who said the surveillance tools lacked clear oversight or public regulation.
Successes
On 24 May, a failed stock theft incident near Kariega had security operatives on high alert. This came after a two-month investigation into what appeared to be a highly organised criminal syndicate executing a series of coordinated stock thefts.
It is unclear how many incidents they were allegedly involved in and how much missing stock can be linked to them. Four vehicles had been flagged for possible involvement in the series of thefts.
The following night, another incident was reported, and members of the Kariega police's Stock Theft Unit, with other private security entities, responded to a farm between Kirkwood and Kariega.
At 2:17am, an ANPR camera flagged one of the suspicious vehicles. Its movements were tracked while the police formulated an action plan. An hour later, three suspects were arrested, their vehicle confiscated and 42 sheep were recovered.
'This operation was a success because of dedicated SAPS members who were able to take the information provided to them by Navic, coordinate and execute a well-planned operation,' Barlow said.
In 2024, about R122-million in stolen goods was recovered across the country in operations where the Navic system was involved.
This year, the network has read more than 950 million number plates, resulting in 262 VoI being stopped and searched, 239 arrests, 43 stolen vehicles recovered and 42 firearms seized.