Car thieves foiled by pop rivets?

By Denis Droppa

Changes to South African laws will make it compulsory from January 2009 to fix number plates to vehicles using only security screws or pop rivets. The government believes it will help combat vehicle crime and it's being backed by the Retail Motor Industry (RMI) organisation which is lobbying to have it implemented even sooner.

Requirements of the new law passed in May this year - mean that number plates must in future be fixed at all corners to a permanent part of the vehicle by one-way security screws or pop rivets at least 4mm thick: - Mounting number plates with double sided tape or clip-in attachments or holders will no longer comply with the Road Traffic ordinance.

Hmm..

Okay, fast forward with me to 2009 when our roads will be filled with cars (and bikes too) wearing these so-called permanent plates, and let's zoom in on a car thief contemplating his next score and going through his checklist: "Chop shop at the ready to change the vehicle's identity, check. Officials at border posts bribed, check.& And so he approaches the shiny new car that he's going to spirit out of the parking lot but oh, what's this, the number plate's affixed with rivets?
Ah well, better forget the whole thing and go straight ...
Yeah, right.

The only thing that'll happen is that instead of taking five seconds to yank a number plate out of its holder, it'll now take 30 seconds, back in the safety of the chop shop, to drill out the rivets.

I wonder if government has properly thought this through. Highly organised car crime syndicates have the whole theft thing worked out to the last detail, but they'll be foiled by four little rivets? I don't think so.

You might argue that we can't just sit back and do nothing about car crime, and every little bit helps. I agree, but then let's do something a little more intelligent, shall we? Like making Microdots a legal requirement in all vehicles, for instance. These are tiny polyester particles imprinted with the vehicle's VIN number that are sprayed in their thousands about the car. They're invisible to the naked eye so they don't make a mess - but the police have special magnifying readers with which they can tell whether the VIN on the dots matches that of the vehicle.

What makes it so effective is that it's impossible for car thieves to remove all 10 000 adhesive dots which are fitted in over 80 different locations in the car. They basically provide the vehicle with its own DNA, and they're inexpensive and quick to fit. However, so far only a couple of local motor companies, namely Nissan and Toyota, have voluntarlly implemented the technology, with another as-yet-unnamed luxury car-maker to follow suit later this year. Microdots have been around for years and have achieved great success overseas, so I wonder why there's such a slow local uptake?

According to international statistics, Microdot technology has slashed the number of stolen and hijacked vehicles by half, and has also doubled the recovery rate of stolen vehicles. It was awarded "Best Product" at the 2005 Security Awards in the UK, and was named as "having the most potential to slash car crime in the coming years."

Locally, the benefit has been recognised by our own Business Against Crime organisation which says that of all the products it's evaluated, Microdots are head and shoulders above any other in securing and preserving the identity of a vehicle. It says criminals see Microdotted vehicles (which are identified by a sticker) and its components as "contaminated" and it makes these vehicles less desirable for theft.

So with all this compelling evidence, why are Microdots not being made compulsory here, and why are we instead messing about with an idea like rivetted number plates?
Makes you wonder.

back to media coverage