One of our most exciting tasks as co-chairs of the Vehicle Identification Committee is being able to give an award for excellence, proactive thinking, and dedication. This year’s winner certainly displays these qualities so very well!

Below is a copy of his nomination, and since it says it all and so well, we thought it best to simply use this for this year’s APB Components Parts Marking Award description.

Co-chairs George Baker and Reg Phillips

Components Parts Marking Nomination

Nominee: Warrant Officer Lourens Jacobs, Force Number 04685628

Law Enforcement Unit: Westrand Flying Squad, Gauteng, South Africa.

Background of Warrant Officer Jacobs: W/O Jacobs has been an active member of SAPS Law Enforcement for 26 years and practices “Proactive Policing”. Vehicle Crime and Crime prevention as his career passion and contributes largely to his successes. His nomination is well deserved and I have no hesitation in proposing him for the Components parts marking award!

Successes: The successes are based on Vehicles recovered between Apr 2018 to Apr 2020: 

Investigative Techniques applied: Proactive Policing and Crime Prevention are one of W/O Jacob's passions. While on Patrol, vehicles are stopped and checked using the following methods. VIN and Engine Numbers are inspected to ascertain whether there is tampering. Further inspections are done on the VIN plates affixed to the vehicle firewall as per legislation; as well as the windscreen visible VIN. The vehicle is seized any discrepancies found at the time are investigated at the VCIU (Vehicle Crime Investigative Unit) pound. The primary source I use is microdot technology, which allows me to ascertain the original VIN of the suspect motor vehicle. This is the quickest and most effective method and a vehicle’s true identity is established in under a minute! Reactive Policing is achieved by partnering with Tracker and utilizing their advanced tracking system which is activated by a civilian when Hijacked or stolen. These vehicles VIN’s are then verified using part marking technology as part of the investigative process and preparing the case for prosecution and ultimately; convictions.

Total Successes and Values: The total number of cases, proactive policing for the last 2 years amount to 376 vehicles with an estimated value of 45,120,000 (USD 3,222,857)

As a member of Westrand Flying Squad, I am passionate about combatting Vehicle Crime, utilizing “stop, search and seizure” as well as working on “information received” from reliable Confidential Informants (CI’s).  W/O Jacobs is supported by all Microdot MID’s, through the use of apps, to quickly identify the original VIN of suspect vehicles. Further information technology utilized is the Zonke Unicode system to access the sought vehicle register and relevant case numbers, in order to seize vehicles and impound them.

Mr Motsamai Mollo
NAAMSA
Security Committee Chairman