Dell SA, in conjunction with Trapeace South Africa, has donated ten Dell Latitude C610 notebooks together with car chargers, to the Johannesburg Metro Police Department`s Licensing and Prosecutions Processing Directorate. These laptop computers will be used in the greater Johannesburg area to track down traffic offenders.
The laptop computers allow field officers access to an individual`s driving history by feeding an identity number into the system, which in turn draws a history and relevant information on a particular license number from a database residing at the Metro Police`s head office. The notebooks will be used to check outstanding fines and warrants, allowing the police to arrest offenders with outstanding and pending cases daily.
Prior to this donation, the Metro Police had four laptop computers assigned to its Licensing and Prosecutions Processing Directorate. "This means that we could at best dispatch three groups of officers for work in the field, because without the information that resides at head office, roadblocks become virtually futile. Now we are able to send out more groups, with three officers to a laptop computer as oppose to our previous eight," comments Wayne Minnaar, communications officer at the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department.
According to Minnaar, 60 percent of all individuals that receive traffic fines do not pay them, and he believes networked information is part of the problem. "Should an officer stop an individual charged with previous traffic offences or outstanding fines, these officers will only take action if they have access to head office information. The laptop computers provide that link, not only making the streets of Johannesburg safer, but also allowing for faster processing of information at roadblocks."
Leigh Hancock, product-marketing manager at Dell SA, believes the private sector has a social responsibility to fulfil in South Africa. "In the past, Dell has mostly focused on aiding the educational sector, however with this donation we believe that the expense is justified as it will benefit the city and even country as a whole."
Operating with only four laptop computers, the Metro Police has thus far succeeded in apprehending ten thousand traffic offenders. This latest donation will help them to finish the project by apprehending an additional one hundred and twenty thousand offenders. "This donation also enables us to enlarge our area of penetration and stop more cars during routine road blocks. Technology has certainly given us the edge we need," concludes Minnaar.
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