Dear Portfolio Committee on Police,
I have some few simple suggestions on how the E-toll system can contribute in combating some of serious crimes in South Africa.
The E-Toll's main principle is identify and locate each and every vehicle passing under the over-head gantries and i believe that every information can be available as this is already existing system in Gauteng.
Now I believe that if the government can explore the true capabilities of this system, that will make some technical improvements in information gathering.
The ideas is to propose that all the vehicles in South Africa must be subjected to the E-Tag, then strategic expansion of E-toll system to all roads in South Africa.
According to my research, most of the serious crimes, criminals use stolen vehicles, so if the government can able to control vehicle movements then that can indirectly contribute to reduced robberies ( Mall, house, commercial, CIT heists) and cross border vehicle theft as these car cannot fly but they will have to pass to under hundreds of gantries located nationwide.
The idea is simple, is to connect the E-toll system to the stolen vehicles police database, so that the automated system can able to locate that stolen vehicle through E-tag identification when that vehicle passes the overhead gantries.
Secondly the cost saving method for the E-toll would be to provide customised and censored software to the mall owners for access control management, also most of mall robberies also stolen vehicles are used, so if the Boom gate mall system is interconnected (fitted with e-tag reader) to the stolen vehicle database, then it can able to identify that vehicle through e-tag reading and be denied access if reported stolen.
Security Companies can also benefit if this system is populated as they have extensive customer base in access control management ( flats, hotels, factories).
I have summarized this suggestion and I have done research to counter any vulnerability in the execution of this system up to the detail, an example, currently the E-Tag is placed on vehicle windscreen, so what if I swap the windscreens leaving E-tag intact, then change number plate to correspond with the E-tag? in other words I think the E-toll at the moment is unable to differentiate this loophole( say Car 1 e-toll account owed is very high, so i decide to look for car 2 of the same model as car 1, I swap the windscreens and number plates the Ca1 will have e-tag information of car2......