Tech foils airport crime

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 11 Jan 2008

Technology is playing a major role in clamping down on crime at SA's airports, the Airports Company of SA (ACSA) says, although continued baggage theft remains a problem.

ACSA's OR Tambo International Airport spokesperson, Nothemba Noruwana, says the company handles "roughly one million pieces of luggage every month. Even if we only had 0.1% of those pilfered, there would be 1 000 travellers who have been negatively affected.

"Clearly, no matter how small the number, there is cause for concern - especially for the person experiencing the theft. As long as there is even one passenger who experiences any tampering of their baggage, pilferage will be a key area of concern for the airport," Noruwana says.

"The same applies to all forms of criminal activity that take place within our space. The security of all visitors to the airport and of their property is a primary focus of the airport."

A success in that regard is motor vehicle theft, Noruwana says. "Within the parking environment, technology has been instrumental in curbing certain types of crime. In 2007, there was no report of any vehicle stolen in any of the airport parking areas as a result of number plate recognition (NPR) technology that was installed.

"During that period there was one attempted theft of a vehicle, but again NPR prevented the perpetrator from leaving the car park."

Keeping track

Noruwana says airlines, rather than ACSA, carry legal liability for baggage and have to compensate passengers for lost or damaged goods. Most airlines do this through baggage tagging and tracking, using bar codes.

Other than guiding the baggage around the conveyor belt system, tagging also links baggage to the passenger's boarding pass.

"The above is not to suggest that the airport does not have a role to play in ensuring that baggage gets to the passenger in the condition they handed it to the airline when checking-in," Noruwana says. "Aside from providing the mechanical infrastructure of the baggage system, the airport has a network of CCTV cameras throughout the baggage handling area.

"If individuals are even suspected of participating in illegal activity they are immediately removed from the airport precinct, their permits are confiscated and they are black-listed to prohibit them from being employed at the airport again," Noruwana adds.

"The CCTV network has been instrumental in identifying suspect behaviour, both in the baggage handling area and other areas of the airport."

Her colleague, ACSA communications manager Solomon Makgale, adds that the company has, since 2005, employed more analysts to "keep an eye on the screens" and has constantly sought to ensure they are adequately trained and present in sufficient numbers.

The "Big Brother" team is now backed up by a dedicated ACSA "baggage protection unit" set up at the start of the holiday season. Makgale says it is headed by a former New Scotland Yard detective.

'Within norms'

Even so, theft has not yet been eliminated. Public enterprises minister Alec Erwin was last year reported saying the number of thefts on national and domestic flights in SA falls within recognised international benchmarks, in his reply to a question in Parliament.

Noruwana says 7 313 280 bags were handled on domestic flights between January 2005 and February 2007, of which 5 720, or 0.078%, were reported stolen. The figure for international flights during the same period was 3 414 bags - or 0.116% - out of 2 942 652 items.

Makgale says OR Tambo International Airport is not any worse off in dealing with theft than any other airport of similar size. Even so, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban are "not doing badly at all".

But Noruwana says: "Issues relating to crime cannot be emphasised enough. That there are members of the public that are being adversely affected by this situation is undeniable. Some are justifiably vocal about their experiences."

Invisible perk

Meanwhile, ACSA has taken other steps to eliminate pilferage. It has appointed two new companies to handle baggage from 1 March. BidAir Services and Menzies International are replacing Equity Aviation Services and Swissport.

"What we have done differently with the new baggage handlers is to say that they need to considerably improve the conditions of employment for their staff," says Makgale.

"One of the major challenges we had in the past was that baggage handling staff, about 75% of them, were employed on a temporary basis, or through labour brokers. This adversely affected their morale and hampered our joint efforts to reduce baggage theft" - and turned pilfering into a perk.