A day in the life of a law enforcement liaison officer

It’s just gone 4pm on Friday afternoon. He’s been on shift for a few hours already, but it’s been quiet so far. He’s been driving around, stopping to check on a few of the usual crime hotspots in the area. When he pulled into the service station to get a cold drink, he met a familiar face – one of the police officers he often works with when responding to crime. While they caught up, he took the opportunity to make sure the tracking equipment in the police vehicle was still working.

The police officer had mentioned that activity was slow that day. But as a member of the operations team responsible for recovering stolen and hijacked vehicles, he expects things to get busier soon, especially late on a Friday afternoon.

As soon as that thought crosses his mind, he gets a call from the National Emergency Contact Centre (NECC). He needs to verify that a customer is safe. The car has entered a high risk zone and the customer is not answering her phone.

She is perfectly fine, just a little stressed as she is running late for an appointment. She took a short cut to miss some traffic and didn’t answer her phone because she was concentrating on the road while driving through an area she is not familiar with. He helps her navigate to a point that she knows and then bids her farewell.

Soon thereafter he gets another call from the NECC. A customer had been hijacked a couple of hours ago. His hijackers had dropped him off on the side of the road in a remote area. He had managed to walk to the nearest house, where he had called for help. The customer is subscribed to one of the services where he has to call in to report that his car has been stolen.

With no time to spare, he’s quickly on his way to the car’s location. It was still on the move 15 minutes ago, but it is now stationary.

It’s quite a drive to get there. Not as far as some response rides, but a tricky drive through traffic and on dirt roads washed out and full of ditches from the recent rains. Luckily he knows the area well. At least, he thought he did. As he turns a corner he realises he can’t go that way. Today there is a house where there was a road a few days ago.

He finds the car, but it’s not in a good state. It has been stripped by the thieves in their search for the tracking device. They’re no longer around. They must have been alerted to his presence by accomplices. Everyone in this area is well aware of the vehicle with the four aerials and what it means.

As he waits for the police to arrive to hand over the scene, he thinks back to an incident that happened a few weeks ago. He had just finished his shift when he heard an alert on the two-way radio to be on the lookout for a stolen car. Along with the car, the owner’s dog was taken.

The tracking unit showed that the car was travelling on the highway towards his location. As he was waiting at the service station he saw the car passing by and discreetly began to follow it, while providing updates to the police and private security.

The pursuit ended about 20 minutes later. The car was safely stopped and law enforcement swiftly arrested the suspect. Amid the vehicle recovery, the dog that was still inside the car was reunited with her relieved and thankful owner. Thanks to the great teamwork between law enforcement and private security partners, the incident had a positive outcome.

Often it’s not just about recovering a vehicle. It’s about returning personal belongings found in a car to the customer. It’s about offering advice on what happens next and how they can get their car back. It’s about offering care to hijacking victims and their families.

He was destined to be at the heart of the crime fighting action. Although he faces danger every day, he wouldn’t have it any other way. He is proud to be working for one of the leading vehicle tracking companies in South Africa, one that cares for and protects its customers and their things.