Yesterday there was an armed robbery in one of South Africa's larger shopping centers where a jewelry store was robbed by 9 armed robbers. This was at midday on a Saturday morning so the center was full of shoppers. Shots were fired, but it was more likely to scare shoppers away than actually do any harm.
What I found quite alarming is the amount of adverts that sprung up on Twitter when the news hit offering personal security apps. The one advert even mentioned have you been shot and need medical assistance which is a sign of the times we live in.
These apps are not necessarily informing the police of a crime being committed, but more importantly informing the private security companies that their clientele are in danger. Most of us have panic buttons linking us to whoever we pay as our armed response private security company. The days of phoning he police are long gone and if you need help you rather rely on your armed response teams to arrive in time.
The apps all state that assistance will arrive within 5 minutes and we know the police will take far longer than that so you have a better survival chance going private. Madness when you start to think about who you can rely on.
Last week in the early hours of Wednesday morning I woke up to hearing a gun fight that seemed to go on for a few minutes. Normally you hear one or two shots and hen silence but this was more like 15 to 20 shots and why it caught my attention. I would guess it was within a few kilometers of the house where this happened because of the clarity of the popping noise.
South Africa has roughly 150 000 police officers to protect roughly 60 million people and it is no wonder crime is so rampant. The private security sector has over 2.7 million security personnel registered which is 18 x larger than the police force.
As a business the private security sector is growing rapidly and is now worth R60 billion ($3 billion) annually. Insurance companies will not cover your household possessions unless you are signed up to an armed response company. The scary part is this is just standard protocol and everyone has just accepted that this is normal.
Over the last few months I have even noticed some of the larger private security firms even have fire engines to go along with their private ambulances. These companies are definitely getting bigger and bigger covering the shortfall that the government services used to control. Maybe having a one stop shop app for help is not such a bad idea and one I had never even considered until I saw all these adverts appearing on social media.
I am starting to think that the time will come where you don't dial 911 anymore or whatever the emergency number is and just click your app for assistance.