Insurers question practical value of newly unveiled crime stats

'National data is not particularly useful' Alan Peat YOU HAVE to be positive, said Linda du Plessis, committee secretary of AMUSA (Association of Marine Underwriters of SA), talking about the authorities lifting the moratorium on crime stats. But that's related more to the return to transparency on crime figures, rather than their practical use in the insurance industry, added Barry Scott, chief executive of the SA Insurance Association (SAIA). "We are wary of using them," he told FTW, "because, at the time of lifting the embargo, the Minister (of Safety and Security) cast doubt on the veracity of the historical data. "I don't think any insurance companies will be adjusting their premiums just because the stats are now available again." A major reason for the inapplicability of the national stats, Scott added, was that there was such a spread of insurance books region-to-region, both geographically and demographically. "With such a diverse base around the country," he said, "national statistics are not particularly useful." The previous system of releasing stats police station to station could serve some purpose. But even there, according to Scott, the figures for a station might not match a company's specific area of operation. "A company insuring high-value cars in an affluent urban area would have different considerations from one insuring low-value cars in an adjoining rural area," he said. The crime figures are used more for combating crime than anything else, Scott added. "It's important to have accurate information available to construct your planning," he said. "It does indicate where police efforts need to be focused. "It is also important as a measure of what the police are doing and how successful they are." But it will have no immediate impact on insurance companies, according to Scott. "Except where you might be working in association with others in combating crime," he said. The current plan at SAIA is to assemble its own national data-base of figures akin to the hijack stats already collated through the association. While only a third of the 6-million cars on SA roads are insured Scott feels that these figures would be nearer to home than the national stats from the police. They would reflect a more intimate picture of what was happening in the various sectors of the insurance industry, he told FTW, rather than the generalised summary supplied by police data. SAIA plans to assemble its own national data-base of figures akin to the hijack stats