Break in & robbery

[CruiserClass]

Urban PD’s here are just as bad as urban PD’s in MD - vehicle stolen = call in a report. vehicle stolen with infant inside = call in a report.
Seriously, all the police departments do if you have your vehicle stolen is take your report, vehicle description, give you a report number and say take this to your insurance company. The VIN is marked stolen and unless you’re lucky because the thieves are dumb, it’s gone and over the border.

But wait! You lave lojack / vehicle tracker and know where it’s at. “here’s your report number, call your insurance company”.

That’s why.
Now, there was a guy in S/A who had his truck nicked, got the run around from the revenuers and tracked it down himself. Found the dudes at a mall, they drew on him and he shot them. It made the news and should have shamed SAPD into taking crime more seriously but alas... no.

Nobody wants to let thieves walk free, but nobody has the manpower to deal with it effectively. We had a multi-jurisdictional task force that made some inroads in to shutting down professional chop shops, but we don't have to deal with the border crossing stuff which makes it easier for us. Even then, the Kia thing started up and auto theft skyrocketed again. Plus every winter the folks who leave their car running with the keys in it to warm it up, etc.

I've got homicide detectives taking 4x the number of recommended cases per year. We've shut down most of the financial crime and fraud units to try and bulk up staffing in violent crime units. Street officers are about 20% understaffed from numbers that were already down several hundred.

We still have one of the most lenient pursuit policies of any major police department, and we don't chase stolen cars. It's not worth the risk to the general public or the officers and it just leads to crashed cars. Prosecutor won't file on most of them because it's pretty tough to get beyond a reasonable doubt on most steals. "I bought it on craigslist last night" = reasonable doubt, and prosecutor's resources are stretched as thin as everyone else.

When I started in this field we had a core auto theft unit (core meant jurisdiction wide, as opposed to an individual district). Today it's you get a report and it's no assigned detective. It has nothing to do with urban or rural or lack of concern. It's simply we don't have the people for it, we don't have experienced investigators in the pipeline to replace the ones we're losing to retirement or the private sector, etc. And it's getting worse before it gets better. Very few cities are putting the resources in to fixing it and society is getting more "let's shit on the cops" every year, which drives away younger people from applying.

 

[shigman]

Does anyone keep their ford key in a RFID pouch?

 

[Aird_outSRT]

They break the rear so its not obvious and most don’t have an alarm that sounds. The panel removed is probably them accessing the cans to delete and make a new key fob. The cans run behind the glove box. IGLA would block the start and drive and we are currently working on key protections on all fords.

 

[smurfslayer]

Nobody wants to let thieves walk free, but nobody has the manpower to deal with it effectively. We had a multi-jurisdictional task force that made some inroads in to shutting down professional chop shops, but we don't have to deal with the border crossing stuff which makes it easier for us. Even then, the Kia thing started up and auto theft skyrocketed again. Plus every winter the folks who leave their car running with the keys in it to warm it up, etc.

I think that, for example McManus in S/A does want to let thieves walk free; I genuinely believe he thinks he and the department are “above” vehicle thefts. Really.
South Texas has more unique to the area concerns because of border crossers, sapping LE resources from around the state, cartel bounties on trucks, and internal politics - McManus hates the local DA and publicly feuds with him, county sheriff is at odds with the council, and they divert resources to make political points. So everyone around gets to pay insurance inflated by 70 or more percent.

We don’t have winter pre-start issues here, or really much of a winter. We have thieves who know they will not be bothered by law enforcement, and on the remote chance that an owner catches them in the act, they won’t be prosecuted unless it’s in some podunk town where people don’t take kindly to thieves.

 

[jeanco]

One air tag and one smart tag?