Vancouver Deters Car Theft With 'Bait' Car
Back in my younger days, which I spent driving aimlessly around the country, I stopped to visit a friend in Vancouver, B.C. He warned me that I should check on my car, which I had parked on the street, as frequently as possible.
Car theft in Vancouver, it seemed, was a major problem.
However, a technique police were already beginning to employ then has drastically reduced automotive theft, by a whopping 45% in the province: the use of "bait" cars.
Bait cars are vehicles armed with hidden cameras, vehicle immobilizers and GPS locators that the Vancouver PD deploys into high-theft areas. The practice started in 2003, and results have been impressive. Stolen vehicle reports have dropped from 5,320 to just 2,100 in five years in the greater Vancouver area, which is a 61% decrease for the city. At the same time, vehicle recovery rates have improved to 93% of all stolen vehicles.
And in case you were wondering, I left Vancouver with my Toyota Corolla unscathed.
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Glad to see Canada finally got around to adopting a anti-car theft program that was founded in Newark, NJ more than 15 years ago.
Bait cars are nothing new. Indiana has used them for years and I'm sure other states have too.
I think bait cars should be used in more areas. I know of several areas near where I live that this would bring down car thefts.
Bait cars are used here in Portland, Oregon and have been for quite a while.
ahhhh so thats why it wasn't stolen, it was a Corolla.
Who wants to steal a Corolla?
But the old Camrys are having a bad time here, they send them for parts out of the country.Same for trucks.
When gas was high, there were a number of articles about gasoline thefts. I'd thought the perfect answer was a car with a dummy tank filled with a diesel-gasoline mix. After one theft, the thieves would no longer have a vehicle that needed any gas.
Bob Wilson
FYI Chris Jacobs, the bait car program was first founded in Sacramento, CA in 1996. You may want to check your facts.
Also, Greater Vancouver has the largest bait car program in North America, which is why it gets so much attention.
I did some Googling and discovered that NP needs to check his facts. Having never heard of 'car bait' I discovered that the first 'bait car' was in Newark, New Jersey, in June 1984. It was a federally funded program that came about because a NJ State Police Detective was severely injured by a stolen car while assisting Newark Police in a homicide case.
I couldn't determine if Vancouver had the largest bait car program but I highly doubt it given two facts: 1. There is plenty of documentation about Newark, NJ being the car theft capital of the world (would only make sense to have the most bait cars where the thefts are taking place), 2. NP was wrong in his assumption that Sacramento had the first bait car program.
i live 30 minutes outside of newark nj, and its common knowledge that you dont leave your car parked in newark for an extended period of time.