RCMP launch ‘bait car’ program in Whitehorse
“Bait cars are everywhere. Steal one. Go to jail.”
“Bait cars are everywhere. Steal one. Go to jail.”
So reads a press release about a new bait vehicle program that has been launched in Whitehorse by local RCMP.
The program is intended to help cut down on vehicle thefts in the city.
It involves “bait vehicles” that are owned by the police and are intended to be stolen.
According to Tuesday afternoon’s press release, once movement is detected near a bait vehicle, police are notified.
Through GPS tracking, they are able to monitor the vehicle’s location, speed and direction of travel.
RCMP are also able to control the vehicle remotely – which includes disabling the engine. No car chases necessary.
“Because we’re tracking and monitoring the vehicle, our officers can quickly locate the thieves and take appropriate measures to safely apprehend them,” Sgt. Ian Fraser, the acting detachment commander for Whitehorse RCMP, said in the release.
Since the new year, 24 vehicles have been reported stolen in Whitehorse. Of those, 19 have been recovered to date.
Fraser said most of the thefts are the result of a “car-shopping scenario,” where offenders are checking for unlocked doors and available keys.
“We’re not seeing smashed windows and ignition bypasses,” he said in an interview today.
For the most part, the thieves (Fraser suspects there’s more than one) are stealing the vehicles, driving them around for a time, and then abandoning them.
Vehicle thefts are happening across the city, and no specific type of vehicle is a target – cars, trucks, SUVs, snowmobiles and ATVs are all fair game, said Fraser.
“Reducing property crime is a priority for Whitehorse RCMP,” added Sgt. Fraser.
“We hope this initiative will encourage car thieves to rethink their actions, especially knowing that the next vehicle they could target could be a bait car.”
Bait vehicles are commonly used as investigative tools by the police in larger jurisdictions.
The bait car program started in Whitehorse in January, after similar initiatives in Alberta and British Columbia saw vehicle thefts drop by as much as 50 per cent, said Fraser.
Alberta RCMP’s General Investigative Section and Alberta RCMP’s Auto Theft Unit is helping with the current initiative in Whitehorse.
Fraser said he’s been asked to withhold details about how many and what kinds of bait vehicles are out in Whitehorse.
But could a bait car be considered a set-up by police? If the bait car wasn’t there, the suspect wouldn’t have stolen it.
RCMP spokesperson Coralee Reid said this afternoon the Auto Theft Unit in Alberta confirmed a bait car is not considered entrapment.
“They indicated that there is case law to support this,” she said.
Fraser did not have an answer to that question immediately available. The bait-car concept seems to veer into questionable waters.
The bait car program takes a “two-pronged approach,” said Fraser.
It helps to catch offenders in the act, and can also work to deter people entertaining the idea of driving off in an unlocked vehicle.
Police are also advising Yukoners to take the appropriate steps to protect their property.
These include always locking your vehicle, taking your keys with you, parking in well-lit areas, not leaving your car running with the keys in it, and not leaving valuables in your vehicle.
Comments (11)
Up 0 Down 0
Simple Man on Apr 5, 2017 at 8:20 am
No offense @hughmungous but I would wager the government cannot even cut the PO to kit out one car for the couple grand you mention, especially when considering the externalities attached to the purchases themselves (researching, cold calling, issuing rfp's, evaluating said rfp's).
Literally...I would bet that it costs more to source the gear and issue the POs than the price of the equipment that goes into a bait car.
Speaking of bait cars....in the black and white of your assumption you suppose they might use seized property as the bait cars themselves. Running with that assumption I can't help but question a couple things. Have the cars been mechanically checked at a level deep enough to ensure public safety as the would be thief takes off in an adrenaline fueled joy ride? If not then, tsk, tsk, I guess but if they have say goodbye to the couple grand bait car.....by the time their done with it you can be sure we are collectively the proud owners of a 6000 dollar 1000 dollar car.
I don't have so much trouble even with the program per se were it not for the costs in bringing the program from inception to conviction. This is a kind of personal problem as once you see the levels of wasted energy, time and money endemic to the governmental paradigm it becomes a thing you see everywhere. Take pencils for federal employees for example. I have no idea what the annual price to supply federal and territorial employees is but I have no doubt it is significant and needless. Why buy pencils for them at all? If I had a govie job I would have no problem supplying my own pencil, hell, standalone eraser too for that matter. I could probably even manage to procure a stapler. I would take better care of my pencil, eraser and stapler than I would the bulk supplies we see in every office store room around the country. I would not take office supplies home (another significant dollar amount) either, or maybe I would....I bought them after all right? So...with one example we could save ourselves beucoup bucks on incidental items.
There are many angles but I suppose my point is questioning whether a program such as the bait cars is worth the price of admission when cradle to grave costs are attached.
In closing, all four of our cars do not total 30 k and insured for PLPD so....the responsibility lies with me to not let my crap get stolen. This means paying attention to my surroundings, assessing the risk of leaving my keys in the ignition and deciding whether to put them in my pocket instead.
Money. It's no object.
Up 7 Down 0
Hugh Mungus on Apr 4, 2017 at 2:19 pm
@ Simple Man
Do you have a car? What's it worth? $30K? What would you do if someone stole it? You might get $20k in insurance money but you'd still be out $10k.
Assuming police are using seized vehicles it may cost a couple thousand dollars to kit it out with the kill switch, GPS, camera and radio gear. If you catch one guy, it's already paid for itself.
BCs bait car program saw a 55% since implemented in 2002.
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Simple Man on Apr 4, 2017 at 8:38 am
@hughmungus yet, startlingly enough, the bait cars seem to be of the easy to steal variety....no hot wire or shaved keys required. "BAIT" cars. Google the definition. You bait a trap....or a hook in the hope that something "takes" the bait. My money....poorly spent.
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Simple Man on Apr 4, 2017 at 8:33 am
I guess the main part of my previous comment, addmitedly murky, was wondering what we get for the cost of the program.
1. We get a budget for the program.
2. We get a harvest of low level petty theives.
3. We get a level of overhead that's probably hard to calculate when considering all the departments involved from inception to slap on the wrist
4. We collectively get to pay for it....whether we want to or not.
In this day of money rapidly becoming an abstract concept (million, billion? they rhyme....must be similar right?) it constantly astounds me that there isn't more thought to bang for the buck....there is only the thought of the bang, whatever the cost.
Consider....if the average person contributes 500,000 in lifetime tax contributions, after all is said and done is there anything attractive about your lifetime earnings being spent further burdening our legal and policing systems with programs that are obvious traps to lure in low level miscreants?
500,000 doesn't sound like much these days but in the context of having worked and paid taxes for 35-50 years then having it wasted on projects with, at best, questionable return...it's a lot.
There was a few years back a tender to prototype a "stealth" snowmobile....650,000...."stealth snowmobile". So out there, somewhere, is some poor schmuck that worked his whole life to prototype some white elephant that probably sits in some warehouse collecting dust.
Trapping low level fools and bunging up the courts is not how i want my money spent.
Use the 500,000 figure when learning about various governmentally run programs and consider how many people it represents by way of lifetime tax contributions. It's simple but horrifying math.
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Groucho d'North on Apr 3, 2017 at 5:43 pm
Okay, let's try and look beyond the goal posts here. What happens after these confirmed thieves are arrested and brought before the courts? Has the rest of the 'system' been fixed so they won't do it again? More lawyers making money defending repeat criminals in a legal system that caters to repeat business.
Maybe it's time to start working on what's wrong with the system for a change?
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Just Say'in on Mar 31, 2017 at 9:58 pm
What I am tired of hearing is the "Victim Blaming"
If I do not lock my doors it is NOT an invitation to enter and steal my stuff. I am glad they are doing this but go after the real problem, the THIEFS not the trusting public.
It matters not if you lock, they will break your window purely just to look inside for something. You are better off to leave it open with nothing to steal inside.
Quit making excuses for these guys they are the criminal not me.
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Hugh Mungus on Mar 31, 2017 at 2:06 pm
@ Simple man
Car theft happens a lot of ways, not simply by finding an open car with keys inside. Many older models you can hotwire or use a shaved key that will start the car. In some cases thieves will break into a house and steal car keys then proceed to steal the car.
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Simple Man on Mar 31, 2017 at 12:26 pm
Seems to me locking your doors and not leaving your keys laying about pretty much solves the problem as far as actually stealing cars goes.
I'd be interested to know the price tag for this initiative.
Seems sketchy to me. Suppose there are good Samaritans of an extreme variety that would leave keys in the car for the use of someone in need. Supposing that there is nothing stopping someone from doing so, who could say that the person wasn't ok with some one driving off with their car. Not likely, but possible, and at the very outside a plausible defense.
The very definition of the word "bait" should make pretty clear what this program represents, namely, public funds for use in programs with, at best, a great chance for further burdening the legal system with individuals who would perhaps not be there otherwise....trapping petty criminals, whereupon the real money starts being spent in processing your shiny new crook.
Still...thieves will always be around I guess. Bait cars only catch the short bus variety sadly and I'm not real chill with my money being spent this way.
Up 36 Down 1
Grey on Mar 30, 2017 at 11:35 am
Glad to see Whitehorse RCMP taking some action on this. Its a real problem. Hopefully they also have some bait car tools to identify thieves (cameras) for break ins that don't actually steal the car.
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Excel on Mar 29, 2017 at 3:58 pm
@ NIle
The program IS the deterrent. Can you not see that? Every jurisdiction on the planet that uses bait cars advertise that very fact.
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Nile on Mar 29, 2017 at 3:47 pm
But shhh. Don't tell anyone. This is so blatant it's painful. Police will then take credit for the drop in stolen cars. Until the thieves figure out which cars are the bait cars and the numbers go up again. Seriously, why would you put out a press release about this!