1,000 Signature Petition: Auto Theft

[Addick]

Originally Posted by Jets4Life

I think it definitely would not hurt to try the program, as it won International Police Awards.

While that may be true and it is a great solution, this does sound like a solution looking for a problem. It's efficiency and effectiveness will not count for much if focusing on it takes the focus away from pressing issues.

[Jets4Life]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

And I'm not quite so sure. In the end, vehicles are just material things. If you can get bigger bang for your buck by giving more money to fighting crimes such as rape, murder, gangs, etc, I'd rather it go to that.

The problem is, the young people that steal the cars, almost always have a wanton disregard for public safety. Many are drunk or on drugs while driving the vehicle, and many end up in bad accidents, or even kill innocent people.

It's not as simple of just being property theft.

[WhiteTiger]

It's been my experience that auto theft in Calgary is a crime of opportunity. If everyone kept their doors locked when not in the car, and didn't leave their cars running (or 'warming up') we'd see a massive reduction in auto theft.

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by Jets4Life

5,182 for the year 2013. Auto theft was trending downward, reached a low of 4,216 in the year 2011, but has risen in the past couple of years.

You need to make it clear that this number includes attempted theft of vehicle, theft of vehicle and taking vehicle without consent. The count of Theft of Vehicle occurrences is 3,375 from the Community Crime Stats.

Further, if you look at the 2014 Community Crime Stats, they show that Theft of Vehicle (which is the stat we want to look at) is totaled at 3,000 for the year. The 2015 Community Crime Stats show 1,644 Theft of Vehicle occurrences up to April this year, compared to 908 for the same period in 2014.