Car crime issue not solved, says body
RAC Foundation says there's lots more to do
Motorists' body the RAC Foundation has responded to the recent report, reported on PistonHeads (link below), stating that car crime has fallen. The body pointed out that more than a quarter of a million vehicles were stolen and over a million and a quarter broken into in the UK last year -- costing society over £2 billion.
In spite of a significant fall in the number of car crimes over the past few years, there is still a lot that car owners, local authorities, car park operators, the police and other agencies can do to further reduce the monetary loss, distress and inconvenience caused by these thefts, reckoned the pressure group.
Welcoming a recent report by the National Audit Office which looks at ways in which the fight against car crime could be advanced, the Foundation backed the NAO’s claim that most of the reductions in car crime had resulted from improvements to vehicle security systems.
The Foundation has urged that the areas identified in the report as capable of further improvement are urgently addressed and appealed to car owners to take measures to safeguard their own property.
The "could do better" areas include:
- Car parking: not enough car parks provide a safe and secure environment for motorists, although the introduction of the Safer Parking Scheme has begun to make a difference. The report recommends that the Home Office encourages all hospitals and railway companies to make their car parks secure.
- Data accuracy: while steady progress has been made in improving police enforcement to deter criminals, detection rates remain low compared to other offences. The introduction of the Automatic Number Plate Recognition system could lead to further significant improvements but the availability and accuracy of the data available must be improved. DVLA records allow the police to trace the registered keeper in 90 per cent of cases but 32 per cent of vehicle records have some level of inaccuracy.
- Law and order: while the Home Office has sought to make it more difficult for offenders to benefit from vehicle crime, further progress is required.
- Number plates: criminals can still purchase number plates from unregistered suppliers in Scotland and Northern Ireland, although this should no longer be possible in England and Wales.
- Salvage operators: tighter regulation of salvage operators should make it more difficult for the identity of written-off vehicles to be used to enable stolen vehicles to be re-sold. But over half of the 200 local authorities with the highest rates of vehicle crime had yet to set up a register of salvage operators or had no operators on their registers.
Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation said, "While these reductions in car crime are good news for motorists, the fact that most of the improvements are coming from manufacturer fitted security simply means that criminals are turning their attention to opportunist crime and theft of and from older vehicles.
"That means, as well as the improvements suggested in the NAO report, drivers must also act to safeguard their own cars"
The Foundation has suggested the following self-help methods to cut the chances of becoming a victim of car crime:
- Garaging: if you have a garage, use it. Sixty per cent of households in the UK do not use their garage to park their car, yet you are least likely to have your vehicle stolen from a garage than anywhere else. Reports of thefts of high value vehicles from affluent suburbs have come from all over the country recently.
- Keys: never leave your car keys accessible. Stealing keys is now an easy way for criminals to take your car without breaking in to it. Many gangs now target owners of high-end vehicles and break into houses to get at keys. Lothian and Borders Police recently reported a 300 per cent increase in the theft of car keys from homes. Even leaving them by the front door is potentially risky, as criminals are known to use fishing rods to hook them through the letterbox. Keys stolen from pockets and handbags can also be used; thieves simply walk around the surrounding area pointing the keys at random cars of the same make until they get lucky.
- Lifting: car thieves in West Yorkshire have recently employed a new technique which does not require keys or getting around security systems. They just load the vehicles, usually expensive marques, onto a lorry or low loader. The best way around this is to park the car in a garage or, if not at home, to park in a well lit, busy public car park or well populated street where suspicious behaviour is more likely to be identified.
- De-frosting: never leave your car on the driver with the engine running to de-frost the windscreen. Criminals now trawl areas on cold mornings waiting for owners to retreat inside before pouncing.
- Tracking: always consider fitting a tracking device to top of the range cars.
- Jacking: the disturbing custom where thieves lie in wait for a car owner and remove his ignition keys by force before driving away the vehicle. Another variation appears to be to pounce on unsuspecting motorists stopped at traffic lights or junctions, forcibly evicting them from their cars before driving off at high speed. Other thieves smash and grab at traffic lights and run off with handbags and laptops. While still a rare crime, tips on how to avoid this nasty situation include always parking in a well-lit, populated area or a car park with CCTV coverage and keeping vehicle doors locked while driving in urban areas. Leave a space from the car in front when parked at lights and be vigilant. Hide bags and valuables in the boot or under the seat.
- Hiding: never leave anything of value on view in the car. Now that a lot of car crime is drug related, "goodies" on display inside a car can often present an opportunity for some ready cash even if they are of relatively low monetary value.
And the RAC Foundation forgot one very important thing. They should be calling for manufacturers to start fitting laminated glass as standard. This would help prevent a lot of 'smash and grab' car theft.
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