With nearly $1 million in funding from the province, London, Ont., police are launching a program to help combat vehicle theft in the city.
The program, called Project Safe Auto, uses $900,000 in funding over three years from Ontario’s preventing auto thefts grant program and will take a four-pronged approach to combating auto theft in London: awareness, analysis, enforcement, and technology.
Police will put together more public awareness and education campaigns along with additional enforcement throughout the city.
“You’ll see over the course of time, messages delivered via social media, mainstream media, about awareness of auto theft and how living in our community can prevent themselves from becoming victims of auto theft,” says Det. Insp. Alex Krygsman, head of the Investigative Services Branch.
“You’ll also see our auxiliaries out in the community providing auto theft awareness and prevention messaging to members of the public. That piece of the awareness pillar will be robust.”
In addition to spreading awareness, the LPS will be using new technology to help identify stolen vehicles, high-risk areas, and which vehicles are the most targeted.
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“Included in that is equipment to be able to help detect vehicles that have been re-vinned…where vehicles are stolen and put back out on the road with a new VIN number,” says Krygsman.
Those who are on bail for auto theft-related offences will also be monitored by police to ensure they don’t re-offend.
Since 2018, 6,977 auto thefts have been reported in the London area, with the peak coming in 2021 at 1,258. Numbers have been going down, with 1,198 in 2022 and 1,009 in 2023.
Krygsman says that while it is trending downwards, it’s still an “unacceptable” number.
“Perhaps the decrease is because of people taking better security measures or more enhanced security measures with securing their own vehicles. It’s still a significant number; that’s 1,009 people who are victims of auto theft. It’s way too many.”
Prevention is the major goal of the program, with police encouraging people to take steps like removing valuables from vehicles, locking all doors, and leaving vehicles in areas that are well lit.
An estimated 90,000 vehicles are stolen each year in Canada, costing insurance holder sand taxpayers nearly $1 billion.
“As police, our role is to investigate these things, detect these things, and hold people accountable after they’ve been charged. But I think there’s a role for everybody in our community to play.”
Police urge anyone with information about a stolen vehicle to call the non-emergency line at 519-661-5670 and anyone who witnesses a crime in progress to call 911.
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