Calgary police have decided it's time to start using bait cars to cut down on auto thefts.
Here's how it works. The bait vehicle is outfitted with a GPS tacking system and hidden cameras. The car is usually parked in an area where thefts have been a problem. Police are able to monitor the vehicle remotely. Once it's stolen, police are able to track the thief and once they have them in sight, the engine of the car can be turned off with the click of a mouse by a dispatcher.
For years, bait cars have been used successfully by other police departments in Canada and the United States. After four years of using them in Vancouver, the rate of auto theft dropped 35 percent.
But not every police department has had a flawless record with the system. In Dallas, the bait car program was suspended after a stolen bait car crashed into an innocent driver. Police had tried to disable the vehicle but something went wrong with the dispatcher - it took that person 20 seconds to shut the engine off. But that time it was too late; the bait car crashed into another vehicle and killed an 83-year-old woman.
In Winnipeg, the bait program was abandoned after cost and effectiveness were questioned. In Calgary, the bait cars will be paid for by ING Insurance, but in Winnipeg, police had to pick up the bill. That meant there wasn't the budget to switch the cars around and it didn't take thieves long to figure out which cars were bait cars and which ones were not. In fact, in the last year Winnipeg ran the program, police set out 100 bait cars and none of them were stolen.
Calgary police will not reveal what kind of vehicles they will be using as bait cars, or how many will be hitting the streets.
Between January and October of 2008, 5,170 vehicles were stolen in Calgary.
