Calgary police have released dramatic footage taken of suspects fleeing police while in stolen vehicles in an effort to show the impact of the offence on public safety.

Police say people are making it easy for thieves by leaving their vehicles unlocked and that one in four thefts involve a vehicle left running unattended.

On Wednesday morning, police say that 14 vehicles were taken while they were left idling with the keys still inside.

“Can you image being the person driving down the road and seeing a car coming head-on towards you and you’ve got your kids, you’ve got your wife, your mom in the car, your dad, it’s putting us all at risk and we’re really asking for the public’s assistance to be more vigilant when they are starting their car, especially in this cold weather,” said Inspector Mike Bossley of the Calgary Police Service Investigative Operations Section.

Police say the public is put at risk by the dangerous driving that is often associated with stolen vehicles and that they are also used to commit other crimes like robberies and break and enters.

“They use these stolen vehicles to commit break and enters to do robberies, to steal other cars, to do car prowlings and typically what we see with that type of offender is those types of offenders are also associated to the drug trade. They’re either high or using drugs of selling drugs and that kind of drug addiction obviously makes your decision making quite irrational so police and for the public, what ends up happening is we see individuals that are operating motor vehicles that are under the influence of drugs, in many cases, they’re not rational and you can see by the type of driving and behaviour that you see in the video how dangerous that is,” said Bossley.

Police utilize a significant amount of resources to track, recover, investigate and lay charges in stolen vehicle cases and that can take officers away from other priority calls.

Residents can help to reduce the number of vehicle thefts by:

  • Reporting suspicious people and activity to police at 403-266-1234 or 911 if it is a crime in progress
  • Never leave a vehicle running and unattended
  • Install a remote starter
  • Use a steering wheel lock to deter thieves
  • Ensure your vehicle is locked at all times and never leave spare keys in or around it
  • Never leave children unattended inside a running vehicle

Last year, 4,879 stolen vehicles were reported to police in Calgary, which is up 51 percent from the five-year average.