Upper Darby Police Get Bait Car | Insurance.us

by The Philadelphia Inquirer

By Mari A. Schaefer, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Oct. 26–The video clips are all over the Internet: unsuspecting thieves caught stealing cars — bait cars — set out by police and outfitted with state-of-the-art GPS tracking devices and video cameras.

One driver in California cried when nabbed.

“Oh, no. They got me,” he wailed.

The cars have been used for about 15 years, in hundreds of departments across the country and in Canada. Starting soon, they’ll make getting away with car theft in Upper Darby a little more difficult. The township plans to introduce its first bait car Wednesday.

“If we can eliminate a crime for preventative measures, it is a win for everyone,” said Michael J. Chitwood, police superintendent.

The bait car might be the first in the Philadelphia region. Pennsylvania state police do not use bait cars, said Sgt. James Fisher of the Media barracks, and he was unaware of anyone in the region who does.

Minneapolis has run a bait-car program for 11 years, and thefts have dropped 58 percent, Officer Wayne Johnson said.

“We are getting the hard-core offender, and that is who we want,” said Johnson, who runs what he called a “fleet” of bait cars. Two thieves, he said, even took bait cars to drive to court hearings for unrelated crimes.

In Vancouver, British Columbia, auto thefts have dropped 71 percent in the seven years the city has used the decoy cars, according to the Police Department’s Web site. And sometimes, just the notice that bait cars are coming deters criminals. Thefts in Yuma, Ariz., dropped after signs warning that there might be bait cars were posted in a high-crime area before the cars were put on the street.

Allstate Insurance donated the Upper Darby car. Allstate restores damaged cars and outfits them with about $20,000 in technology before giving them to police, said Chris Conner, a company spokesman. It has donated 14 bait cars across the country; the Upper Darby car is its first in this region.

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