EIGHT years after police began equipping strategically placed "bait" cars with GPS tracking units, recording devices and remotely controlled engine shutdown devices, car thefts have fallen by 76 per cent in North Vancouver and by 85 per cent in West Vancouver.
Back in 2003, there were approximately 420 cars stolen from North Vancouver and 90 cars stolen from West Vancouver. In contrast, last year, those numbers were 100 and 10 respectively.
Thefts of items from vehicles are also down by more than 70 per cent in both areas of the North Shore. In 2003, there were about 990 thefts reported from vehicles in North Vancouver and 160 reported in West Vancouver. Last year those numbers were down to 210 in North Vancouver and 50 in West Vancouver.
Not all of the reduction in car thefts is due to the bait car program. Since 2008, immobilizers have been mandatory in all new cars, making them much more difficult to steal. But Sgt. Gord Elias of the RCMP's Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team said he's convinced that bait cars have had an impact.
"I watch every bait car video that comes into our office," he said. In about half of the cases, before thieves even know what they've got themselves into "they're already talking to each other saying 'I hope this isn't a bait car.'"
A bait car looks like a regular vehicle, but as soon as the door opens, or the ignition starts, it sends tracking information back to police, including the car's location, speed and direction. A hidden microphone and video camera in the car also records all conversations and provide pictures of the driver and passenger.
Elias won't say how many bait cars there are in the bait car fleet or exactly what those cars are. In recent years, the program has expanded to include much more than cars - there are now bait jet skis, ATVs, boats, motorcycles, snowmobiles, trailers and - most recently - commercial vehicles that thieves might mistake for a regular construction worker's truck or plumber's van.
Last year, thieves stole 644 commercial vehicles.
The program, which costs slightly less than $3 million annually, is funded by ICBC. Elias said before the program started, the insurance corporation was spending more than $98 million each year to repair stolen vehicles. That figure has now dropped to just over $32 million, he said.
