Bait car

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For other uses, see Bait (disambiguation).
Mural publicizing the Bait Car program in a Vancouver parking garage

A bait car, also called a decoy car, is a vehicle used by law enforcement agencies to capture car thieves. The vehicles are specially modified, with high-tech features including GPS tracking and audio/video surveillance technology, and can be remotely monitored and controlled by law enforcement personnel. A remote controlled immobilizer (known as a "kill" device in law enforcement jargon) may be installed in the vehicle allowing police to remotely disable the engine.

The bait car, often filled with valuable items to draw attention to it, is parked un-attended in a high auto-theft area. In some cases, the vehicle may be simply left unlocked with the keys in the ignition. [1] When the car is stolen, officers are immediately alerted, and can monitor the vehicle and send commands to control it such as disabling the engine, locking the doors or honking the horn. The newest technology being deployed in bait cars is live audio/video streaming that allows law enforcement personel to see and hear inside a bait car before approaching it to determine how many suspects are in the car, what they are planning and if they are armed.[2]

Although laws are regional, the practice of deploying bait vehicles is not considered entrapment, since suspects are not persuaded to steal the vehicle by any means other than its availability and their own motivation.

The bait car is a phenomenon in the study of criminal behavior since it offers a rare glimpse into the actions and reactions of suspects before, during and after the crime. Unlike other crimes caught on surveillance cameras, suspects, at least initially, believe and react as if the crime has been wholly successful, until the bait car is apprehended by law enforcement personnel.

The Minneapolis Police, who pioneered their widely adopted model for deploying bait car technology almost 15 years ago, continue to run one of the most successful bait car programs in North America. The Minneapolis program, that incorporates high-tech equipment and a high media campaign is now considered the defacto standard for bait vehicle deployment world-wide. [3]

The largest bait car fleet in North America, which employs the Minneapolis model, is operated by the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team (IMPACT), based in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. Surrey was designated the "car theft capital of North America" by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2002.[4] Their highly successful bait car program was launched in 2004, and has contributed to a 47% drop in auto theft since then.[5]

Bait cars can be used as part of a honey trap, a form of sting operation, in which criminals not known to the police are lured into exposing themselves. Unlike a sting operation that targets a known or suspected criminal, a honey trap establishes a general lure to attract unknown criminals.

Bait cars (and the stings they are used in) have been featured in numerous documentary and reality television programs, including COPS and World's Wildest Police Videos. They were also the exclusive focus of a 2007 Court TV (now truTV) series simply titled Bait Car.[6]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Catch Car Thieves in the Act
  2. ^ Car thieves beware: You might find yourself on candid camera
  3. ^ BBC News.
  4. ^ CTV News article
  5. ^ IMPACT Autotheft Prevention.
  6. ^ TruTV - Bait Car

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait_car"
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