Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 439 posts

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#71

Post by vkou »

dheera wrote: post #69
vkou wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. You call it corruption. Is it, or is it just a good ROI? I think it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag. Time will tell.

> The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. That's ridiculous. At that rate it would be better to just buy the owner a new car. But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate or VIN as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected. It would be far cheaper and not that diffe…

> That's ridiculous.

No, it's just how the world works.

The unfortunate thing about property crime is that frequently, $50 worth of gain often results in $500-$5,000 worth of damages and costs. Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen, or their copper ripped out.

> But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected.... It would be far cheaper...

Designing and deploying an automatic system for 'Automatically deploying spike strips', (besides being a bad idea) in a city like NYC will be an eight-figure sort of project. That will assure that in the best-case scenario, a car theft will run four-figures worth of damages. In the worst case, it will do nothing, because the car's been abandoned, or is being taken apart in a Jersey chop-shop by the time you report it stolen.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#72

Post by [deleted] »

WheatMillington wrote: post #43
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would anyone have one [an Android phone]?" Mayor Adams responded This is a New Yorker’s response to a stupid question. AirTags have a recognised brand. Messaging “buy AirTags” comes through cleanly in a way an inclusive statement would not. Given nobody is burning city funds for this, it’s literally a PSA, a reporter asking the mayor technical questions the answer to which they know is fine to be answered dismi…

Did you miss the part where the city is giving away 500 air tags? It's right at the start of the article. You did read the article, didn't you?

[deleted]

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#73

Post by HDThoreaun »

pnw wrote: post #48

This is a terrible suggestion because Apple has effectively removed the anti-theft features of Airtags in favor of protection against stalking. The thief will be notified of the tag in less than an hour usually. I see the alert anytime I mind my friends dog. Typically within 45-60 minutes of my friend leaving, I get an alert which includes a map of where I was tracked and my friends email address. The original Airtag…

I'm not sure how the notification stops the thief. If you're half decent at hiding things they won't be able to find it in less than half an hour, so they either stop and look during which time you can catch them or they abandon the car and you get it back since it's still being tracked.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#75

Post by acchow »

politelemon wrote: post #3

This article throws up many flags for me, not necessarily red, but of a worrying color. It first celebrates surveillance devices as a net positive and hand-waves away its problems. But most importantly, it is awfully shortsighted to allow a single company to entrench itself further into societal transactions. However, hearing it is inconvenient, so I am often dismissed for saying so. > They're made by Apple, which me…

> Again... this level of ignorance and short-sightedness is surprising coming from someone in such a position of authority

He was making a joke, playing into the Android vs iPhone eternal war.

But as someone who spent years on iPhone, then switched fully to Android for 5 devices across 4 years, and now back to iPhone..... I actually think the ignorance is the other way (Android users who have never tried iPhone as their full time phone).

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#76

Post by dheera »

vkou wrote: post #71
dheera wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. That's ridiculous. At that rate it would be better to just buy the owner a new car. But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate or VIN as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected. It would be far cheaper and not that diffe…

> That's ridiculous. No, it's just how the world works. The unfortunate thing about property crime is that frequently, $50 worth of gain often results in $500-$5,000 worth of damages and costs. Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen, or their copper ripped out. > But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips…

> Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen

The difference is when someone's catalytic converter is stolen, we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. More often than not, we spend $0 of taxpayer money, and the angry owner spends $5000.

I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with that money and distribute them for free to people who had stolen cars.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#77

Post by crhulls »

dinkblam wrote: post #9

i am unsure how AirTags can be recommended by anyone in any situation to prevent theft. their "anti-tracking" features make them completely useless in any situation where theft is involved (or theft happens after loosing the item). the thief is alerted to their presence automatically and can disable them quickly. perfect for thieves! AirTags can only be used for misplaced items, any utility for situations involving t…

I'm glad someone brought this up. I'm the CEO of Tile and we launched an anti-theft feature for this reason. We allow you to turn off anti-stalking features if you agree to strict penalties for misuse and verify yourself with a real ID.

https://chrishulls.medium.com/tile-is-taking-a-different-app...

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#78

Post by vkou »

dheera wrote: post #76
vkou wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's ridiculous. No, it's just how the world works. The unfortunate thing about property crime is that frequently, $50 worth of gain often results in $500-$5,000 worth of damages and costs. Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen, or their copper ripped out. > But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips…

> Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen The difference is when someone's catalytic converter is stolen, we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. More often than not, we spend $0 of taxpayer money, and the angry owner spends $5000. I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with t…

> we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it.

If the police spends any time documenting it, looking for it, or catching and prosecuting the guy who did it, it can run up to that. Even if they do the bare minimum, it'll definitely run a lot more than $50...

> I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with that money and distribute them for free to people who had stolen cars.

Do you want to pay hundreds of dollars in personal loss, or tens of dollars in taxes that fund measures and mechanisms to prevent or mitigate that loss? It all comes out of your pocket at the end of the day. Whether it comes out of your taxes, or your insurance premiums, or from your pocketbook, you'll still be paying.

I know that all costs being equal, I'd rather live in a world with fewer car, or cat, or copper thefts, or any other negative-sum activity than one with more of them. There's no magic bullet for this, though, which is why each mitigation should be considered on its own costs and merits.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#79

Post by mperham »

trafficante wrote: post #51
zzzeek wrote: post #11

who here can already see clearly the NYPD officer's completely blank stare when you show them exactly where the car thief took your car. "did you see them do it? otherwise it's not our problem"

Portland Police Bureau are in good company, it seems. The only reason to file a police report for a stolen vehicle these days (in Portland) is documentation for insurance. I very rarely hear about people getting their cars back via PPB without it being months later (and in pieces with mysterious stains everywhere) due to being incidentally swept up in a rare chop shop bust. And yes, this is a policing problem. It’s a…

Portland city political positions are nonpartisan. Portland "democrats" can range from center right (rene gonzalez) to progressive left (no one). I'm hopeful RCV will help.

Eric Adams may have a D next to his name but he's a traditional Republican according to his policies (cutting libraries/schools, more funding for cops).

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#80

Post by wildrhythms »

catiopatio wrote: post #55
evandale wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video of "Why would anyone have one?" Around 15:50: https://youtu.be/Vuw72THyXsQ?t=942 They were laughing at it. So hilarious, I'm in stitches over the ignorance.

Why would I choose an Android phone? Apple does not spy on me, and does not sell my information to advertisers. An iPhone SE is $429, or can be financed at the same price , with zero interest, at $17.87 for 24 months. Why would I want to join Google’s advertiser-driven ecosystem, and voluntarily make myself into Google’s product?

>Apple does not spy on me

There's something ironic to find this comment on a video of a former cop surrounded by other cops touting the surveillance features Apple's product offers exclusively.

Post reply on HN