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

Post by oh_sigh » Tue, May 02, 2023, 9:42 PM UTC

beembeem wrote: post #17

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"

Have already seen this with other stolen property with other PDs across the country. - "It's too risky" - "not valuable enough" - "could be dangerous" - "can't prove your stolen item is where the GPS says" - "can't dispatch an officer or detective just because you have a GPS location" etc etc

Post by sitkack » Tue, May 02, 2023, 9:43 PM UTC

beembeem wrote: post #17

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"

Have already seen this with other stolen property with other PDs across the country. - "It's too risky" - "not valuable enough" - "could be dangerous" - "can't prove your stolen item is where the GPS says" - "can't dispatch an officer or detective just because you have a GPS location" etc etc

Post by sleepybrett » Tue, May 02, 2023, 9:44 PM UTC

crhulls wrote: post #77

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...

Post by s1artibartfast » Tue, May 02, 2023, 9:46 PM UTC

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…

Post by Swizec » Tue, May 02, 2023, 9:48 PM UTC

version_five wrote: post #98

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…

All that stupidity aside, how are AirTags actually supposed to help, even if we all had an iPhone and were happy to live under apple's benevolent rule? Most cars have a gps tracker now anyway. Mine was stolen last year, during the night. I was told it would have been put into a shipping container within an hour, where it wouldn't be accessible to radio waves anyway. Maybe they work for casual joyriding. At least wher…