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Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#51

Post by rmc »

ilamont wrote: post #43

I did a ride-along with a cop outside of Boston about 12 years ago. His car had a laptop attached to the dashboard, an innovation that only started appearing in the 1990s. One thing that he was able to do was instantly look up the plate on a vehicle without having to radio it in -- and the lookup interfaced with what I assume was an updated database of stolen cars. Another technological innovation he mentioned was th…

I believe police cars in the UK have cameras with automatic number plate recognition. They drive around and it scans for stolen/uninsured cars.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#52

Post by Piskvorrr »

rasz_pl wrote: post #49

30x less stolen cars in New York? Im sure Police car crime department got reduced in size, right? RIGHT?

Didn't actually read the article, did you?

"And the decline in thefts has freed up the 85 detectives and supervisors of New York’s auto crime division to focus on stopping organized car theft rings, the sorts of operations that actually have the ability to make coded keys for newer cars."

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#53

Post by ejstronge »

jzwinck wrote: post #45
leonhandreke wrote: post #16

I wish bicycle theft was tackled in a similar fashion. A combination of factors seems to be at play here: Photo ID required to sell the car and technological hurdles that are too hard to overcome for small criminals. With embedded computer chips being so cheap nowadays, surely it should be possible to embed some sort of tracking system in bicycle frames.

If you want to reduce bicycle theft in the US, the solution is simple: drastically increase the penalties for perpetrators. Get caught stealing a bike? One year in jail. Adjust until the level of theft is where you want it to be. Stealing a bike is not just taking $300 or whatever from the owner. It's robbing that cyclist and would-be cyclists of the confidence to use their preferred mode of transportation, and deter…

I understand the motivation behind what you're suggesting but I don't think jail time is a fair deterrent.

I think (this is anecdata from some bike theft victims, including myself) that there are folks who steal bikes to ride them, potentially for transportation to work/school, and those who steal bikes to sell them elsewhere.

We should find a way to deter both groups but putting someone in jail for a $300 (let's say $600 to cover some of the unintended effects you mention) probably won't stop the commercial thieves as they'll find other lackeys to do the theft.

On a more important note, I feel uncomfortable having someone locked up, costing taxpayer money, for committing a non-violent crime whose damages are less than two weeks' pay at minimum wage.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#54

Post by lmm »

da02 wrote: post #22
leonhandreke wrote: post #16

I wish bicycle theft was tackled in a similar fashion. A combination of factors seems to be at play here: Photo ID required to sell the car and technological hurdles that are too hard to overcome for small criminals. With embedded computer chips being so cheap nowadays, surely it should be possible to embed some sort of tracking system in bicycle frames.

Just out of curiosity, what town or city do you live in? How many times has it happened to you?

I live in London and I've had my bike stolen around once a year; four times now. I try to treat it as just a cost of life (the bike is still saving me money compared to train tickets), but it gets to be irritating. I've got a cycling holiday booked next month and I'm terrified my bike's going to be stolen just before I go.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#55

Post by lmm »

baddox wrote: post #14
praptak wrote: post #10

"Stealing cars is harder than it used to be, less lucrative and more likely to land you in jail. As such, people have found other things to do." Interesting. I wonder if there are any studies on what the other things are. What do perpetrators do when the crime they specialize in no longer pays?

I doubt most people desire being a criminal as an end in itself. Presumably car thieves either went onto the next best job, whether that be a crime (where "best" considers costs, like the risk of being punished, and benefits), or a legal job.

Or stayed at home and claimed unemployment, if the marginal gain from working ceased to be worth the cost.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#56

Post by lmm »

Swizec wrote: post #5
alec_heif wrote: post #3

Interesting that the Honda Accord and Honda Civic are (or rather, were) the two most stolen cars. Is that because Hondas are more reliable (so there's more old Hondas on the road) or because they're easier to steal?

It's because they're the most stereotypical vehicle to mod in most of Europe and probably the US. They're popular with so called "ricers". I'm not sure why though. Maybe because they're easy to steal? Maybe they're cheap to buy/insure and are still high performance enough to be fun while also having a cheap enough after market for modifications.

For years Honda offered a deal where you bought a new Honda and got 3 years' insurance free. Obviously this is worth a lot more to younger (and less careful) drivers.

(Which was largely deliberate; Honda had an image problem where they were seen as an "old man car". Now they're a "boy racer car", which I'm not sure was the intention)

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#57

Post by shutupalready »

Piskvorrr wrote: post #52
rasz_pl wrote: post #49

30x less stolen cars in New York? Im sure Police car crime department got reduced in size, right? RIGHT?

Didn't actually read the article, did you? "And the decline in thefts has freed up the 85 detectives and supervisors of New York’s auto crime division to focus on stopping organized car theft rings, the sorts of operations that actually have the ability to make coded keys for newer cars."

So those 85 detectives and supervisors, formerly working on auto crime, now work on auto crime -- a subset of auto crime to be precise.

The grandparent's comment has merit. Government has stayed exactly the same size.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#58

Post by jkbyc »

gambiting wrote: post #47
leke wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about RFID chips built inside the frame. Then your town would make hidden readers, placed around the city (close to cameras), that could alert authorities of a reported stolen bicycle being ridden. Make the thieves pay a hefty fine to recouporate some of the expense of the system.

The problem is that especially inside the EU, bikes are stolen almost in bulk, then loaded into trucks and taken outside the country - even if you get stopped at the border(which is super rare, thanks to the Schoengen zone), it's impossible to check the serial numbers of the bikes - if there are any databases, they are usually not ran by the police, and there are absolutely zero international databases for bikes. Eas…

I can assure you that people in eastern Europe, the Czech republic at least, also do complain about having their nice new bikes stolen. Just to put things into perspective, eastern EU is not some wild west.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#59

Post by blueskin_ »

leke wrote: post #44
leonhandreke wrote: post #16

I wish bicycle theft was tackled in a similar fashion. A combination of factors seems to be at play here: Photo ID required to sell the car and technological hurdles that are too hard to overcome for small criminals. With embedded computer chips being so cheap nowadays, surely it should be possible to embed some sort of tracking system in bicycle frames.

How about RFID chips built inside the frame. Then your town would make hidden readers, placed around the city (close to cameras), that could alert authorities of a reported stolen bicycle being ridden. Make the thieves pay a hefty fine to recouporate some of the expense of the system.

I'm sure the NSA, FBI, etc. would love that.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#60

Post by mortov »

jzwinck wrote: post #45
leonhandreke wrote: post #16

I wish bicycle theft was tackled in a similar fashion. A combination of factors seems to be at play here: Photo ID required to sell the car and technological hurdles that are too hard to overcome for small criminals. With embedded computer chips being so cheap nowadays, surely it should be possible to embed some sort of tracking system in bicycle frames.

If you want to reduce bicycle theft in the US, the solution is simple: drastically increase the penalties for perpetrators. Get caught stealing a bike? One year in jail. Adjust until the level of theft is where you want it to be. Stealing a bike is not just taking $300 or whatever from the owner. It's robbing that cyclist and would-be cyclists of the confidence to use their preferred mode of transportation, and deter…

Spoken like a true American ! After all, if stealing a king size snickers bar deserves 16 years (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/040700-01.htm), stealing a bicycle needs some serious deterrent sentencing. Sure, he was a recidivist and had previously stolen some Oreo cookies too !

Or, it's a bicycle - keep things in proportion. Sure it sucks to have stuff stolen (I've been a victim too) but crazy disproportionate sentencing has made criminal justice in the US just insane.

Your proposal sounds great, just like all the other get tough on crime initiatives over the past 40 odd years but it has left the US with what looks like the craziest most vengeful 'justice' system outside of the Sharia introduced by ISIS.

It's all great until you happen to fall foul of these get tough initiatives - see lots of previous HN stories for examples.

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