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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

#101

Post by PeterisP »

Piskvorrr wrote: post #82
shutupalready wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

...while working on something with larger impact, apparently. Is the size of the government the only indicator of efficiency?

The point is that if previously they had, say, 85 people with 30 working on organized car theft rings and 55 on random single thefts; then a reasonable result of a tenfold decrease in random thefts would NOT be 80 people on organized car theft rings and 5 on random single thefts but instead 40 on the organized crime (if it has increased), 5 on the random thefts, and 40 people moved away from the car crime, either to something different within the police or laid off to make budget for other useful things such as medicine or public transportation.

Demand for various niches of gov't service will change, that's a given. When it's not enough, bad stuff is visible, voters complain and service gets increased. What happens when the demand falls, as it has in this case? We need an ability to reduce the size as well.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#102

Post by Piskvorrr »

PeterisP wrote: post #101
Piskvorrr wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...while working on something with larger impact, apparently. Is the size of the government the only indicator of efficiency?

The point is that if previously they had, say, 85 people with 30 working on organized car theft rings and 55 on random single thefts; then a reasonable result of a tenfold decrease in random thefts would NOT be 80 people on organized car theft rings and 5 on random single thefts but instead 40 on the organized crime (if it has increased), 5 on the random thefts, and 40 people moved away from the car crime, either to…

Fair point.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#103

Post by colanderman »

mseebach wrote: post #84
vasiliys wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From http://www.mydatatags.com/how-it-works/how-microdots-work > Step 4 > Recover Your Property > If the police or a good Samaritan find your lost or stolen assets marked with our microtag technology and contacts MyDataTags, we will inform you and give you their contact information so you can recover your personal property. So it's a serial number that nobody will notice (1mm black dot) or be able to read (I would as…

A responsible buyer will require an original invoice that matches the frame number, or assume that the bike is stolen.

I certainly don't have the original invoice for my 15-year-old bike.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#104

Post by Fuzzwah »

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?

I'm an Australian who moved to the US and bought a cheap 1996 honda accord because I knew they were a solid reliable "beater" car.

It was stolen twice in a week. It was dumped and towed the first time. We'd just got through dealing with it all and I'd added a chain and padlock which would require bolt cutters to allow the shifter to be moved into R...... and it was stolen again, this time written off when the driver tried to evade the police.

The police officer who came and took our statement informed us that this model was the most stolen vehicle in the US for a number of reasons, the crucial one being that you can use a "jiggle key" (take any key for a 95 - 98 honda accord and file it down a little) to both unluck the doors and start the ignition.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#105

Post by digitalengineer »

rectangletangle wrote: post #35
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Netherlands / Amsterdam it happens all the time - to be fair, people have adjusted to it, all you see is very cheap old bicycles, and it's not uncommon to just steal someone else's bike if your own gets stolen. I read a cute news bulletin from the police the other day that they arrested a 60-some year old bike thief using a 'lure bike'. They do that regularly actually: https://www.google.com/search?q=lokfiets+…

If anything Amsterdam probably has too many bikes. They're literally covering every surface that you can lock one on to, often several layers deep. They're almost like barnacles there. This is exacerbated by the old infrastructure that isn't quite up to par with cities like Rotterdam.

Well yeah Rotterdam had the heart bombed out of it in WW2. So no more narrow streets downtown.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#106

Post by mseebach »

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…

> drastically increase the penalties for perpetrators

We could start at the start: increase the risk of getting caught at all, to something not zero.

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#107

Post by kstenerud »

nextw33k wrote: post #95

All these crime is down articles make me think there is something more fundamental at play. That whilst technology has helped, that perhaps the real answer is economic. Crime was a way of getting something that you wanted with little effort but high risk. However with consumerism we can have what we want with medium effort and low risk. There is a lower barrier to getting what you want with anything of material worth…

Lead was a major contributing factor.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/01/03/how-lead-ca...

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#108

Post by codfrantic »

alexhawdon wrote: post #99

Another thing the article doesn't mention but I've heard is now a common (sorry, nothing to cite) way of stealing cars is to take the keys. Perhaps it's time for manufacturers to start with 2-factor authentication, perhaps the key and then a PIN that you have to enter? Is anybody doing this?

I remember an aftermarket immobiliser which required a PIN to be entered, this was in the Netherlands in the 1990's though, haven't seen it since...

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#109

Post by aphexairlines »

lmm wrote: post #54
da02 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you tried a wheel lock? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_lock#Wheel_lock Someone walking around London carrying a bike rather than riding it would look pretty suspicious -- wouldn't police stop someone like that and check the registration sticker?

Re: Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion

#110

Post by thelettere »

CalRobert wrote: post #70
thelettere wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've done studies on the effect of increasing penalties on crime, and it's virtually nil.

Who are "they"?

Researchers. There have been innumerable studies on the subject - but really it's common sense. If you're a criminal you're unlikely to be particularly adept at the art of deliberation - otherwise you would choose a different way of life. But for evidence here's a somewhat recent review: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1147698?uid=3739920&ui...

Also, interestingly, deterrence is not the primary reason most people push for harsher penalties. Rather it is punishment for its own sake: http://www.law.asu.edu/files/!NoTemplate/why%20do%20we%20pun...

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