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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 10:56 pm
Time: 10:56 pm
Results for automobile theft (canada)
3 results foundAuthor: Pearson, Ashley Title: An Evaluation of Winnipeg’s Electronic Monitoring Pilot Project For Youth Auto Theft Offenders Summary: In 2008, the Manitoba government implemented an electronic monitoring (EM) project for high-risk automobile theft offenders. To evaluate this program, youth in the program were matched with other high-risk auto theft offenders who had not been put on EM. Dimensions including characteristics, daily contacts and criminal histories were examined between groups. Interviews were also conducted with offenders who had been on EM and with program staff and stakeholders. The results of the evaluation indicated a small change in criminal history for the EM group for auto theft, technical and combined offences. Since the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy (WATSS) began in 2005, there has been a decrease of approximately 11,000 auto thefts. Notably, only a very small part of this number could be attributed to the EM program. Electronic monitoring as an intervention can be a complementary program when offered in accompaniment with other WATSS and Manitoba Youth Correctional Services (MYCS) programs. Details: Winnipeg: Department of Sociology, University of Manitoba, 2012. 242p. Source: Internet Resource: Master's Thesis: Accessed August 11, 2012 at: http://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/bitstream/1993/8102/1/Pearson_Ashley.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Canada URL: http://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/bitstream/1993/8102/1/Pearson_Ashley.pdf Shelf Number: 125968 Keywords: Automobile Theft (Canada)Electronic MonitoringJuvenile OffendersMotor Vehicle Theft |
Author: Cohen, Irwin M. Title: A Report on the Utility of the Automated Licence Plate Recognition System in British Columbia Summary: With the high rate of auto theft in British Columbia and the general risk to the public from unlicenced, prohibited, or uninsured drivers, the RCMP, other municipal police forces, and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia continue to develop and test a myriad of strategies to keep citizens safe. One such strategy is the deployment of Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology. Over the last decade, British Columbia has had the reputation of being a world leader in auto thefts per capita. In 2003, 40,000 cars and trucks were stolen in British Columbia, with 30,000 of these stolen from within the Greater Vancouver Regional District (Schuurman, 2007). More specifically, until very recently, the city of Surrey, British Columbia, was known as the auto theft capital of the world (Schuurman, 2007). In 2005 alone, the city of Surrey experienced nearly 6,500 auto thefts (Schuurman, 2007). As part of a more general response to auto theft, in 2006, IMPACT (Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team) began to examine the utility and feasibility of ALPR. The current study will discuss the results of the initial phase of the testing of this technology and its effectiveness in assisting police to respond to auto theft and other auto-related offences. ALPR technology uses illumination to highlight a licence plate, allowing a camera to take a photograph of the car’s licence plate. The plate image is then scanned by image-processing software which extracts the necessary data and compares the data against any number of police databases (Gordon and Wolf, 2007). ALPR software is a form of Optical Character Recognition which scans images and recognizes the characters present (Gordon and Wolf, 2007). Theoretically, ALPR can scan up to 3,600 plates per hour, either from a moving or stationary platform (Pughe, 2006). The technology can work in all lighting and weather conditions. ALPR was originally designed for use with parking lot security to regulate, for example, entry to the location or to record time of entry (Gordon and Wolf, 2007). However, current technology allows the licence plate to be compared with information stored on a variety of databases, such as stolen car hotlists or prohibited driver databases. While currently in use in British Columbia to identify stolen vehicles and unlicenced, uninsured, and/or prohibited drivers, ALPR can also assist the police to identify persons of interest associated with other criminal activity. According to a recent article (Canada NewsWire, 2007), auto theft is associated with a wide range of criminal activity, including the offences of break and enter, armed robbery, and drug-related offences. In other words, offenders steal cars for use in the commission of additional offences. For example, drug offenders may steal from within cars, but may also steal the car to raise money to purchase drugs (Schuurman, 2007). Those engaged in break and enters may steal cars to transport the stolen property. Given this, ALPR may have the benefit of assisting the police to uncover other crimes in the course of investigating prohibited, unlicenced, or uninsured drivers. As such, ALPR has the capacity to deter criminal activity, assist in locating offenders, and recover stolen property. The ability of ALPR to assist in these critical police functions is based on research suggesting that those who consistently violate traffic regulations often have a criminal history (Rose, 2000). For example, Chenery, Henshaw, and Pease (1999) found that one-third of people who illegally parked in disabled parking spots had a previous criminal record, nearly half (49 per cent) had a history of traffic violations, and one-fifth (21 per cent) were of immediate police interest or were known or suspected of having involvement with other criminal activities (18 per cent). In this study, registered keepers of vehicles who were of immediate interest to the police, who had a criminal record, whose vehicle had a history of traffic violations, whose vehicle had been used in the past for criminal activity, or who had a current vehicle illegality were all significantly more likely to be parked illegally than legally (Chenery, Henshaw, & Pease, 1999). This research suggests that ALPR can assist police beyond catching traffic violators by providing an additional tool to identify those individuals who are wanted by the police. The literature on ALPR is, to date, fairly limited. Although the technology has been used in various countries across the world, very little research on its utility has been conducted. The following sections will review the history of use of ALPR, discuss the current research project, and consider the known benefits and limitations of the technology. Details: Vancouver, BC: University College of the Fraser Valley, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2007. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 18, 2013 at: http://www.ufv.ca/media/assets/ccjr/publications/ALPR.pdf Year: 2007 Country: Canada URL: http://www.ufv.ca/media/assets/ccjr/publications/ALPR.pdf Shelf Number: 129454 Keywords: Automated License Plate Recognition SystemsAutomobile Theft (Canada)Motor Vehicle TheftPolice Technology |
Author: Plecas, Darryl Title: Why the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team (IMPACT) Summary: Since 2003, auto theft has decreased substantially across Canada (Wallace, 2003; Dauvergne and Turner, 2010). In fact, auto theft has had the largest rate of decline in police-reported crime trends with a decrease of 17,000 auto thefts from 2008 to 2009 (Dauvergne and Turner, 2010). Still, over the past decade, British Columbia, and in particular the city of Surrey, was listed among the jurisdictions with the highest auto theft rates in the country (Wallace, 2003). Specifically, in British Columbia, approximately 40,000 vehicles were stolen in 2003, mostly from the Greater Vancouver area (IMPACT, no date b). However, between 2003 and 2009, the number of vehicles stolen in British Columbia decreased by 55%, a decrease mainly attributed to the targeting of chronic offenders, the courts awarding harsher sentences to convicted auto thieves, and more auto theft prevention tactics employed by the makers and users of motor vehicles (IMPACT, no date c ). One of the main policing strategies to prevent and respond to auto theft in British Columbia has been IMPACT, or the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team. Specialized police auto theft investigators from municipal police departments and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) throughout the province staff the unit. Two main initiatives of relevance to this discussion are (1) the Bait Car program which uses police owned vehicles left in high theft areas as decoys to be stolen by auto thieves and (2) a specialized Enforcement team to target known auto thieves. However, even with the recent successes of police, technological advances to combat auto theft, such as the increasing installation of immobilizers, and the substantial general reductions in auto theft worldwide, there still remains the need for police and academics to understand the motivations behind auto theft and the characteristics of auto thieves. There is debate in the research literature about who commits auto theft and for what reasons. One perspective holds that auto theft in British Columbia is commonly committed by joyriding youth aged 12 to 17 years old (Fleming et al., 1994; Wallace, 2003; Fleming, Brantingham, & Brantingham, 1994). Other researchers contend that auto theft in British Columbia is overwhelmingly committed by adult males with lengthy criminal histories for the purposes of reselling or exporting the stolen cars, using the cars in the commission of another crime, or for transportation purposes (Garis et al., 2007; Zapotichny, 2003; McCormick, Plecas, & Cohen, 2008; Wallace, 2003; IMPACT, no date b). One study examining auto theft and vehicle recovery in British Columbia identified transportation as a leading cause of auto theft in the Fraser Valley (McCormick, Plecas, & Cohen, 2007). Considering this more recent academic research and the various pronouncements of law enforcement agencies throughout the province, it appears that auto theft in British Columbia is much more likely to be committed by seasoned criminals stealing vehicles for transportation or crime commission. These findings are important because auto theft rates continue to decline due to technological advances, but will eventually level off to the point that this offence is committed almost exclusively by offenders to facilitate the commission of other offences, for organized crime, or for transportation. Given this, the role of police initiatives, such as IMPACT, are extremely important in both reducing the success of seasoned or known to police auto thieves and to deter the more 'casual' auto thief. However, this assumption only holds if IMPACT has a measurable effect on the overall auto theft rate by effectively targeting chronic or prolific auto thieves. To assess these assumptions, the authors analyzed data associated to all 260 Bait Car and 450 Enforcement arrests by IMPACT between 2005 and 2008 and compared these cases to a random sample of 75 RCMP auto theft arrests in British Columbia per year over the same time period (n = 300). As demonstrated in Table 1, the demographic profiles and criminal history of auto thieves arrested by IMPACT initiatives were essentially the same as those arrested by regular police activity. Regardless of the method by which an offender was identified and arrested, the typical auto thief tended to be an adult male (approximately 80% of the time) with a lengthy criminal record (approximately 9 years). Moreover, at least half of auto thieves could be classified as repeat, if not chronic, offenders. This finding suggests that, unlike the claim of some researchers that auto theft remains the domain of young joyriders, the typical auto thief in British Columbia is an adult with a long history of diverse criminality. Details: Burnaby, BC, CAN: BC Centre for Social Responsibility and University of the Fraser Valley, Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research, 2014. 6p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 13, 2014 at: http://www.ufv.ca/media/assets/ccjr/reports-and-publications/Why_IMPACT.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Canada URL: http://www.ufv.ca/media/assets/ccjr/reports-and-publications/Why_IMPACT.pdf Shelf Number: 133033 Keywords: Automobile Theft (Canada)JoyridingMotor Vehicle Theft |