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Minneapolis cops use bait program to nab car thieves
Police put out a car that has GPS and a hidden video camera and just wait for someone to steal it. The conviction rate is nearly 100 percent -- because it's tough to beat a case with your face on tape, and often your voice, as you steal a car. [Link updated.] (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
August 28, 2006 | Permalink
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Comments
I love this kind of stuff. Deterence is key, and this is similar to the intersections where cameras have been put up: within days the number of red-light-runners drops dramatically. Once word gets around that there are traps set, they'll at least move their operations out of town. The problem isn't exactly solved, but at least it's not your problem any more.
Unfortunately for Virginians, if this were here, it would be shot down as a violation of civil rights and would have to end, just like our red-light cameras had to come down. It seems criminals have more rights than victims these days, at least in Virginia.
Posted by: Soo | Aug 28, 2006 6:35:11 AM
Those thieves got Punk'd!
Posted by: JDubs | Aug 28, 2006 6:36:53 AM
So a guy does this in 2004, and he is free to do it again in 2006?
Why not just kill them the first time? Every violent criminal begins as a nonviolent criminal. And most of the nonviolent ones keep doing it regardless of the penalties.
Posted by: SwarthyTroll | Aug 28, 2006 6:50:37 AM
You can actually watch the video's of people in the bait cars as they are stealing them, it's kind of funny really:
http://www.baitcar.com/
Posted by: Andrea | Aug 28, 2006 7:19:53 AM
This article seems to have been removed from the Star Tribune site.
Sounds like a great plan, though!
Posted by: Zcott | Aug 28, 2006 10:05:33 AM
badl url?
story's now at
http://www.startribune.com/467/story/637918.html
Posted by: | Aug 28, 2006 11:03:32 AM
The link on the summary has been updated, too.
Posted by: Jim Romenesko | Aug 28, 2006 11:05:51 AM
The city of Vancouver has been using this tactic for some time. It's been sufficiently successful that they also started using "bait boats" last month.
Posted by: Johnny Assay | Aug 28, 2006 2:35:23 PM
That's entrapment! If the car wasn't there they wouldn't have stolen it! I don't mind people putting cameras in tehir own cars but when the police do it then it's ridiculous and illegal.
Of and to the person who said
"Why not just kill them the first time?"
That's equally stupid. Yes I'm sure you'd love to see the person who stole your car shot but what about when you are pulled over for speeding? Or accidentaly run a red light? Would you be willing to die for that?
Posted by: AKALucifer | Aug 29, 2006 7:36:20 AM
Hey AKALucifer, read a dictionary before you make claims.
Main Entry: en·trap·ment
Function: noun
1 : the action or process of entrapping
2 : the state or condition of being entrapped; also : the affirmative defense of having been entrapped by a government agent (as an officer or informant) —see also PREDISPOSE
NOTE: Entrapment is available as a defense only when an agent of the state or federal government has provided the encouragement or inducement. This defense is sometimes allowed in administrative proceedings (as for the revocation of a license to practice medicine) as well as criminal proceedings. In order to establish entrapment, the defendant has the burden of proving either that he or she would not have committed the crime but for the undue persuasion or fraud of the government agent, or that the encouragement was such that it created a risk that persons not inclined to commit the crime would commit it, depending on the jurisdiction. When entrapment is pleaded, evidence (as character evidence) regarding the defendant that might otherwise have been excluded is allowed to be admitted.
So you're saying that just having a car outside drives people to steal them? Can you explain how it is illegal for police to monitor a car and arrest the people that try to steal it?
Posted by: Cameltoes | Aug 29, 2006 12:39:33 PM
It's not entrapment. If the cops left the car running, with the doors open, in a known high-crime area, it still would not be entrapment.
But, if an undercover cop walked up to someone and said, "Hey, that car's running and no one's around, go steal it," then THAT would be entrapment.
Posted by: oxhead | Aug 29, 2006 1:19:41 PM
"That's entrapment! If the car wasn't there they wouldn't have stolen it! I don't mind people putting cameras in tehir own cars but when the police do it then it's ridiculous and illegal."
If the car wasn't there, they wouldn't have stolen it??? How about they should have just left it there because...oh, I don't know...it DOESN'T BELONG TO THEM? That statement just doesn't make alot of sense to me.
Posted by: pnwgal | Aug 29, 2006 2:20:49 PM
