Mayor Johnston announces new auto theft prevention plan

DENVER — Mayor Mike Johnston and Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas announced Thursday a new comprehensive strategy for fighting auto thefts in Denver.

The city said this strategy will expand existing efforts by Denver Police (DPD) and ensure that Denver’s auto theft response remains coordinated and effective.

“Around 30 cars a day are stolen in our city. This is a huge impact on people’s lives, especially families with only one vehicle,” said Johnston. “We are taking crime seriously and are proud to announce a comprehensive approach to auto thefts throughout Denver.”

The mayor’s new plan includes: 

• Moving the Denver Auto Theft Team (DATT) within DPD from pilot to permanent, dedicating a team of detectives to solely focus on auto theft.
• Building a citywide network of automated license plate recognition (ALPR) devices that will allow police to easily locate vehicles involved in crimes.
• Hosting community events to retrofit frequently stolen vehicle models with anti-theft software.
• Continue to encourage Denverites to take part in DPD’s successful DenverTrack program, which works with vehicles’ GPS systems to track stolen vehicles in real-time.
• Invest in recruiting a diverse police force to restore DPD to full authorized strength and increase patrol capacity to respond to crime.

The DATT team, which was launched in March 2023 as a pilot, consists of an investigative sergeant and detectives solely focused on tracking down and arresting auto thieves. They played an active role in the investigations and arrests of the prolific auto thieves targeting Denver International Airport in 2023.

>Video above aired Jan. 5: Fewer cars stolen in Colorado than previous years

“Auto thefts have significant negative impacts on victims, and stolen cars are often used in the commission of more crimes, which is why the city and Denver Police are committed to addressing the issue through a multi-faceted, proactive approach to preventing auto thefts, quickly recovering stolen vehicles and hold car thieves accountable,” said Thomas.

The new ALPR network will be installed at approximately 70 intersections throughout the city. The system, which only captures an image of the back of the vehicle and does not film the driver or others in the vehicle, will be utilized to locate vehicles involved in hit-and-run crashes and vehicles associated with a crime – such as homicides, Amber/Silver Alerts and vehicles reported stolen, the city said. 

According to the release, the new system takes images of the back of the vehicle, license plate, make, model and color, and inputs those details into a secure database that can only be accessed by police. DPD investigators must provide their reason to search the database for the license plate. The data is encrypted, and after 30 days, data not tied to a specific investigation is automatically deleted.

According to numbers released by the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority (CATPA) this month, a big decrease in car thefts was seen at the end of 2023. In November 2023, car thefts went down to 11, compared to 39 in November 2022 and 61 vehicle thefts in October 2023. 

As for the exceptionally high number of stolen cars during the 2023 summer months, Cale Gould at CATPA attributes a wide majority of those to 13 individuals who were later indicted for alleged motor vehicle thefts and burglaries. 

The drop in thefts also happens to coincide with several security improvements that were made by DIA to mitigate auto thefts. 

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