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By Greg Bartlett

Have you ever wondered how police stop a series of auto thefts? Say your neighborhood has been experiencing an increase of automobile thefts recently. How can the police be certain that they find and stop the thieves – and that their bait car won’t just be another vehicle stolen, but that it will actually help them locate the stolen cars?

The answer is with GPS tracking. Police use cars equipped with GPS tracking to trap car thieves. The GPS systems will notify police about the car’s location, speed, and many can also shut off the car if and when it is stolen.

For instance, in Fairfax County, Virginia, about 1,300 cars were stolen last year. But when police started using bait cars to trap auto thieves by placing them in strategic areas, usually areas that had high rates of auto theft, they were able to arrest a number of suspects and have already seen a drop in auto theft rates.

The Fairfax County GPS tracking system allows police to be notified if the bait car’s door is opened and if the car’s ignition is started. It can even tell them how many people are inside the car, and police can use it to remotely shut off the engine when the vehicle is stolen. When that happens, the doors automatically lock and won’t open, allowing police to head out and make an arrest without involving a chase – they know exactly where the vehicle is and they know it won’t be moving anywhere.

Most GPS systems that police use in bait cars provide similar options to the one in Fairfax County. Police often combine this with hidden cameras, giving them extra evidence to use when they use the system to locate the car with the suspects trapped inside.

Using bait cars with GPS monitoring allows police to locate auto thieves more safely than actively pursing them. Chasing a suspect can often result in a high-speed pursuit, which endangers pedestrians, other drivers, the police officers, and the suspect. If the police can already locate the car without chasing it, and can even in some cases shut it off and lock the doors, the need for dangerous chases is reduced.

Police use GPS tracking in bait cars to follow auto thieves and capture them, helping to reduce vehicular theft. Bait cars can make society safer by helping capture thieves and reducing high-speed chases.