Crime Prevention - Motor Vehicles - Assignment Example

Motor vehicle Crime Introduction According to Higgins (1997) motor vehicle crime involves the stealing of or from motor vehicles and involves the acquisition of a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent. In Australia, motor vehicle crimes are on the increase; motor vehicle crime leads when this vice is compared with other crimes in North Brisbane. Motor vehicle offences also include other traffic related offences like entry with intent which account for the highest increase of the vice (Work In Progress 2010). This crime has in the past caused great concern among the motor vehicle owners and in this regard, the government introduced the National Motor Vehicle Theft Taskforce in 1996. The taskforce investigates and analyses the trend of the crime all over the country with its main focus on the importation and exportation of stolen vehicles. This paper analyses the extent of the crime around Australia especially in the New South Wales where motor vehicle crimes occur on a daily basis. Strategies discussed to prevent further spread include technological-based strategies like the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS), and situational based strategies that include among others, the essence of carrying your keys along after leaving the car. Situation Over the years, there has been a considerable increase in the number of motor vehicle related offences. The main issue under focus is the increased motor vehicle crime rate in North Brisbane, New South Wales. According to the State Postcode, there are numerous cases of motor vehicle theft and stealing of motor vehicle parts than any other crimes being committed across the Australian state. According to the reported cases of motor vehicle related crimes, most of these crimes take place in the urban areas than they do in the rural areas (Office Of Crime Statistics 2001). One factual reason for this is that the city dwellers posses many cars than the rural people, since rural life is characterised by poor infrastructure and lack of interest in such priorities. To start with, in January this year, there was a reported case of illegal use of a motor vehicle which exists in the state postcode offences. During the same month at 48 Beor Street, there was yet another case that entails unlawful use of motor vehicles. At 49 Beor Street, another crime was reported this time it was stealing from a vehicle or entering with intent in somebody’s vehicle. On the same day at 6 Galena Street there was also a case reported in which the perpetrator committed a crime of illegal entry with intent and stole from the exposed vehicles. Using the above statistics, there is substantial evidence that the North Brisbane area leads the other provinces in terms of motor vehicle crime, most crimes are opportunistic, and that reporting to the authorities would help curb this vice. Reporting would among others consider issues such as insurance and identification of the driver’s details of registration; most drivers who commit motor vehicle crimes usually lack vital traffic details. The crime rates have completely evolved with the criminals acquiring knowledge with regard to recent technologies and using this knowledge to disable or destroy tracking and alarm systems (ABCI 1989). The rates of break-ins with intent have been on the rise in the New South Wales to such an extent that special laws have been devised to curb this rising trend. Analysis There are different forms of motor vehicle thefts that include among others, stealing of or from motor vehicles. Stealing of motor vehicles is the taking of a motor vehicle without the consent of the owner and the stealing from motor vehicles is the act of taking of motor vehicle parts and objects without the consent of the owner (Watson n.d). These motor related crimes have been on the increase in Australia for a long time. The theft rates of motor vehicles surpass all other major crimes and there are reports concerning motor vehicle thefts on a daily basis. Motor vehicle crimes include several categories that include opportunistic thefts, which occur when the driver leaves the keys of the vehicle in the car and the engine running. It mostly occurs when the driver intends to warm up the car and ignites the engine leaving the car keys in the ignition. The reason why the crime is opportunistic is that the thief does not premeditate on committing the crime but seizes the opportunity on recognising a weak-point. According to NRMA (1996) this opportunistic crime is usually put under amateur crimes, which are the most committed crimes in the New South Wales, accounting for 50% of the motor vehicle crimes. Another type of motor vehicle crime is professional theft at which the thief specialises wholly on stealing of or from the cars. Mostly, the thieves premeditate on the act and they target specific models in specific locations. The thieves operate in gangs and they mostly have their own garage where they modify the cars to prevent identification. After this they usually export the vehicle to other countries or sell them to other motor-vehicle dealers. This type of crime is mostly accompanied by violence since force is often used to acquire the stolen cars. Fraudulent theft is another form of motor vehicle theft and it involves the acquiring of cars and motor vehicle parts through fake payment schemes. In this case, the buyer uses fake cheques and illegal cash transfer at which the seller releases the vehicle without getting the amount agreed upon. The crime is also committed when there is impersonation of the buyer who receives the vehicle under somebody else’s identity. It occurs when the sellers steal the identification documents and other identification devices immediately after clearing the vehicles’ payments and proceed to collect the car. Carjacking is another type of car crime that involves the forcefully acquisition of a vehicle by assaulting and dismounting the driver from the vehicle. The thieves usually wait and stage a distraction for the driver to slow down after which they assault and dismount the driver from the steering position. In other cases, the carjacker holds the driver hostage demanding that he/she drives up to a certain destination where the carjacker either sets the driver free or kills him/her. Other types of motor vehicle crimes are the petty crimes. These crimes involve the stealing of motor vehicles for a short duration due to certain reasons. This type of crime also involves the stealing of small motor parts like the side mirrors, indicator lights and other small inexpensive parts form the motor vehicles. In addition, some thieves, like bank robbers steal vehicles so as to get away from the police and later abandon the vehicles as soon as they get themselves out of danger. Thieves use several ways to commit these crimes. One of the most known strategies is that thieves first bump against the car they intend to steal to check out if the car is fitted with a car alarm. If the owner has not installed a functioning alarm, the thief gets an ideal chance to steal away the car. However, if the car is fitted with an alarm, the thief formulates a strategy to make the alarm dysfunctional. This trend is very common especially in carjacking whereby the carjackers use another chase vehicle when pursuing their victims. Another technique is the breaking the windows of a parked car in order to gain entry into a locked door. Although this process occurs in secretive places, some thieves practise it even in open places. These breakages are very common especially in North Brisbane where the reported cases rise each day. However, the crime rates remain as estimated values since not all owners report on the crimes. One of the biggest reasons that prevent people from reporting attack cases is lack of legal supporting documents related to the vehicle. Since some people possess vehicles without legal registration documents, the fear of colliding with the authorities exceeds the essence of reporting the crime. In other cases, some of the stolen vehicles lack insurance and thereby making the owners fear reporting the crime. Prevention To formulate a prevention strategy, the first assignment is finding out how the thieves perpetrate these crimes. These prevention strategies can be grouped into two forms: one that focuses on the elimination of situational motor vehicle crimes and another that focuses on the use of technology to counter the vice. Due to the noise associated with car alarms, many people put them off and forget to turn the on when they are away. This in return gives the thieves an opportunity to break in without being detected by the owner (Pardilla n.d). The best strategy to counter this is the installation of pager-connected alarms that usually notify the owner of any interference without causing too much noise to the public. These alarms contain motion-sensitive technologies that detect any interference on the vehicle and transmit these impulses to the pager which the owner can carry wherever he/she goes. On the issue of window breakage by the thieves to gain entry into a locked vehicle, the owners should take the mandate of removing all valuable stuff from clear view to ensure no valuables can be seen from the outside. For example, jewellery and money should always be in a position that is not visible from the outside. This reduces the urge of a potential thief to break-in so as to get these valuable stuffs. In addition, the vehicle owner should carry along all these valuable stuffs from the car to prevent any possible break-ins. The owner has the chance of reducing vehicle thefts by using a starter disable switch. This switch increases the difficulty of starting the vehicle’s motion even after locking the steering wheel. The starter disable switch locks the car’s ability to move even if the thief manages to unlock the steering wheel. Another prevention strategy is making sure that there are no loose wires connecting to the alarm that the thieves can use to deactivate the alarm. This calls for the installation of the alarms by a professional other than using inexperienced personnel. In addition, the alarms’ specifications speak volumes about a certain brand (Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision 1995). By concealing the alarms specifications, the owner protects the vehicle from potential thieves who are in a position to use these details to formulate a way of deactivating the alarm. To prevent opportunistic thieves, the owner should never leave the keys in the ignition especially if the engine is running. The owner should always ensure that the keys are not in the ignition and should always ensure that the doors are shut. This prevents the thieves from gaining entry into an unattended vehicle. Parking the vehicle in the garage or behind a locked gate is one of the safest strategies against vehicle theft. This is because most reported theft cases proceed in the parking areas and therefore, by parking in the garages the thieves have no control of the vehicle’s vicinity. Monitoring motion inside closed parking lounges is easier than monitoring a vehicle parked across the streets (Work In Progress 2010). This is because CCTVs are easy to install in these parking lounges as compared to an open parking lot. Another possible solution to motor vehicle theft is parking in the driveways. Through this strategy, the alarm possesses anti-accidental activations and thereby gives the owner a chance to realise when a real crime is being committed. In addition, since professional thieves target specific models, the owner should be aware of the vulnerability of the vehicle and try to conceal it as possible deep into the driveways. Installation of a car alarm is very important for both the car and the parking lot. Alarms in the parking lot prevent the thieves from getting access to the vehicle’s location and increases the owner’s action time. The owner gets to know when there is an intrusion in the parking lounge and is in a position to prevent the thief from getting away with the car. Although alarms do not prevent a thief from getting away with the vehicle, it alerts the owner or anybody else on the crime being committed and an eventual notification to the relevant authorities. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is another effective counter on vehicle thefts. This is a type of security system that uses a tracking technology to track the whereabouts of a stolen vehicle. A tracking device fixed into the vehicle connects to a computer system in a central location from where all the vehicle movements can be monitored (Clerke & Harris 1992). . The owner gets into an agreement with these service providers and in case of theft, the owner notifies the tracking company who use the device to locate the exact position of the vehicle. In most cases, the tracking devices are in concealed areas to prevent the thieves from interfering with them and preventing the possibilities of tracking the vehicle. To prevent prior knowledge by the thief on the availability of a tracking device, the owner should not label the car with the GPS sticker. If an experienced thief realises the presence of a tracking device, chances of disabling the device is high and this makes the tracking process very difficult. Other than knowing the exact location of the vehicle, the tracking devices follow-up on an existing cartel of car thieves and using one GPS enabled car as bait and using trail police and other law enforcing officials are ways that can be used to locate the exact position the vehicle is hidden. The technology used by the tracking company immobilises the stolen vehicle by shifting from manual steering to automatic steering; staff of the tracking company use specific codes to immobilise the vehicle. Another technology in use is the immobilisation of the ignition or the engine using certain devices, which operate inside the vehicle and the owner immobilises the vehicle’s engine hindering it from starting up until there is deactivation. The strategy is very effective especially if an abandoned ignited vehicle is heating up and the owner is not present or when he/she isn’t near the vehicle. Internal lock shields prevent lock jemmying by potential thieves who jemmy the locks form the outside. Laminated glass makes breakage to be a harder task and in some cases makes it completely impossible. The thieves who break windows so as to steal from a vehicle or get access to the keys to steal the vehicle fail in such cases since the laminated glass is hard when compared to the standard glasses, which break with the application of the slightest force. The process of installing new technology into an old vehicle is both expensive and uneconomical. For example, harnessing the security systems by installing new devices into an already old vehicle makes the whole process tiresome as well as money-consuming. This is because the installation process increases the need to install other related parts to support the new technology. Educating the motor vehicle owners on the security details of each car models is very important. It results into the buyer making informed choices while purchasing or deciding on the best and the most secure security strategies to formulate. For example if a certain motor vehicle model is more prone to the crime than other models due to manufacturing flaws, the owners are notified to know the best means of dealing with the weakness as well as acquiring more information on the security details. Having the consumers purchasing more secure vehicles, there is the saving of the extra charges incurred by the motor vehicle owners in trying to improve on security. Other than having consumers invest in the installation of security devices like the GPS and other tracking devices on an already poorly manufactured vehicle, the owner gets the chance to purchase an already secure vehicle as per the safety specifications. The vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) is a unique number, given to any vehicle buyer and prevents the remodelling and modifications to the vehicle. Most motor vehicle thieves modify all their stolen vehicles by repainting and changing the external designs and later sell these vehicles to other buyers while still using the same identification numbers. For this reason, using the information from the buyer concerning the details of the seller can enable the authorities to trace the thief as opposed to scenarios whereby the vehicles operate without the identification numbers. In this case, the thief steals the vehicle, modifies on the external design and resells the vehicle to a willing buyer without considering the danger of a follow up. Disadvantages of technological prevention Despite being the most effective, these technologically related prevention strategies have several fallbacks. To start with, the installation and maintaining the technologies in a vehicle is very expensive. This is partly due to the cost of acquiring these devices with some exceeding hundreds and thousands of dollars. These investments come into view as illogical considering the fact that some prices of installation are almost equivalent to the cost of acquiring another car; this factor can make people to distance themselves from these technologies and instead opt to go for other crime prevention techniques. Other than the cost of installation, some GPS providers insist on the display of their products logo as an advertisement strategy. This issue makes the thief pre informed on the existence of a tracking device, its make and electronic diagrams that the thief can use to deactivate or to destroy the installed device making the whole tracking process difficult (Geason & Wilson 1990). The installation of laminated glass to prevent break-ins interferes with the issue of owner’s safety. This is because, in case of an accident, the standard glass breaks and gives in to the impact preventing serious injury to the driver. On the other hand, the laminated glass hardly breaks even in an accident scenario unless excessive force is used and this failure of the glass to give in to impact can cause severe injuries to the driver compared to cases when the standard glass is used in a vehicle. Therefore, despite the security of the car owner, safety issues are as important as security issues. The use of sophisticated alarms to safeguard the vehicle is both uneconomical and expensive. Disadvantages of situational techniques These types of techniques deal with the elimination of any opportunistic chances from the thieves. These opportunities involve the leaving of the keys in the ignition and leaving the doors unlocked. By taking up safety, measures like those that include parking in enclosed areas and garages, the possibilities of filled up parking lots are overlooked as well as lack of enough money to afford daily parking in secure places. Conclusion The Australian motor vehicle crime rates have been on the increase as each day goes by. These crimes range from stealing of petty car parts and valuables from the vehicles to stealing vehicles through forceful acquisition or stealing them in the owner’s absence. These motor vehicle crimes can only end if the owners receive more information on the best ways to prevent their cars from being part of these crimes. Technology is also a major remedy to the vice and it can operate in different scenarios and in different forms ranging from cameras in parking lounges to Global Positioning Systems (GPS) that track the location of the stolen vehicle; some of them have remote controlled access to the engine functions causing total immobility to the vehicle’s engine. If implemented, all these strategies coupled with proper understanding of how each owner’s vehicle is prone to these activities can therefore mitigate motor vehicle crimes in Australia. References Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence (ABCI) 1989, Organised Motor Vehicle Theft in Australia, ABCI, Canberra Clarke, R.V. & Harris, P.M. 1992, “Auto theft and its prevention” in Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, ed. M. Tonry, vol. 16, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Geason, S. & Wilson, P. 1990, Preventing Car Theft & Crime in Car Parks, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra. Higgins, K. (1997) Exploring Motor Vehicle Theft in Australia, viewed 29 August 2010, < http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/DCC/ahamdan/docs/Exploring%20motor%20vehicle%20t heft%20in%20Australia.pdf.> NRMA 1996, Car Theft in Eastern Australia 1995, NRMA, Sydney. Office Of Crime Statistics 2001, Fact Sheet: Motor Vehicle Theft Targets, Viewed 29 August 2010, < http://www.ocsar.sa.gov.au/docs/fact_sheets/F2.pdf> Pardilla, C n.d, Top 10 Ways to Steal a Car (and how to defend against them), Viewed 29 August 2010, < http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/top10/103271/article.html> Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision 1995, Report on Government Service Provision, Industry Commission, Melbourne. Watson, A. P n.d, What Is Car Theft? Viewed 29 August 2010, < http://www.ehow.com/about_5061331_car-theft.html> Work In Progress 2010, Overview: Reducing the Volume of Vehicle Theft, Viewed 29 August 2010, < http://www.carsafe.com.au/t_05_b.html#1> Read More