Posted on: Tuesday, May 18, 2004

EDITORIAL
Car thieves deserve to encounter decoys

Whoever came up with the idea of using decoy vehicles to catch car thieves should win a medal. This is the kind of creative out-of-the-box thinking that our law enforcement can benefit from.

Here's how the "bait program" works, according to a report by Advertiser staff writer Curtis Lum:

As a rule, a vehicle of the type most popular to car thieves is placed in a known crime hotspot. That decoy car is equipped with a tracking device as well as a remote-controlled "kill switch" that shuts off the car engine.

If the car is stolen, police can track its movements and shut off the engine at will. This prevents dangerous high-speed chases.

So far, the bait car has been parked at the Ala Moana Center, Waikiki, Makiki and Pearl City. Other cars will be added to the effort.

Though defense lawyers may argue otherwise, we do not see this as a form of entrapment. If someone steals a car without enticement and is tracked down because of technology, they must face the consequences.

More importantly, when word gets around that bait vehicles are out there, thieves will hopefully come to the realization that no vehicle is safe to steal.

Auto theft is among the greatest crime concerns on O'ahu. Police estimate that between 500 and 600 cars are stolen a month.

In time, the decoy system may drastically reduce those numbers. Anything that makes a car thief think twice about breaking into a vehicle is worth pursuing.