Car crime

Reducing vehicle crime across the county is one of the priorities outlined in the Local Area Agreement document within the ‘Safer and Stronger Communities’ element. Theft of and theft from vehicles are measures contained within National Indicator 16, to reduce the rate of serious acquisitive crime by three per cent by March 2011.

Each of the eight Community Safety Partnerships is working towards this target reduction and has its own local targets to tackle car crime. These targets are in the local partnership plans.

Community safety funding has been allocated to carry out projects to tackle car crime hotspots. Initiatives include:

Permanent signs in public and private car parks reminding drivers not to leave items in their vehicles
Audible warning devices in public car parks with a spoken warning advising drivers not to leave any items in their vehicles
Postcards delivered in high vehicle crime areas giving residents tips to reduce vehicle crime
Provision of metal poster frames and Home Office car crime posters for public places

Community Safety Partnerships have working groups to identify actions to reduce vehicle crime in their local areas. Some partnerships work together to achieve this.

Examples of actions are:

Researching hotspot areas and which vehicles are most at risk
Using CCTV and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to target offenders
Campaigns to raise awareness with the public
Targeting new drivers with advice on improving vehicle security
Free etching in hotspot car parks
Working with car park owners to encourage work towards the national ‘Safer Car Parks’ scheme

Also on our website

Security in car parks