It’s not just that cars have become more difficult to steal. Thieves also have a bait car problem.
Over the last 10 years, police across the region have been deploying and adding to their fleets of cars that shut down and trap thieves inside when they’re stolen. Just last month, Arlington County police, which started their bait car program in 2002, made their 100th arrest. The department credits bait cars with helping cut car thefts by 56 percent since the program started. Convictions of thieves caught inside are running at 100 percent.
Montgomery County police started their program in 2004, but it wasn’t heavily used until last year when Arlington County helped them overcome equipment glitches, Montgomery County police Sgt. Gerry McFarland said.
Now, bait cars are always being used, but they’re not constantly under surveillance, he said. It can take up to 20 minutes from when a suspect breaks into a bait car until he is apprehended, he said. That’s why the cars can’t be deployed near the D.C. border since Montgomery County police can’t chase after them.
If a bait car does go into the District, Montgomery County police can only call the city’s emergency center and “hope for the best,” McFarland said.
And sometimes, no one takes the bait, he said.
On a cold day in January 2008, police left a bait car running in a parking garage and it remained there until officers called off the sting.
