Under the police department’s new program, automobile owners give police pre-authorization to track their vehicles using their GPS systems if they are stolen.
“The hope is that this will deter auto theft and make it easier and faster to track stolen vehicles and catch those committing these crimes,” said James Rider, police information specialist with the department.
Automobile owners can fill out a Beat Auto Theft Vehicle Consent Form on the city’s website that asks for information about their vehicles.
Owners are asked to provide the make, model, color and VIN of their cars and trucks and the license plate number.
They also are directed to provide their names, phone numbers, addresses and other details.
Car owners are asked to consent to their vehicles being processed by an evidence technician.
Citizens can request stickers that say the vehicles are being tracked by Beat Auto Theft or they are being tracked and protected by the Dayton Police Department.
If a registered car is stolen, the Dayton Police Department is able to use the consent form to quickly contact GPS providers to track the missing vehicle, Rider said. Police need to be notified that a car is missing to do this.
The GPS information can help assist in the recovery of the vehicle and the apprehension of whoever was responsible for stealing it, Rider said.
“For cars that have GPS tracking capabilities, it allows DPD to access the GPS tracking if the car is reported stole,” he said.
Because of legal requirements, police need owners permission to take evidence from stolen vehicles, he said.
Police have encouraged car owners — especially those who own certain Kia and Hyundai vehicles — to install GPS systems in their vehicles or hide GPS tags or fobs inside.
“We would encourage anyone who has GPS tracking to sign up for this program,” Rider said.
So far this year, Dayton has had about 1,430 auto thefts, which was a 127% increase from the same period in 2022, police data show.
In the first four months of the year, nearly half of the vehicles stolen in Dayton were Kias and Hyundais.
Certain Kia and Hyundia models have security flaws that make them easy to hijack using a basic USB cord.
Many thieves learned how to steal the cars by watching videos on YouTube, Tiktok, Facebook and other social media platforms.
Kia and Hyundai have offered free security software updates that are supposed to help combat theft.
About 4 million Hyundai vehicles were eligible for anti-theft software, and nearly 5 million Kias lacked anti-theft security protections.
This past spring, Hyundai announced that it had partnered with AAA insurers to offer auto insurance to people with Hyundai models that have been targeted by thieves because they lack push-button ignitions and immobilizing anti-theft devices.
Kia and Hyundai owners have been encouraged to use steering-wheel locks and other security devices to make their vehicles more difficult to make off with.
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