The latest vehicle recovery tech is helping UK police forces locate stolen cars, corner thieves and trump organised crime groups
Analysis of data from the House of Commons has revealed that just 2% of car thefts end in a suspect being caught and more than 70% of thefts are going unsolved across England and Wales*. Tracker Network (UK) Limited is reminding motorists that the technology exists to vastly improve these statistics: 95% of stolen vehicles that are fitted with Tracker devices are quickly recovered and returned to their rightful owner.
Tracker works closely with UK police forces to track, locate and recover stolen vehicles fitted with Tracker devices, often with other ‘non-fitted’ vehicles found at the same location. More than 2,000 police patrol vehicles and all police helicopters are fitted with Tracker detection units, which has led to the Police successfully recovering almost 9 in 10 stolen vehicles fitted with a Tracker.
What’s more, the Tracker Mesh Network plays a crucial role in covertly locating stolen vehicles. When a vehicle fitted with a Tracker SVR unit passes another vehicle that is equipped with a Tracker device which has been activated as a result of a theft, the unique Mesh Network is alerted. It listens and automatically sends a silent signal to Tracker’s headquarters and the police, providing a pinpoint location of the stolen asset – further closing the net on thieves.
In 2022 joint operations between local police forces and Tracker not only recovered tracked vehicles, but also uncovered 44 illegal chop shops. They are on track to significantly increase that number in 2023 after thwarting 11 chop shops in the first two months of this year alone. Together, Tracker and the police recover thousands of vehicles with Trackers fitted each year, and alongside these, hundreds of untracked vehicles and stolen parts worth millions of pounds that wouldn’t have been detected if it hadn’t been for a Tracker device leading police to their secret location.
“A lack of parts for new car manufacturing in recent years has driven a surge of sales in the second-hand car market and generated a higher demand and price for used spare parts. Criminals have been quick to cash in, stealing to order and taking vehicles to ‘chop shops’ where valuable parts such as catalytic converters, batteries, engines and steering wheels are harvested and sold on as spare parts,” commented Clive Wain, Head of Police Liaison at Tracker. “The good news is that UK police forces regularly disrupt significant organised car crime groups, when recovering stolen vehicles fitted with Tracker units.”
Motorists seeking to legitimately protect their vehicle and avoid losing out to thieves and chop shops should invest in Tracker devices. While they may not stop the theft, they will vastly improve the likelihood of the police finding the vehicle and apprehending the criminals responsible. Devices are available for all types of vehicles and at a variety of price points, helping motorists join forces to protect their vehicles and others against modern thieves – the more vehicles are fitted with the latest Tracker technology, the quicker police can successfully recover vehicles and disrupt organised crime groups.
