Police across the region say they are starting to curb a recent spike in car theft by using a slew of unconventional tactics — like shooting GPS darts, Batmobile-style, at stolen cars, and creating traffic jams to ensnare thieves on the run.
The NYPD’s new tactics aim to track stolen cars as they move across the boroughs and even state lines, where officials say they’re used to commit other crimes and sometimes put on container ships at the Port of Newark, where they’re sent to Africa and resold. This effort is also intended to help police recover cars while avoiding potentially deadly, and oft-criticized, high-speed car chases.
Auto theft incidents in New York City increased every year from 2018 to 2023, mirroring national trends. More than 15,000 cars were reported stolen last year in the five boroughs, nearly triple the number from five years before, but still dramatically low compared with previous decades, when anti-theft devices like the Club were ubiquitous. This year so far, they are down about 10% over the same period last year, police data show.
Jim Bueermann, president of the think tank Future Policing and a former police chief in San Bernardino, California, said car theft is a tricky issue for police. On the one hand, a car is just a “piece of tin” and not worth putting lives in danger over. On the other hand, people often depend on their cars for their livelihoods, making them far more important than something like a television. “Technology holds the promise of solving this problem,” he said.
He said no existing solutions are perfect, and many have drawbacks. Still, he said, innovation is the best way forward. “The good thing is that they’re trying new things,” he said.
Here are some of the high-tech and controversial ways police say they’re bringing down the numbers.
Police-made traffic jams
On Staten Island, where there’s been the sharpest drop in car thefts, NYPD officers are deliberately creating traffic jams to box in a car that…
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