ACT Policing encourage private investigations?

Having been on the receiving end of a several crimes now, most of them this year, I agree that police resources are not keeping up with the growth of crime in Canberra. The police do a fantastic job given their resources and their salaries, but it seems that they simply have too much crime to contend with now a days: internet crime, international crime, white collar crime along with the more familiar crimes to us all. The sad fact seems to be that the more professional the criminal organization coupled with their seemingly subtle or difficult to prove crimes, the less likely police will allocate any of their limited resources to it. As a prudent, vigilant person compelled to learn more about crime prevention and detection, I can say from my experience that criminals work in gangs these days, some highly trained and equipped so we need to fight and prevent crime, not on the individual level but as a community..

Hey fgkz, you wrote the book on predictable. BTW, I can only read your responses when I’m not logged in. Once logged in I can read posts without having to read your pathetic dribble. So if you direct a comment to me and I no longer respond, you’ll know why.

It can be difficult to avoid idiots in life, but with the blacklist function, it makes it easier to avoid idiots on this site at least.

I rate your response “P”, for predictable.

Tooks said :

Lookout Smithers said :

I would encourage anyone but Canberra Police to investigate anything criminal. Especially if it is serious. That bunch provide anything but a forensic analysis. Never mind uniformed ones, they are even worse.

I rate that trolling effort a D-. And that’s being extremely generous.

Lookout Smithers said :

I would encourage anyone but Canberra Police to investigate anything criminal. Especially if it is serious. That bunch provide anything but a forensic analysis. Never mind uniformed ones, they are even worse.

I rate that trolling effort a D-. And that’s being extremely generous.

I would encourage anyone but Canberra Police to investigate anything criminal. Especially if it is serious. That bunch provide anything but a forensic analysis. Never mind uniformed ones, they are even worse.

Tooks said :

jcitizen said :

DUB said :

LusciousLiv said :

What I have learnt from this is that reporting the theft of a car to the Police is not enough.
You also need to :
– report the theft to the carpark security operators
– notify the car registration authority, so that the rego will come up as de-registered if it does get scanned by one of the RAPID scanners.
– notify the local police station so they can alert their patrol cars in the area.
(None of the above is done automatically by the central Police after you report the theft. All they do, it seems, it issue job numbers for insurance purposes.)

You could also notify the taxi companies so the can keep their eyes peeled while out on the roads, in case they spot it in use or dumped.

Congrats on the recovery of vehicle!
And thanks for the info.
I too, was surprised to learn that after my car and several others were hit at work car park (broken windows, nothing taken, we prevent the crimes that way), ACTP refused to turn up to take fingerprints (even after question by us “What if it could be someone known to police, if you have the prints already?”).
Instead, we only had incident report numbers for insurance. F–ing lame, if you ask me.
But I will remember the point about notifying RoadsACT, so they de-register car, if it is ever stolen.I thought that ACTP would have shared that info with RUS. 🙁

Its not surprising to me.
I know of a Toyota Landcruiser that was torched in a front yard. The Police actually turned up to the address and The duty seargent, seargent Baker, actually yelled at Victim, while the vehicle was still engulfed in flames, “whos the F–kwit, its not my truck thats burning” and drove off. No crime scene was established. The investigating officer questioned the Victim for several hours untill it was revealed that the car was not insured and at that time he simply closed his notebook and was then not interested at all in investigating the matter further.
Although it was reported to Police previously that threats had been made, by the Victims ex girlfriend to torch the car and the ex had been boasting after the event that she and others had torched it, Police refused to charge her, in fact, they actually then hired her.
Internal Investigations were then involved and concerning the complaint against the duty seargent Baker, their response was that he could not even be questioned about his conduct as he had been transfered to Christmas Island.

So no, im not surprised.

Wow, you have some cool stories. Please, tell us more. Don’t type too loudly though, or masked police will kick down your door and insert another tracking device in your skull.

Reminds me of a time I was pulled over by a cop, who was wearing a balaclava. He told me I was doing 60.5kmh in a 60 zone. When I said ‘okay’ he pointed a gun at my face and said “stop gobbing off, smartarse.” He threatened to rape my cat, before spitting on my windscreen, weeing on my front tyres then running off laughing.

This was in Tuggeranong, right?

jcitizen said :

DUB said :

LusciousLiv said :

What I have learnt from this is that reporting the theft of a car to the Police is not enough.
You also need to :
– report the theft to the carpark security operators
– notify the car registration authority, so that the rego will come up as de-registered if it does get scanned by one of the RAPID scanners.
– notify the local police station so they can alert their patrol cars in the area.
(None of the above is done automatically by the central Police after you report the theft. All they do, it seems, it issue job numbers for insurance purposes.)

You could also notify the taxi companies so the can keep their eyes peeled while out on the roads, in case they spot it in use or dumped.

Congrats on the recovery of vehicle!
And thanks for the info.
I too, was surprised to learn that after my car and several others were hit at work car park (broken windows, nothing taken, we prevent the crimes that way), ACTP refused to turn up to take fingerprints (even after question by us “What if it could be someone known to police, if you have the prints already?”).
Instead, we only had incident report numbers for insurance. F–ing lame, if you ask me.
But I will remember the point about notifying RoadsACT, so they de-register car, if it is ever stolen.I thought that ACTP would have shared that info with RUS. 🙁

Its not surprising to me.
I know of a Toyota Landcruiser that was torched in a front yard. The Police actually turned up to the address and The duty seargent, seargent Baker, actually yelled at Victim, while the vehicle was still engulfed in flames, “whos the F–kwit, its not my truck thats burning” and drove off. No crime scene was established. The investigating officer questioned the Victim for several hours untill it was revealed that the car was not insured and at that time he simply closed his notebook and was then not interested at all in investigating the matter further.
Although it was reported to Police previously that threats had been made, by the Victims ex girlfriend to torch the car and the ex had been boasting after the event that she and others had torched it, Police refused to charge her, in fact, they actually then hired her.
Internal Investigations were then involved and concerning the complaint against the duty seargent Baker, their response was that he could not even be questioned about his conduct as he had been transfered to Christmas Island.

So no, im not surprised.

Wow, you have some cool stories. Please, tell us more. Don’t type too loudly though, or masked police will kick down your door and insert another tracking device in your skull.

Reminds me of a time I was pulled over by a cop, who was wearing a balaclava. He told me I was doing 60.5kmh in a 60 zone. When I said ‘okay’ he pointed a gun at my face and said “stop gobbing off, smartarse.” He threatened to rape my cat, before spitting on my windscreen, weeing on my front tyres then running off laughing.

Not sure why you are complaining. The Police collectively did their job and tracked the vehicle. The information re CCTV footage is barely relevant as you knew the vehicle had left the car park. You did secure the vehicle (took reasonable measures – for insurance purposes) but if you purchase a steering lock when you park an old car at night you could help a repeat of the situation. Prevention being better than cure?

Mental Health Worker said :

“I’m sure policing work would have to be part of that big drop.”

So the original poster and others are lying when they said police didn’t investigate their car thefts?

Huh?? How on earth do you come to the conclusion that me believing that the police had something to do with a reduction in car theft equates to me believing that the OP is lying about the police response when their car was stolen? That just makes no sense at all. Quite clearly, cars are still stolen in the ACT, but a less than enthusiastic response to investigating a theft does not mean that the police do no work towards reducing the incidence of theft. That’s just logic 101.

Or on what basis are you “sure”? Trust?

Yes, in fact that is the basis of my belief. Whether a targeted effort to stop car thieves, or a serial offender or two finally getting some time behind bars, I believe that our police force does actually try to prevent property crime. On what basis do you question my assumption?

Let me predict the future. When car (or any) crime rates increase ACT Policing will blame someone or something else. When they fall, they will take the credit. It’s what all police agencies (and government agencies) do, and their claims need to be treated with a certain amount of scepticism.

The fall from 2009-10 to 2010-11 is so large as to be extremely suspicious. And it will be most interesting to see if it is maintained.

I’ll admit that the reduction in numbers is dramatic, and there’s the possibility that there’s an error in the figures. And yes, it will be interesting to see whether the figure is maintained. As for the issue of credit, you seem to be willing to give us a pretty good practical example of that. If the numbers are in fact correct, will you admit that police work is a part of the reduction, or will you continue to question their role?

This is Criminology 101, and clearly no-one here has studied it.

Including yourself, apparently.

By the way, I didn’t say car crime rates aren’t reducing (the statement “Car theft rates will never reduce unless the police actively investigate them” is obviously rhetorical and anyway its tense refers to the future, not the past or present) – anyone familiar with what happened in WA when immobilisers became basically compulsory (for new cars, and all used cars sold) would know that it’s really easy to reduce car crime. And now many thefts of cars throughout Australia are conducted by first breaking into the house and stealing the keys.

This just makes no sense at all. There’s nothing rhetorical about that statement, unless what you actually mean by that is that you’d rather people didn’t challenge your claims. It’s as rhetorical as me saying ‘I’m sure policing work would have to be part of that big drop’. Which is to say, not really rhetorical at all.

As for your statement being the future tense, that makes even less sense. Did the past just not happen? Or are you choosing to wipe the slate clean, and you’re only interested in what happens from now onwards?

Here endeth the PhD thesis. And people called me ignorant. Ha ha.

MHW

If the shoe fits…

jcitizen said :

DUB said :

LusciousLiv said :

What I have learnt from this is that reporting the theft of a car to the Police is not enough.
You also need to :
– report the theft to the carpark security operators
– notify the car registration authority, so that the rego will come up as de-registered if it does get scanned by one of the RAPID scanners.
– notify the local police station so they can alert their patrol cars in the area.
(None of the above is done automatically by the central Police after you report the theft. All they do, it seems, it issue job numbers for insurance purposes.)

You could also notify the taxi companies so the can keep their eyes peeled while out on the roads, in case they spot it in use or dumped.

Congrats on the recovery of vehicle!
And thanks for the info.
I too, was surprised to learn that after my car and several others were hit at work car park (broken windows, nothing taken, we prevent the crimes that way), ACTP refused to turn up to take fingerprints (even after question by us “What if it could be someone known to police, if you have the prints already?”).
Instead, we only had incident report numbers for insurance. F–ing lame, if you ask me.
But I will remember the point about notifying RoadsACT, so they de-register car, if it is ever stolen.I thought that ACTP would have shared that info with RUS. 🙁

Its not surprising to me.
I know of a Toyota Landcruiser that was torched in a front yard. The Police actually turned up to the address and The duty seargent, seargent Baker, actually yelled at Victim, while the vehicle was still engulfed in flames, “whos the F–kwit, its not my truck thats burning” and drove off. No crime scene was established. The investigating officer questioned the Victim for several hours untill it was revealed that the car was not insured and at that time he simply closed his notebook and was then not interested at all in investigating the matter further.
Although it was reported to Police previously that threats had been made, by the Victims ex girlfriend to torch the car and the ex had been boasting after the event that she and others had torched it, Police refused to charge her, in fact, they actually then hired her.
Internal Investigations were then involved and concerning the complaint against the duty seargent Baker, their response was that he could not even be questioned about his conduct as he had been transfered to Christmas Island.

So no, im not surprised.

While i am usually one to prop ACT Police, i have to agree that sometimes they don’t look like they actually give 2 shits about the crime that has upset you. I have had someone come to my home say to my face ” im gonna F your car up” then 4 am the next morning the people did it, i call the police – they didn’t show up for 2 days.
Another time, a friend of mine calls me at 5 am, she lived 2 streets away and an ex boyfriend of hers kicked open her front door beat her with 2 of his male mates and leaves her in the front yard bleeding badly. When i got there i called the police, they didn’t even show up – didn’t take a report, didn’t do a damn thing.
I like ACT Police, they have always been there in a serious situation when i needed help – but yes sometimes they should try come across sympathetic even if they don’t feel any for the person.

fgzk said :

Gunmen are so hard to please.

Not me.

DUB said :

LusciousLiv said :

What I have learnt from this is that reporting the theft of a car to the Police is not enough.
You also need to :
– report the theft to the carpark security operators
– notify the car registration authority, so that the rego will come up as de-registered if it does get scanned by one of the RAPID scanners.
– notify the local police station so they can alert their patrol cars in the area.
(None of the above is done automatically by the central Police after you report the theft. All they do, it seems, it issue job numbers for insurance purposes.)

You could also notify the taxi companies so the can keep their eyes peeled while out on the roads, in case they spot it in use or dumped.

Congrats on the recovery of vehicle!
And thanks for the info.
I too, was surprised to learn that after my car and several others were hit at work car park (broken windows, nothing taken, we prevent the crimes that way), ACTP refused to turn up to take fingerprints (even after question by us “What if it could be someone known to police, if you have the prints already?”).
Instead, we only had incident report numbers for insurance. F–ing lame, if you ask me.
But I will remember the point about notifying RoadsACT, so they de-register car, if it is ever stolen.I thought that ACTP would have shared that info with RUS. 🙁

Its not surprising to me.
I know of a Toyota Landcruiser that was torched in a front yard. The Police actually turned up to the address and The duty seargent, seargent Baker, actually yelled at Victim, while the vehicle was still engulfed in flames, “whos the F–kwit, its not my truck thats burning” and drove off. No crime scene was established. The investigating officer questioned the Victim for several hours untill it was revealed that the car was not insured and at that time he simply closed his notebook and was then not interested at all in investigating the matter further.
Although it was reported to Police previously that threats had been made, by the Victims ex girlfriend to torch the car and the ex had been boasting after the event that she and others had torched it, Police refused to charge her, in fact, they actually then hired her.
Internal Investigations were then involved and concerning the complaint against the duty seargent Baker, their response was that he could not even be questioned about his conduct as he had been transfered to Christmas Island.

So no, im not surprised.

buzz819 said :

sepi said :

This exact situation happened to my work colleague, except in Civic carpark and civic police. It seems ACt police’s main job is to hand out ‘job numbers’ for insurance purposes. I’m surprised the insurance companies don’t start complaining = all you have ot do to get a job number for theft int he act is a quick phone call to act police – the chances of them actually investigating property crime are zero.

In Adelaide a friend’s car was broken into in their driveway and the police turned up and took finderprints! That would never happen here.

My car was stolen, recovered and had the full forensic top to bottom…. in the ACT as well…

I bet it was insured! That is the only time that they will be bothered. Unless your a mate or relative.

Classified said :

parle said :

p1 said :

So you are saying I should blame the owner after the car is stolen, but only if it were easy?

well yes p1, if the owner of the car didn’t take a reasonable effort to secure the car, like if the owner drove the vehicle to a rape house where it could be raped and handed the rape keys over to the rapist then I’d say yes, it deserved to get stolen.

Was the vehicle locked? Then the owner secured the vehicle. The person who stole it is a scumbag criminal, simple as that.

Thats right.
What are the cops getting paid for if they wont protect the innocent.
The car was locked. I dont think the victim aided and abbetted the scumbag theif. Theres no such thing as a vehicle chastity belt.
The community expects that the Police investigate and take action, not the victim.

LusciousLiv said :

Is it too much to ask people to assist Police in investigating the totally preventable theft of your car. Get a steering wheel lock and imobiliser fitted to the next car you own.

1) I thought I was preventing theft as best I could by locking it and parking it in a ‘secure’ gated carpark.

2) And yes, I think it IS too much to ask people to assist Police by ringing Security offices and agencies, since a request from a general public member is much less likely to get the prompt cooperation of their staff than a request from a Police officer hopefully would.

3) And if I AM expected to assist Policy with the investigation, it would have been extremely helpful if the Police had let me know that at the time I made the report, so that there wasn’t a 2 day lag between the theft and someone taking a gander at the security tape. In that 2 days the perpetrators had time to leave the ACT and get a sufficient distance away that the car is now probably a financial write-off due to towing costs.

4) I am not about to pay for an immobiliser on our inexpensive, old second car that is worth less than $1k on the market. But just because I own an older model vehicle (that is unfortunately easier to break into and start) does not mean tgat it is my fault it got stolen. And I do think it is my right to expect the Police to do something about it when it is stolen – particularly if there is an evident source of additional information at hand.

And if, indeed,

+1 Well said

The_Bulldog said :

Resources are thin. I’m not advocating the respoonse of the duty officer, but my advice would be to write to your local council-member (or whatever it is they call themselves in the Legislative Assembly). These guys are ultimately responsible for how much money gets thrown at ACT Policing.

IMHO less public art and more police on the streets would be a good thing.

maybe if the AFP could organise themselves better then they wouldnt be asking the taxpayers to give them more money to simply do their job.
Im talking about the seven million dollars that they wasted paying rent on their vacant building in Barton, when it was reported that the then AFP Commisioner Keelty, who stated, at the time that” this would not have any impact on his members in providing the day to day duties, in serving the Canberra Community”.
This was reported on several TV stations at the time, when he was intervied by them.

“I’m sure policing work would have to be part of that big drop.”

So the original poster and others are lying when they said police didn’t investigate their car thefts?

Or on what basis are you “sure”? Trust?

Let me predict the future. When car (or any) crime rates increase ACT Policing will blame someone or something else. When they fall, they will take the credit. It’s what all police agencies (and government agencies) do, and their claims need to be treated with a certain amount of scepticism.

The fall from 2009-10 to 2010-11 is so large as to be extremely suspicious. And it will be most interesting to see if it is maintained.

This is Criminology 101, and clearly no-one here has studied it.

By the way, I didn’t say car crime rates aren’t reducing (the statement “Car theft rates will never reduce unless the police actively investigate them” is obviously rhetorical and anyway its tense refers to the future, not the past or present) – anyone familiar with what happened in WA when immobilisers became basically compulsory (for new cars, and all used cars sold) would know that it’s really easy to reduce car crime. And now many thefts of cars throughout Australia are conducted by first breaking into the house and stealing the keys.

Here endeth the PhD thesis. And people called me ignorant. Ha ha.

MHW

Gunmen are so hard to please.

fgzk said :

Tooks said :

Mental health worker, maybe you should focus on improving the abysmal mental health service than demonstrating your ignorance on this topic.

Stop passing the buck Tooks. It is the police that are on the font line of mental health services. Ignorance is bliss.

Passing the buck doesn’t mean what you think it means, apparently.

parle said :

p1 said :

So you are saying I should blame the owner after the car is stolen, but only if it were easy?

well yes p1, if the owner of the car didn’t take a reasonable effort to secure the car, like if the owner drove the vehicle to a rape house where it could be raped and handed the rape keys over to the rapist then I’d say yes, it deserved to get stolen.

Was the vehicle locked? Then the owner secured the vehicle. The person who stole it is a scumbag criminal, simple as that.

p1 said :

So you are saying I should blame the owner after the car is stolen, but only if it were easy?

well yes p1, if the owner of the car didn’t take a reasonable effort to secure the car, like if the owner drove the vehicle to a rape house where it could be raped and handed the rape keys over to the rapist then I’d say yes, it deserved to get stolen.

parle said :

nice, the strawman rape card with cliché underscore.

Blaming the owner of the vehicle for the vehicle being stolen is like blaming a person for leaving his $10,000 on the passenger seat.

How could someone take it?, it’s not their $10K…

So you are saying I should blame the victim after I rape her, but only if it was easy?

Classified said :

Blaming the owner of the vehicle for the vehicle being stolen is like blaming a women who was raped for wearing a short skirt.

There’s a reason we call them criminals.

nice, the strawman rape card with cliché underscore.

Blaming the owner of the vehicle for the vehicle being stolen is like blaming a person for leaving his $10,000 on the passenger seat.

How could someone take it?, it’s not their $10K…

thatsnotme said :

Mental Health Worker said :

Car theft rates will never reduce unless the police actively investigate them and catch some of the offenders without a dangerous but exciting car chase.

MHW

Car theft rates are reducing. Have a look at http://ncars.on.net/docs/quick/aus.pdf

Thefts in the ACT reduced from 2,096 in 2009/2010, to 1,155 in 2010/2011.

I’m sure part of that reduction is down to fewer older, easily stolen cars being on the road, but given the figures have been hovering around 2,000 thefts per year since 2006, before dropping by almost 1,000 in one year, there has to be something else going on. I’m sure policing work would have to be part of that big drop.

Death of Mully?

Special G said :

Vicpol highway cars probably are fitted with RAPID. In which case they drive along and the plate pinged on the system informing them it was stolen.

The person you spoke with is most likely a staff member not a Police officer. 131444 is for Police attendance, 62567777 is the general number.

Is it too much to ask people to assist Police in investigating the totally preventable theft of your car. Get a steering wheel lock and imobiliser fitted to the next car you own.

If the RAPID on the VIC cars is the same as the ACT ones, it wouldnt pick up details on interstate regsitered cars

Jethro said :

“Mr. Simpson, how do you respond to the charges that petty vandalism such as graffiti is down eighty percent, while heavy sack beatings are up a shocking nine hundred percent?”

Aw, you can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that.

thatsnotme said :

Mental Health Worker said :

Car theft rates will never reduce unless the police actively investigate them and catch some of the offenders without a dangerous but exciting car chase.

MHW

Car theft rates are reducing. Have a look at http://ncars.on.net/docs/quick/aus.pdf

Thefts in the ACT reduced from 2,096 in 2009/2010, to 1,155 in 2010/2011.

I’m sure part of that reduction is down to fewer older, easily stolen cars being on the road, but given the figures have been hovering around 2,000 thefts per year since 2006, before dropping by almost 1,000 in one year, there has to be something else going on. I’m sure policing work would have to be part of that big drop.

Crime rates increase and decrease in accordance with economic factors more than anything.

thatsnotme said :

Mental Health Worker said :

Car theft rates will never reduce unless the police actively investigate them and catch some of the offenders without a dangerous but exciting car chase.

MHW

Car theft rates are reducing. Have a look at http://ncars.on.net/docs/quick/aus.pdf

Thefts in the ACT reduced from 2,096 in 2009/2010, to 1,155 in 2010/2011.

I’m sure part of that reduction is down to fewer older, easily stolen cars being on the road, but given the figures have been hovering around 2,000 thefts per year since 2006, before dropping by almost 1,000 in one year, there has to be something else going on. I’m sure policing work would have to be part of that big drop.

Call me cynical but I’m very suspicious of that 2011 number … I await the correction some time later when ACT Policing or RUS says “oops, there was a problem with our systems” or “clerical error” or something. I just don’t believe that car theft would decline by half in one year.

Tooks said :

Mental health worker, maybe you should focus on improving the abysmal mental health service than demonstrating your ignorance on this topic.

Stop passing the buck Tooks. It is the police that are on the font line of mental health services. Ignorance is bliss.

Mental health worker, maybe you should focus on improving the abysmal mental health service than demonstrating your ignorance on this topic.

Mental Health Worker said :

Car theft rates will never reduce unless the police actively investigate them and catch some of the offenders without a dangerous but exciting car chase.

MHW

Car theft rates are reducing. Have a look at http://ncars.on.net/docs/quick/aus.pdf

Thefts in the ACT reduced from 2,096 in 2009/2010, to 1,155 in 2010/2011.

I’m sure part of that reduction is down to fewer older, easily stolen cars being on the road, but given the figures have been hovering around 2,000 thefts per year since 2006, before dropping by almost 1,000 in one year, there has to be something else going on. I’m sure policing work would have to be part of that big drop.

fgzk said :

Would there be room for a volunteer organisation to investigate minor crimes?

“Mr. Simpson, how do you respond to the charges that petty vandalism such as graffiti is down eighty percent, while heavy sack beatings are up a shocking nine hundred percent?”

Would there be room for a volunteer organisation to investigate minor crimes? Collect video footage? Set up surveillance operations to collect evidence in crime hot spots. Rather than people roaming the streets enforcing law and order, could we have a group that compiled information on criminal behavior and published it on line.

To take the in-car camera one step further could we not lease a camera system that was calibrated to detect road infringements and supply that information to the government for a small fee. If I had one I could just drive around making money all day from road works speed limits. Even just a small fee of twenty dollars per infringement, could really pay off. The technology exists today to do it cheaply. Win win.

parle said :

and yes, this thief was only an idiot with a screwdriver, it is your fault it was stolen.

Blaming the owner of the vehicle for the vehicle being stolen is like blaming a women who was raped for wearing a short skirt.

There’s a reason we call them criminals.

Hang on, the police justify car chases of people failing to stop, on the grounds the car may be stolen and about to be involved in a serious crime. But they won’t follow up on cars that are KNOWN to be stolen, and may be used in a serious crime? Sounds like the AFP want to have their cake and eat it too…

Try this case http://www.courts.act.gov.au/resources/attachments/Pavicevic.htm for an example of where the investigation of car thefts appeared to have been done only AFTER the commission of an extremely serious offence. Perhaps it could have been prevented if the investigation had been conducted immediately after the car thefts.

Car theft rates will never reduce unless the police actively investigate them and catch some of the offenders without a dangerous but exciting car chase.

MHW

LusciousLiv said :

4) I am not about to pay for an immobiliser on our inexpensive, old second car that is worth less than $1k on the market. But just because I own an older model vehicle (that is unfortunately easier to break into and start) does not mean tgat it is my fault it got stolen. ,

steering wheel lock – $45 from Super cheap

Kill switch – a few dollars? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUnUNt_q8T4

I dunno, it doesn’t seem to me like the police really could have done a whole lot more that would have been of any use here. There aren’t an unlimited number of police available to exhaustively pursue every crime committed, covering all the angles looking for that vital clue to bust the ‘old car stolen from Woden’ case right open.

Police need to allocate their resources in the same way as a hospital emergency department needs to triage. Investigate an assault, or try to track down an old stolen car? In the time it’d have taken them to get footage that showed nothing more than your car being driven out of the car park with some indistinct blobs inside of it, your car’s already been driven out of Canberra (or dumped and set on fire, or stripped for parts, or used to rob a petrol station, etc etc). And the investigations that have taken all that time reveal the blindingly obvious – ‘yes, your car was driven out of the carpark, by a person, or persons. Where did they go? No idea. Who are they? Sorry, CCTV footage is crappy, we can’t tell. But we can confirm that someone definitely drove your car out of the carpark, and you haven’t just been looking on the wrong level – so that’s something!’

The response you got may not have been the most diplomatic, but it’s likely true. If every crime was fully investigated, we need to get a whole lot more police in the ACT. That costs a lot of money, and ultimately, we’re the ones who pay – and we’ll have to pay more than we already do. There may be plenty of arguments for expanding our police force – I just don’t think ‘so we can go all CSI on the case of the missing old banger’ is a really good one.

Congrats on the recovery of vehicle!
And thanks for the info.
I too, was surprised to learn that after my car and several others were hit at work car park (broken windows, nothing taken, we prevent the crimes that way), ACTP refused to turn up to take fingerprints (even after question by us “What if it could be someone known to police, if you have the prints already?”).
Instead, we only had incident report numbers for insurance. F–ing lame, if you ask me.
But I will remember the point about notifying RoadsACT, so they de-register car, if it is ever stolen.I thought that ACTP would have shared that info with RUS. 🙁

When my son’s car was stolen, my partner went straight to the scrap metal recycler’s and it was there. Turned out a tow truck driver had taken it. When we reported the theft to Police, my partner gave them the towy’s business card (obtained from the scrap metal dealer) and Police followed it up. Turned out the towy was doing this all over ACT/Queanbeyan. Good thing to bear in mind if you happen to break down on the side of the road. Don’t leave your car there for too long.

LusciousLiv said :

4) I am not about to pay for an immobiliser on our inexpensive, old second car that is worth less than $1k on the market. But just because I own an older model vehicle (that is unfortunately easier to break into and start) does not mean tgat it is my fault it got stolen. And I do think it is my right to expect the Police to do something about it when it is stolen – particularly if there is an evident source of additional information at hand.

And if, indeed,

An immobiliser is about $250, the theft of this car would’ve cost the community thousands, so who pays for that?

What if your easily steal-able car was involved in a more serious crime that resulted in the death of others?, would you feel responsible?

and yes, this thief was only an idiot with a screwdriver, it is your fault it was stolen.

I feel sorry for the children in the story, having such scumbag parents.

buzz819 said :

My car was stolen, recovered and had the full forensic top to bottom…. in the ACT as well…

Mine too – Police were on the scene to take details within an hour, got in contact weeks later when they noticed footage of the car being used in a robbery, and recovered the car 6 weeks later in the thieving shitbag’s driveway – also got a conviction around 14 months later (which meant I got my insurance excess back).

sepi said :

This exact situation happened to my work colleague, except in Civic carpark and civic police. It seems ACt police’s main job is to hand out ‘job numbers’ for insurance purposes. I’m surprised the insurance companies don’t start complaining = all you have ot do to get a job number for theft int he act is a quick phone call to act police – the chances of them actually investigating property crime are zero.

In Adelaide a friend’s car was broken into in their driveway and the police turned up and took finderprints! That would never happen here.

Next time you feel like writing an idiotic comment, have a think first. Then think again. Then hit ‘preview’, then read what you wrote, think about it some more, then hit delete.

pro = before – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pro-
epi = after – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/epi-

buzz819 said :

sepi said :

This exact situation happened to my work colleague, except in Civic carpark and civic police. It seems ACt police’s main job is to hand out ‘job numbers’ for insurance purposes. I’m surprised the insurance companies don’t start complaining = all you have ot do to get a job number for theft int he act is a quick phone call to act police – the chances of them actually investigating property crime are zero.

In Adelaide a friend’s car was broken into in their driveway and the police turned up and took finderprints! That would never happen here.

My car was stolen, recovered and had the full forensic top to bottom…. in the ACT as well…

I’ve had the police send the nice forensic lady out to take fingerprints off a car that had only had its wheels stolen.

On the other hand, every other time I’ve tried to report a crime with them they’ve shown no interest. I guess it’s hard to motivate yourself to spend many hours investigating a crime only to see the criminal receive the usual pampering at the hands of the completely dysfunctional criminal justice system which values criminals’ rights well above those of their victims.

OP, what do you think CCTV footage from the car park will show? They have cameras at the entry/exit points only. All it will show is your vehicle leaving the carpark, nothing more. You will not be able to identify an offender from the footage.

It’s important to note that when you call 131444 you don’t speak to a police officer at a station. You speak to a trained civilian at an operations centre who decides whether the job warrants dispatching a police patrol to attend based on a priority system.

Police do not normally attend reports of vehicle damage. Do you know how many of these incidents occur every day? Do you expect to tie up half the ACT police force each day taking reports in person of vehicle damage when it can be done quickly and easily over the phone?

Seriously, what do you expect police to do if a rock (for example) has been thrown through your car window? Fingerprint the rock? This isn’t TV people, in real life there are limits to what can and can’t be done. CSI has a lot to answer for. The only thing that can be done in 99/100 cases is to give you a job number so you can make an insurance claim. Of course if you see someone in the process of damaging a vehicle, that’s a different story.

If you want police to attend every incident I suggest you lobby the ACT government to double or triple the ACT policing budget because that’s what would be needed.

LusciousLiv said :

What I have learnt from this is that reporting the theft of a car to the Police is not enough.
You also need to :
– report the theft to the carpark security operators
– notify the car registration authority, so that the rego will come up as de-registered if it does get scanned by one of the RAPID scanners.
– notify the local police station so they can alert their patrol cars in the area.
(None of the above is done automatically by the central Police after you report the theft. All they do, it seems, it issue job numbers for insurance purposes.)

You could also notify the taxi companies so the can keep their eyes peeled while out on the roads, in case they spot it in use or dumped.

Congrats on the recovery of vehicle!
And thanks for the info.
I too, was surprised to learn that after my car and several others were hit at work car park (broken windows, nothing taken, we prevent the crimes that way), ACTP refused to turn up to take fingerprints (even after question by us “What if it could be someone known to police, if you have the prints already?”).
Instead, we only had incident report numbers for insurance. F–ing lame, if you ask me.
But I will remember the point about notifying RoadsACT, so they de-register car, if it is ever stolen.I thought that ACTP would have shared that info with RUS. 🙁

What I have learnt from this is that reporting the theft of a car to the Police is not enough.
You also need to :
– report the theft to the carpark security operators
– notify the car registration authority, so that the rego will come up as de-registered if it does get scanned by one of the RAPID scanners.
– notify the local police station so they can alert their patrol cars in the area.
(None of the above is done automatically by the central Police after you report the theft. All they do, it seems, it issue job numbers for insurance purposes.)

You could also notify the taxi companies so the can keep their eyes peeled while out on the roads, in case they spot it in use or dumped.

Is it too much to ask people to assist Police in investigating the totally preventable theft of your car. Get a steering wheel lock and imobiliser fitted to the next car you own.

1) I thought I was preventing theft as best I could by locking it and parking it in a ‘secure’ gated carpark.

2) And yes, I think it IS too much to ask people to assist Police by ringing Security offices and agencies, since a request from a general public member is much less likely to get the prompt cooperation of their staff than a request from a Police officer hopefully would.

3) And if I AM expected to assist Policy with the investigation, it would have been extremely helpful if the Police had let me know that at the time I made the report, so that there wasn’t a 2 day lag between the theft and someone taking a gander at the security tape. In that 2 days the perpetrators had time to leave the ACT and get a sufficient distance away that the car is now probably a financial write-off due to towing costs.

4) I am not about to pay for an immobiliser on our inexpensive, old second car that is worth less than $1k on the market. But just because I own an older model vehicle (that is unfortunately easier to break into and start) does not mean tgat it is my fault it got stolen. And I do think it is my right to expect the Police to do something about it when it is stolen – particularly if there is an evident source of additional information at hand.

And if, indeed,

Special G said :

Is it too much to ask people to assist Police in investigating the totally preventable theft of your car.

Is it police policy nowadays to render assistance in inverse proportion to the preventability of a crime?

I agree with the principle to an extent, but if that’s the model that the cops are operating under then they should probably tell people or there’re bound to be complaints.

Vicpol highway cars probably are fitted with RAPID. In which case they drive along and the plate pinged on the system informing them it was stolen.

The person you spoke with is most likely a staff member not a Police officer. 131444 is for Police attendance, 62567777 is the general number.

Is it too much to ask people to assist Police in investigating the totally preventable theft of your car. Get a steering wheel lock and imobiliser fitted to the next car you own.

sepi said :

This exact situation happened to my work colleague, except in Civic carpark and civic police. It seems ACt police’s main job is to hand out ‘job numbers’ for insurance purposes. I’m surprised the insurance companies don’t start complaining = all you have ot do to get a job number for theft int he act is a quick phone call to act police – the chances of them actually investigating property crime are zero.

In Adelaide a friend’s car was broken into in their driveway and the police turned up and took finderprints! That would never happen here.

My car was stolen, recovered and had the full forensic top to bottom…. in the ACT as well…

This exact situation happened to my work colleague, except in Civic carpark and civic police. It seems ACt police’s main job is to hand out ‘job numbers’ for insurance purposes. I’m surprised the insurance companies don’t start complaining = all you have ot do to get a job number for theft int he act is a quick phone call to act police – the chances of them actually investigating property crime are zero.

In Adelaide a friend’s car was broken into in their driveway and the police turned up and took finderprints! That would never happen here.

White Commodore?

Resources are thin. I’m not advocating the respoonse of the duty officer, but my advice would be to write to your local council-member (or whatever it is they call themselves in the Legislative Assembly). These guys are ultimately responsible for how much money gets thrown at ACT Policing.

IMHO less public art and more police on the streets would be a good thing.