Traffic jams, AirTags and GPS darts are all ways NY, NJ police are trying to stop car theft

Published Mar 25, 2024 at 6:01 a.m. ET

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Published Mar 25, 2024 at 6:01 a.m. ET

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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.

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 license plate readers identified as stolen. It’s a tactic known as a “mitigation plan.”

“The idea,” said NYPD Assistant Chief Joseph Gulotta, the commanding officer on Staten Island, “is to get that traffic slowed down enough so we can get the car we’re looking for stuck in traffic.”

“What the mitigation plan calls for is closing down the bridges, shutting down parts of the highway, and then slowing that traffic down so there’s no place for the cars to go,” he said.

The bridges in and out of Staten Island present a choke point to cut off cars that try to speed away. “If traffic’s really flowing, it may be a closure to the bridge to slow the traffic,” he said. “If it’s heavy traffic, it might just be closing one lane so there’s no place for that car. So each time it’s a little different.”

Once the traffic jam’s in place, the NYPD aviation unit guides officers' patrol cars toward the alleged car thief.

Gulotta said the traffic jam that commuters experience is “quick.”

A spokesperson for the NYPD did not answer questions about how often traffic-causing mitigation plans are used.

The Old Westbury Police Department on Long Island has outfitted four cruisers with mounted units that shoot GPS-loaded foam projectiles onto the rear of cars suspected of being stolen or having been involved in criminal activity, said department Chief Stuart Cameron. The darts have heat-activated glue that affixes to the vehicles, he said. Units for four patrol cars cost the village $45,000.

Old Westbury Police Chief Stuart Cameron shows where GPS darts are fired from on police cruisers.

NYPD officials are leasing hand-held devices from the company, StarChase, that accomplish the same thing.

The point is to track the vehicles without chasing them.

“Police pursuits are very much discouraged,” said Cameron. “The statistics just speak for themselves…. suspects are getting hurt, officers are getting hurt, and even members of the public are getting killed and injured in these pursuits.”

Old Westbury Police Chief Stuart Cameron shows off the button officers can press to fire a GPS dart from their police cruisers.

Area police departments, including Old Westbury, are using tire deflation devices called Stop Sticks that are laid out on the road in the path of oncoming vehicles. The Palisades Interstate Police used such a device to stop three suspects in a car stolen in New Jersey that crossed into New York in January, the Englewood Daily Voice reported.

An app created by New Jersey police and now used in New York City enables officers from different departments to securely communicate about auto thefts and track cars live right after they’re reported stolen, said Gulotta, the commanding officer from Staten Island.

In New York City, a 24-hour tracking team put in place last August communicates information about stolen vehicles to all borough police commands, in addition to the aviation unit and other municipal police forces, via a police radio channel known as CityWide 4, according to Gulotta. From August of last year through February, 182 cars were recovered through this new system, leading to 114 arrests, he said.

Mayor Eric Adams announced last year that he is distributing 500 Apple AirTags to drivers of Hyundais and Kias, which have been thieves have increasingly targeted following a social media trend showing how the cars can be jump-started with a USB cord and screwdriver.

Automated license plate readers have been used for at least 15 years to locate vehicles reported stolen and deploy the NYPD aviation unit to track them.

But the readers aren't just posted in stationary locations these days; the NYPD added them to police cruisers in every precinct that patrol around the clock last year.

Secaucus, New Jersey is installing these readers at every one of the town's entrances and exits to detect car thieves and track them down in other jurisdictions. “Instead of taking days to track down suspect vehicles, we can [now] probably have a suspect vehicle in an hour or less,” Secaucus Police Chief Dennis Miller told Gothamist.

Some civil liberties say license plate readers are representative of the slippery slope of surveillance.

“We have created this massive database of where New Yorkers are that can be used by the NYPD for any purpose, at any time, without any guardrails,” said Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the nonprofit group the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.

Cahn said more data is needed to show that the technology is actually affecting car theft rates. “This is part of the problem when we don’t have evidence-based procurement, but instead just have the NYPD arguing from anecdote,” he said.

“They shouldn’t get wholesale access to where every car is in the city,” he said.

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Matt Katz reports on public safety, focusing on decarceration and the equitable enforcement of laws. He has investigated abuse in ICE detention and covered former N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, sharing a Peabody Award for coverage of Bridgegate and writing a book, "American Governor: Chris Christie's Bridge to Redemption." Once upon a time, he wrote a syndicated dating column. Got a tip? Email mkatz@wnyc.org or Signal 609-217-8355.

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