Allison Hanes: There are many keys to combating car theft in Montreal

Content of the article

A car is stolen every five minutes in Canada, and it seems like everyone knows someone affected by the country's crime wave.

My neighbor's Honda CR-V—the most popular model for theft—was swiped from a parking lot at the Fairview Pointe-Claire Mall a few months ago.

Content of the article

People regularly post doorbell dash cam footage on local social media groups showing thieves driving off the road in their cars and asking the community to be on the lookout if they're temporarily holed up nearby.

Content of the article

The media is full of funny stories about owners using tracking devices to find lost trucks – sometimes halfway across the globe. An unlucky woman drove her Toyota RAV4 with her mother's ashes from a hotel parking lot in Montreal. It went public in hopes of recovering scraps, but only 37 percent of the vehicles driven in Quebec were recovered.

Anecdotes aside, statistics show an alarming increase in car thefts over the past few years, especially in these parts. According to a study by the Équité Association's insurance crime and fraud prevention team, the number of stolen vehicles in Quebec increased by a staggering 57.9 percent between 2021 and 2023. In Ontario, it was 48.2 percent. According to the federal government, car thefts in Toronto alone have increased 300 percent since 2015, with 9,600 thefts in 2022.

Politicians, police, insurance companies and automakers will come together Thursday in Ottawa at a summit the federal government is calling to discuss ways to combat this growing phenomenon.

Content of the article

Content of the article

Car theft may be a property crime, but it is not victimless. As insurance premiums reach a record $1.2 billion in 2022, consumers will have to absorb higher premiums. Most popular car models can be difficult to replace if they are backordered, adding to the inconvenience.

Fear of having their vehicles targeted also made people feel unsafe.

And with good reason: organized crime is suspected of making a lucrative trade in stolen Canadian vehicles that are shipped overseas and resold abroad. Street gang members often commit robberies and use the proceeds to buy illegal weapons. Takeaways are often used in other crimes.

The Port of Montreal has long been the point of departure for scrap tires destined for distant shores, and the low recovery rate of stolen vehicles in Quebec and Ontario is increasing the speed of this well-established pipeline.

Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poulevre turned the port of Montreal into the backdrop of one of his photos this week during a three-city tour aimed at cutting corners in front of the Liberals ahead of a summit on the issue. Standing in front of cargo containers, Poillevre called for more scanners to detect stolen vehicles and more border agents to inspect the more than 700,000 shipments that leave Montreal each year.

Content of the article

At a similar event held a day earlier in Brampton, Ont., he called for tougher punishments for the guilty. Polievre also tried to blame Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. But petty politics cannot solve the problem.

Fighting criminals is only part of the solution. Making it harder to steal cars is also important.

These handy keyless ignitions and handy on-board computers make many new cars vulnerable to tech-savvy thieves who use these systems by cloning new fobs or even capturing the signals they emit from inside the home. Forget carjacking is the name of the game.

Not surprisingly, 75 percent of cars poached in Quebec and 68 percent of those in Ontario are new models built after 2017. Who knew an old car key could be such an effective deterrent?

While insurance companies require owners of some popular vehicles to install expensive anti-theft systems, automakers should help prevent car break-ins by making it easier.

Better coordination between local, provincial and national law enforcement agencies is needed to investigate and destroy vehicles before thieves put them in shipping containers, which are harder to detect.

The Montreal police is creating a special unit, reports La Presse. It must work with police officers from Laval to Toronto, from the Surete du Quebec to the Ontario Provincial Police, from the RCMP to the Canada Border Services Agency to crack down on crime that crosses borders. These human rights groups require resources commensurate with a crisis on a national scale.

There are several keys to eliminating car theft. All means should be used urgently.

By the time you're reading this, another Canadian car may have been stolen.

[email protected]

Content of the article

Content of the article