New approach for stolen car reports expected to save time for victims and officers
DALLAS - Inside Dallas' 911 center, police are taking a new approach to reports of car thefts.
More than 18,000 cars were reported stolen in Dallas last year, nearly twice as many as just five years ago. With the police force shrinking, it takes the city's officers an average of 12 a half hours to respond in person to these auto thefts.
So, the department has begun using officers on light duty to take the reports through a teleconferencing app, cutting those hours-long wait times to about 40 minutes.
In almost three weeks, the department has handled 379 incidents this way, estimating it's saved patrol officers 682 work hours by doing so.
In an interview this week Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said while auto thefts themselves aren't violent crimes, they are often connected to violent crimes.
"The majority of our vehicles that are stolen are used to commit other violent crimes," said Garcia. "More now than there was back when I started 32 years ago. There's more of a nexus between a stolen car and violent crime."
As the department has lost officers, he says it's looked for ways to make the most of those it has.
"It can be doing less, but it's also looking at different ways to do things, using technology to do things," said Garcia. "Trying not just to think outside the box, but act outside the box."
The sooner auto theft reports are filed, the sooner officers on the street can identify a stolen vehicle. If you're a victim, this not only increases your chances of getting your car back quickly; it also alerts officers when they might be approaching a criminal.