Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Cleveland Police have recently been using decoy vehicles in an attempt to catch car thieves. The Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate have assessed the effectiveness of this policy in reducing the incidence of car crime in the area and published the results of their studies in the report, “Assessing the Police Use of Decoy Vehicles”. The report also lists the results of a national survey of how decoy vehicles are used.

Title: Assessing the police use of decoy vehicles
Author: Joanna Sallybanks
Series: Police Research Series Paper 137
Number of pages: 53
Date published: January 2001

In decoy operations, a vehicle of the type thought most likely to be stolen is placed in a known crime hotspot. The vehicle will be fitted with an anti-intruder device. These may be a fuel cut-off switch, automatically locking windows and doors, tracking device, parts marking, surveillance or a combination of these.

In Cleveland, extensive use has been made of decoy Ford Transit vans to combat theft of a specific model. The report gives a detailed breakdown of how the operation was conducted in Cleveland and the results it effected.

The report at a glance:

• 70% of police forces interviewed had used decoy vehicles

• Issues such as health and safety implications, fear of agent provocateur accusations, resource issues and lack of access to suitable vehicles deterred some forces from using decoy vehicles

• Stockton Division of Cleveland Police saw a 44% reduction in vehicle theft and a 60% reduction in Ford Transit van theft between August 1995 and December 1998

• There was a significant short-term reduction in vehicle theft in the quarter following the operation and during the media campaign that took place the following year

• The recovery rate of Transit vans in Stockton increased from 34% in 1996 to 66% in 1998

Download the Home Office Briefing Note PDF 69KB

Download the full Home Office Report PDF 197KB