OPP Det. says ‘there’s no silver bullet’ to combat car thefts as technology advances

Let’s bring in Scott Wade he’s a detective with the Ontario provincial police forces organized crime enforcement Bureau Scott good to see you appreciate you taking some time today to come on CTV thanks very much for having me hey how big of an operation was this give us your

Take well it was actually quite a large operation involving a large number of Partners uh I won’t say the first of its kind but definitely something new uh where Ontario uh found a need to come to Quebec and assist our partners uh to Combat on of them you know we hear about

Let’s say 600 Vehicles sounds like a lot but as you know you know there are tens of thousands of vehicles stolen every year I’m looking at some of the stats and you know there were more than 100,000 Vehicles stolen in Canada in 2022 alone so this is just a tiny

Fraction it’s good news but obviously you know kind of a drop in the bucket right well I wouldn’t say that what I’d say is that it’s part of a whole of society approach and just one of the methods that we’re using to combat Auto um this is basically kind of an end to

Stream interdiction uh we’re looking Upstream we’re looking at all methods to combat auto theft so this is just one of the things we’re doing um but a very successful partnership how bad is the port of Montreal for this kind of thing well I mean the ports in Canada we

We have a few different ports but they’re traditionally directed towards certain areas of the world where they’re shipping to so the port of Montreal is one of the destinations for illegal export of uh stolen vehicles but it’s also a huge hub for legal export of all

Types of goods yeah and I guess that’s where it gets tricky right most of the things in those shipping containers are totally kosher and legit and legal but of course then you see these videos of of you know the law enforcement including the op you know opening up these shipping containers and finding

These cars stacked inside so you know how do you go about inspecting enough shipping containers to catch enough of these stolen cars well we have to start at with the intelligence that’s derived from our police Partners throughout Ontario and across Canada to identify uh the crime groups that are doing this illegal

Export then we work with our partners at cbsa to hold the containers and then search them when it’s safe to do so so it’s it’s a part of a a big process a huge collaboration between partners um but it’s been very successful Yeah you mentioned cbsa for people who are not

Aware of the anacronym Canada Border Services Agency you know some people might think Scott well you know why can’t they just build a big x-ray device you know and every single shipping container gets put through the X-ray device and if we see cars in there well

Now we know there might be something to look into it’s obviously not that easy is it no I wish it were that easy um you know we need Commerce to free to flow freely um you know x-rays right now don’t have that kind of Technology um

But I can tell you that not just police but all of society are working on um different opportunities and techniques that we could use to detect um stolen vehicles leaving Canada but again that’s just the one place where they’re leaving we need to stop them before they’re

Stolen um before they get on their highways and cause you know danger to our public and our police officers so it’s just it’s part of a whole strategy to combat on but um it’s a big one I wish it was as easy as that there’s no Silver Bullet there’s no guaranteed uh

Thing we need everybody to work together um from society to police to private Partners couple of other questions first of all you know we’ve been tracking this story for months and months now this surge in carf why do you think it’s going on why why this big jump in the numbers

Scott well it it is a big jump but it’s been happening over years so if we go back far enough uh you know pre 2006 2007 the numbers were almost the same as they are now we experienced uh several years where they dropped and then now one of the biggest reasons

Is well two biggest things technology has resulted in easier ways to organize crime to steal cars technology that makes it easier for the public to access their car get information about it start it remotely warm it up that also presents opportunities for organized crime to steal your car but then also

It’s the global demand for I in pickup trucks luxury vehicles that Europe and you know Africa and different areas overseas can’t accommodate so then they go to the illegal Market people might also think that you know it’s sort of the old school model that this is you

Know a car thief operating by himself that’s sort of a very outdated concept isn’t it this is these are kind of Highly sophisticated criminal gangs sometimes they use people who are underage connected to organized crime perhaps you know it’s a whole operation isn’t it yeah 100% And that’s really

What we’re targeting from the provincial autoc captain and towing team is the organized crime groups behind the Auto Effects um you know thieves that are out stealing cars need to be dealt with and and there’s ways that uh you know the law will deal with them but we really

Need to Target the organized crime groups behind this remove the profitability and uh conduct enforcement at the higher levels do you think it might be wise for us to increase the penalties for people who are found guilty of car theft I mean there’s been a lot of

Discussion about that um you know as police we try to stay in our lane we we conduct the enforcement We Lay the charges we bring them before the courts and then it’s up for the courts to decide the uh appropriate punishment but I think you know there needs to be a

Deterrence and there needs to be a punishment so I think that’s for the courts to decide yeah I was talking about uh CRVs from Honda and Dodge you know Ram pickup trucks you’re talking about SUVs you know so it really runs the gamut what would your number one

Piece of advice beace SC to people watching you know who are you know thinking hey what can I do with my own car to make sure it doesn’t end up like this well the biggest thing is to take a layered approach um start at the basics

You know keep your car locked put it in the garage if you have one some people have nice vehicles and want to show them off in their driveway you know that’s great except it presents an opportunity for thieves so you just want to make it as as difficult as possible um you know

You can use uh obb Port blockers you can use um try to protect the signal from your key fog um so there’s a whole lot of things and then there’s aftermarket es which will track your vehicle or kill switches you know so that they can’t be

Stolen in the first place so when I say a layered approach it’s start with the easy things and then do as much as you can to protect yourself be aware of your surroundings don’t put yourself at risk no matter what um a car theft is a a

Terrible thing to happen but don’t put yourself at risk no matter what happens Scott Wade is with the Ontario provincial police force and their organized crime enforcement Bureau thanks for taking a bit of time Scott great to have you on the show thank you very much for having me Good Luck be safe

OPP Det. Insp. Scott Wade explains why technology has made stealing cars easier and that there’s ‘no silver bullet’ against car thefts.

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