Ever wonder what’s going on with the large “bait vehicle” signs around Citrus Heights?
If so, you’re not alone, as questions about the signs have been brought up by residents at several community meetings in the past few months.
To find out the story behind the signs, The Sentinel checked in with Officer Wesley Herman of the Citrus Heights Police Department, who said the signs are part of the Department’s auto-theft prevention efforts.
Explaining that “bait vehicles” look just like any other vehicle on the street, Officer Herman said the only difference is that they’re equipped with a hidden GPS tracking device and strategically placed in areas where police have observed high theft or crime trends, with the hope that criminals “bite.”
Around North America, such vehicles have successfully been used to catch thieves, with some “bait” cars featuring remote door locking, hidden cameras, and an ignition “kill switch” to shut the vehicle off remotely. When British Columbia instituted a bait car program in 2003, a 75 percent drop in vehicle thefts over an 11-year period was documented, according to an Insurance Corporation of British Columbia study.
Although bait vehicles are equipped to help officers track and arrest car thieves, Officer Herman said the primary purpose of the program is to prevent auto-theft from happening in the first place — giving reason to why the big orange and black warning signs are regularly deployed in high-traffic areas around Citrus Heights.
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“We try to be the least attractive girl at the dance,” the officer remarked, explaining that the highly visible “bait vehicle” signs help prevent crime by notifying would-be auto thieves that unmarked, random vehicles in Citrus Heights are actively being tracked.
“They don’t know if we have one, twenty, or any out,” said the officer, calling it a type of “psychological war” on criminal minds.
His message to would-be Citrus Heights thieves is: “Hey, go ahead and steal a car — it might be one of ours.”
