Another bill would allow police to wiretap when investigating vehicle theft. Prince George's police are planning to put "bait cars" across the county -- vehicles that lock a thief inside once he has entered the car. The cars, connected to a police communications center by hidden video cameras, allow police to track the vehicle and arrest the thief. The change in the state's wiretap law would allow police to put microphones in the cars as well. Current law prohibits wiretaps in auto-theft investigations.
Law enforcement officials and county leaders offer several theories about the rise in thefts in the county. One is simply that there aren't enough police officers devoted to tracking down car thieves.
Another possibility, experts said, is that police in Baltimore and Baltimore County have cracked down in recent years, sending the thieves south into Prince George's.
Police in Prince George's "took their eye off the ball" around 2000, said W. Ray Presley, executive director of the Maryland Theft Prevention Council, a coalition of law enforcement officials and others that disburses grant money to jurisdictions with high auto-theft rates.
"By the time they got their eye back on the ball, this thing had really grown," Presley said.
County leaders, including Ivey and County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D), convened a task force last year to study the issue. The legislation wending through the General Assembly stemmed from that group.
Ivey has promoted the distribution of steering-wheel locks, offering them at cost to county residents. Along with police and county leaders, he also has had forums across the county for concerned residents.
About two-thirds of the cars stolen in Prince George's are ultimately recovered. Most of those are taken by young joy riders or people who simply want to use the cars for transportation, officials said. The remaining third of stolen cars are probably sold on the black market or sold for parts, police said.
Maureen Evans's gray Dodge Caravan was first stolen in December 2001. Her husband, Michael, and their son Chris walked out of the house about 9 p.m. to see someone driving the van away, she said.
Police found the van abandoned in the District and returned it to the family, but it was stolen again about nine months later. The van was once again returned, usable but slightly damaged. About a year after that, Evans heard someone trying to break into her Honda Civic, parked on the street outside her home. She yelled out the window, and the would-be thieves fled.
"It was a feeling of violation," she said of the minivan theft. "I'm not particularly attached to cars at all, but that's our family car, and it's that whole feeling of your home, your security, your feeling of keeping your children safe."
