Dear Editor,
Many stories have been written about the proliferation of vehicle associated theft. Usually it is simply a statement of what happened and the parameters of the event. The front page report in the Santa Rosa Press Gazette (SRPG) April 8, 2015 gave more statistical information although it was only for Santa Rosa County. The “Hide, Lock and Take” program was launched by the sheriff’s department. Today, June 8, the Pensacola News Journal published a story about the Santa Rosa Sheriff Deputies notifying owners of unlocked vehicles by placing a ‘lock your car’ card inside. The violators got upset that the deputies entered their vehicles to place the reminder cards inside. Note to our deputies: You can’t fix stupid.
The main point of the SRPG April 8 story was for people to be aware of the theft associated with unlocked vehicles. Television station WEAR does a lot of news stories about vehicle associated theft as well. The different stories mentioned above, published in newspapers and presented on television usually involve theft of electronics, audio and many times firearms. Recently, a young “Bonnie and Clyde” couple was being pursued and at one point, the vehicle they had stolen had a pistol left in it overnight. This event created a different situation for the law enforcement agencies.
The story in the Press Gazette did not mention the amount of unnecessary police time consumed to report and document these crimes of opportunity. While deputies or police officers are wasting time on these events, they are not able to focus on more serious crime prevention. Our tax dollars are being wasted because irresponsible people enabled a criminal to perform the crime. My proposed solution will not be a popular one, but I feel it needs to be investigated.
I suggest that penalties be assessed on an increasing scale to the offense:
1. If a vehicle’s contents are stolen and the contents were portable (i.e. GPS, MP3, cell phone etc.), the police refuse to take a statement and the insurance company refuses to pay the claim. If the owner had no more respect for their property, why should anyone else?
2. If a vehicle theft occurs and it is determined that the vehicle was left unlocked and enabled, the owner will be charged with a misdemeanor crime with a serious fine and community service. Once again, if the owner doesn’t care, why should anyone else, and this presents a problem with possible high speed pursuits and other criminal activity.
3. If a firearm is stolen from a vehicle either locked or unlocked, the owner is charged with aiding and abetting criminal activity with a felony status involving jail time and fines. A stolen firearm will always be part of a crime even if it is legitimately sold. Because of someone’s carelessness, another firearm is on the street and in the hands of someone not properly trained and usually not the most upstanding of citizens.
My solution is definitely a severe reaction to a problem that could be easily solved by responsible people, but look at the evolution of other laws such as the seat belt law. People had to be forced to wear their belts by way of legislation. Every law is the result of people not doing something or doing something to excess. This theory is no different.
Mike Adams
Pace
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Vehicle associated theft causes unnecessary police time