22/02/2019 – the West Midlands PCC joins Vehicle Crime Taskforce.
The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (WMPCC) agreed to help the government tackle car crime by making contributions to its new Vehicle Crime Taskforce. The PCC, David Jamieson has been ‘spearheading’ a countrywide campaign aimed at tackling the security weaknesses that exist in many keyless cars.
2024 – The Taskforce was to address 4 areas of concern, none of which appear to have received significant attention in the past 5 years – vehicle crime has increased!
- Vehicle Security – work to improve vehicle security standards – improve vehicle security standards across the industry – a higher standard of vehicle security
- Vehicle Salvage – introduce tough new procedures for the salvage industry – making changes to legislation and codes of practice where necessary to ensure that criminals cannot take advantage of the motor salvage process – requiring vehicles which have been repaired after being written off to undergo a safety and identity check to ensure that parts from stolen cars have not been used in their repair
- Tools for Stealing – restrict the sale of tools, both mechanical and electronic, which can be used to steal vehicles – look to see whether measures are required to restrict the sale of these tools
- Professional Criminals – clamp down on organised criminals
This follows reports car thefts in the West Midlands have almost tripled since 2015
In 2018, Mr Jamieson met with Ford, Nissan, Audi, Jaguar LandRover (and others?) and put pressure on them to close security loopholes in their keyless technology.
The Taskforce will be chaired by the Policing Minister, Nick Hurd MP.
A representative from the PCC’s office will sit on the taskforce which will meet every 6 months and includes:
- key players in the car industry
- the Met (police)
- the West Midlands (the only other force represented)
However, the taskforce never met again. The Metropolitan Police (MPS) were not involved and it appears none of the only meetings ‘action plans’ were instigated!
5 years on and vehicle crime has increased. But the police appear to be forming another squad …
David Jamieson is reported to have said:
- he had been calling for the government to take more action on vehicle crime for some time.
- through this taskforce he wanted to see swift action to bring down vehicle thefts and disrupt the operation of organised criminals
- he is concerned equipment used to easily steal a vehicle through electronic compromise is still on sale to the general public
- he had called on retailers to stop selling these devices which are being used to commit these crimes.”
Seemingly the WMPCC believed vehicle manufacturers need to start making their vehicles more difficult for thieves to steal.
The 22/02/2019 meeting notes can be read here.
archive copy of WMPCC’s 02/2019 post
However, a more detailed account of the only VCT meeting that occurred 15/01/2019, was kept by the Home Office whose agenda and meeting notes can be read here.