The 2019 Vehicle Crime Taskforce, to be spearheaded by the West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner’s office, met and agreed:
- Better information about the methods used to commit vehicle theft, including how often those methods are used in practice, is key to understanding the threat.
- In order to further develop the evidence base, it would be helpful if Taskforce members could share information they had about methods used by criminals
Home Office Agenda & Minutes
However, the VCT never met again, and seemingly little consideration was given to ‘understanding the threat’. Subsequent statements about the incidence of keyless taking appear to be based on ‘gut reaction’ or ‘holding a finger in the air’.
To this day, vehicle taking methodology is unrecroded by most, if not all, constabularies. Examples of the responses to requests for related information appear below.
Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) – 2019
How many of these thefts have been achieved by thieves using ‘keyless’ technology, whereby they have entered and removed the car without using its keys?
- This information would be recorded within the investigation details of the crime report, which are not electronically searchable
More here.
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner – 2020
asked for the evidence vehicle security/bypass (keyless theft) is to blame for increased car thefts, the number of prosecutions for possession of vehicle security bypass/interference (all technology-related vehicle theft methods) thefts and the developments tackling the security weaknesses that are said to exist in many keyless cars, Mr Jamieson’s office responded:
- There is no correspondence held within the Offices of the Police and Crime Commissioner relating to this subject
More here
West Midland Police – 2022
WMP were asked for information to support their ‘keyless crime’ statements. Passed from pillar to post, ultimately, it appeared there was no evidence to support the statements being made. More here.
Merseyside Police – 03/2022
The constabulary was asked to provide ‘The number of reported keyless car thefts from January 2020 to the current date (03/2022), broken down by month and vehicle type’ and responded:
- a keyword search of “Keyless” theft of motor vehicle has been undertaken and the below table provides a monthly breakdown of crimes recorded. However, the search does not include the vehicle type and attempting to drill into each individual crime to establish the vehicle type would exceed the 18-hour cost limit
248 vehicle thefts were recorded for the period
More here
Thames Valley Police – 03/2022
The constabulary was asked to provide ‘The number of reported keyless car thefts from January 2020 to the current date (03/2022), broken down by month and vehicle type’ and responded:
- Every theft of vehicle would have to be manually reviewed in order to determine if it involved a keyless method of entry. Due to the number of reports that would require review, this will exceed the appropriate 18 hour time and £450 cost limit.
More here
Cheshire Police – 03/2022
The constabulary was asked to provide ‘The number of reported keyless car thefts from January 2020 to the current date (03/2022), broken down by month and vehicle type’ and responded:
- ‘… we would have to read through every theft from a vehicle crime to establish if it was keyless.
There are over 3200 relating to this subject. - It would take one member of staff approximately 5 minutes per record equating to in excess of 260 hours of work.
Your entire request is therefore refused.
More here
The above 03/2022 responses form a series of requests to most, if not all UK constabularies in 03/2022, which can be located by searching ‘keyless’ at the WhatDoTheyKnow.com service.
Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) – 03/2024
Keyless Theft Info’ –
- the MPS ‘does not hold the information you require centrally in a format that can be extracted to provide the information you have requested’.
More here.
West Midlands Police (WMP) – 07/2024
The total number of vehicles stolen in the specified period without keys (without the use of the owner’s keys or
key fob)
- We do not have a search criterion for this “keyless” data – therefore it would require a search of in excess of 14000 records to assess whether or not it was a keyless activity.
- This would exceed the cost for the purpose of the FOI act. unable to provide keyless data
More here
Staffordshire Police – 07/2024
The total number of Jaguar, Land Rover or Range Rover vehicles stolen in the specified period without keys (without the use of the owners keys or key fob).
- There is no method by which we can readily retrieve information from our systems to answer this request. For the time period requested, there have been in excess of 2,000 occurrences of theft of a motor vehicle, in order to determine whether any were keyless ignition vehicles, or whether they were stolen without the use of a key, the record for each offence would require manual review.
- To extract this data would therefore require a very labour-intensive manual trawl through each record. From dip sampling, it has been estimated that it would take approximately 3 minutes to review each record, this would equate to over 100 hours to provide the requested information. To achieve this task would therefore exceed the 18-hour time and cost threshold of the Freedom of Information Act by some considerable margin
More here
Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) – 02/2025
- To locate and retrieve information in relation to keyless technology ‘relay theft’ or ‘jamming’ would require a manual read of thousands of motor theft crime reports.
More here.
Lincolnshire police – 02/2025
the method of theft i.e. with keys, keyless etc.
- ‘Lincolnshire Police would have to manually search the relevant records’ & ‘the business area dealing indicated that the data you requested is rarely stated on the record (i.e. often recorded as unknown entry)‘.’
More here.
Keyless quotes:
- ‘we are seeing criminals revert to ‘old school’ methods to steal cars, such as breaking into houses or physically threatening and assaulting owners to take keys‘. (Express – quote from a Tracker article 03/2025)
- ‘ …. vehicle crime-related offences, including burglary and theft of car keys which is an increasingly common tactic used by criminals‘. (NPCC September 2024)
- ‘When it comes to theft from vehicles, more ‘traditional’ techniques such as smashing windows and forcing doors are the preferred methods’. (motoringresearch.com – May 2023)
Keyless Contradiction
A vehicle was found crashed/damaged by the police. Subsequently, the owner/insured/victim reported the vehicle theft by keyless means.
The police issued a crime number, and a claim for theft/damage was submitted to insurers.
- Think!
If professional/organised criminals are responsible for such taking, what do they achieve by smashing up & abandoning their ill-gotten gains?
Scoring/profiling; such allegations should give rise to concerns and questions. The potential for unprofessional disorganization in such circumstances is high, as evidenced by the outcome. Read more here.
