Vehicle crime - update and preventative advice

You may have already received some messaging from us regarding vehicle crime incidents in your area as we do see reports of theft of motor vehicle, theft from motor vehicle, and vehicle interference. Since the debut of this newsletter on January 1st 2025, we have received over 300 reports of vehicle crime occurring within the St Albans district with the most affected wards being Sopwell, St Peters, and London Colney. 

Officers from the Neighbourhood Policing Team alongside our Response, Proactive, and Detective colleagues are working hard to tackle this with a preventative and a proactive approach. This includes raising awareness about vehicle crime prevention and encouraging residents to remain vigilant for any suspicious activity occurring within their neighbourhoods. 

We are seeing numerous theft of vehicles with around 80% of reports relating to a car, and 20% relating to motorcycles. Whilst many of these vehicle crime incidents can be opportunistic, we are open-minded to the fact that some of these incidents may be organised with perpetrators targeting certain makes/models for their own criminal purposes. We have received multiple reports since the beginning of the year relating to the theft of a Ford Fiesta or a Hyundai Tucson, so if you are the owner of one of these vehicles, please note our crime prevention advice and consider taking extra security precautions to protect your vehicle from theft; such as storing your car keys (and any copies) in a faraday bag or signal-blocking container.

Likewise, the figures relating to theft from motor vehicles highlight that offenders were successful in stealing items from within the vehicle due to the vehicle being unlocked or insecure. I must, therefore, stress to you the importance of locking your vehicle when leaving it unattended, removing all valuables from the vehicle (including cash, debit cards, and electronics) to make it less attractive for opportunistic thieves. 

We are seeing keyless cars regularly be the targets for criminals to steal and often none of the cars have any preventative measures in place to prevent this. Thankfully, we have seen an increase in faraday bags, or similar being used, however offenders constantly update their methods to try and steal these cars.  

Steering locks are a great tool to use and have had situations whereby when offenders have attempted to steal a car, they have left when they saw the steering lock. 

Air tags or similar small cost-effective tracking devices have helped Police locate several high value cars in recent months. The standard in-car tracking system is known to criminals and can be disabled before the victim even knows it has been stolen. Thankfully in quite a few cases recently a simple air tag has helped locate vehicles because they can be hidden easily in the car and criminals either do not look for them or do not know where to look for them.