Trying to Put the Brakes on Auto Thieves

Ever wonder where all that money you pay in vehicle registration fees actually goes?

In Los Angeles County, one dollar of it pays for an elite law enforcement task force whose job is to keep members of sophisticated auto theft rings from stealing your car.

The Task Force for Regional Auto Theft Prevention, or TRAP for short, borrows officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and 13 other police departments, joined by a probation officer and two deputy district attorneys. FBI and other federal agents help with larger cases.

Though its purpose is to prevent auto theft, the task force doesn’t deal with teenage joy riders. Instead, it specializes in cracking sophisticated auto theft rings, some of which make their money by shipping cars overseas to foreign buyers.

“We’re looking to catch the thief who will then take that car to a dismantler or take that car to an individual who will ship it overseas,” said Sheriff’s Capt. John Bryan, director of TRAP, “not the teenager who takes a car, shows it to his girlfriend and then dumps it the next day.”

More than half the state’s counties have similar task forces. Legislation passed in 1991 authorized counties to implement either vehicle theft or drunken driving prevention programs with funds from vehicle registration fees.

From its inception in 1993 until the end of last year, TRAP made 2,114 arrests, served 1,112 warrants, made 2,805 inspections of junkyards (frequented by chop shop operators) and seized 5,124 cars worth a total of about $72 million, Bryan said.

About 10% of the task force’s cases involve sub-plating, a criminal tactic that begins when a thief steals or notes the license plates of a car.

The thief then asks the state Department of Motor Vehicles for new plates, with new numbers, for that car.

Those who apply by mail need not provide proof of vehicle ownership.

For an $8 fee, the DMV then sends the thief new license plates, a copy of the vehicle’s registration and a copy of the Vehicle Identification Number.

With the VIN and plate number, the thief can return to the DMV and request another copy of the vehicle’s title.

Now the criminal has the registration and title. All he has to do is find a similar make and model and steal the car, Bryan said.

If the thief is pulled over, a police officer’s computerized check of the license plates and registration will point to the same make and model of the car pulled over.

If the rightful owner is stopped, his or her plates will no longer be in the DMV system.

Criminals who do sub-plating are usually interested in selling the car--ideally shipping it overseas or driving it south of the border, Bryan said. He added that detectives are aware that many of the cars are being shipped out of the country, but have no resources to retrieve them. The retrieval cost is often not worth it to insurance companies, most of which would rather just pay off the owners.

A bill in the state Legislature, written by TRAP investigators and sponsored by Assemblyman Larry Bowler (R-Elk Grove), would require the DMV to require more proof from drivers who request duplicate license plates.

No longer would drivers be able to mail in applications without proof of ownership. Drivers requesting duplicate plates because their original ones were stolen would have to submit a copy of a police report detailing the crime.

“It will plug some of the loopholes in the Department of Motor Vehicles’ procedures that enable criminals to sub-plate cars,” Bryan said.

The bill has passed the Assembly and is currently in the Senate Rules Committee.