Sounds like an admission of defeat

GPS units are apparently a popular target of thieves now.  Police say GPS devices are an easy bit of hardware to off-load at pawn shops.

Liverpool local area commander Detective Superintendent Mick Plotecki said GPS thefts were a big problem in his area.

“You wouldn’t leave $500 in your car so I don’t know why people leave these things in their cars,” he said.

Vehicle owners who tried to out-smart thieves by hiding their GPS unit in the glove box or under the seat were fighting a losing battle, Superintendent Plotecki said.

“We are finding that the thieves just look for the suction marks on the window where it has been stuck up. So even though they can’t see the GPS unit, they know it is somewhere inside the car.”

His remedy?  Stick to an old-fashioned street directory.  Now that just sounds like conceding defeat to the lowlife scum who steal the things … ie we can’t stop them, so its your fault for putting these things in your car to tempt them.  What about actually catching the bastards, prosecuting them and sticking them in jail?  Can’t steal stuff from cars then.

Likewise, the solution to people stealing a tank of petrol at service stations by driving off without paying is to inconvenience the 99% of people who don’t do this, by making us prepay – ie figure out what we need, pay for it and then go back to the pump and fill the car.  Superintendent Plotecki said a prepaid system introduced at 24 petrol stations in his area command had reduced petrol theft by more than 90 per cent in the past year.  What a triumph of effective policing … no doubt Supt Plotecki has this as a KPI (and he or some other police commander has pay incentives riding on it) …big achievement, reduce crime by hassling everyone, rather than catching the thieving swine who are the problem, and removing them from the community.

So, message to police, and their political masters … I understand that preventative precautions are a good thing in most situations, but do not think they are the solution.  Rather than make things tougher for the normal people in the community to make it harder for the scum to do their dirty work, put more effort into cracking down on the pricks – make their lives impossible.