Stolen Car Chase Ends Badly

[Miss Tam-Tam]

Did you hear the whir of the helicopter blades tonight? It was the Channel 7 Eyewitness news chopper covering a horrific stolen car chase crash which ended horribly at the intersection of Sanford Avenue and Mt. Vernon Place in the West Ward/Vailsburg. A police cruiser wound up smashed into the side of a building. At least several cars were involved in the smash-up.

It puzzles me as to why NPD even engages in stolen car chases. It is extremely dangerous to innocent bystanders and drivers of other vehicles. The Essex/Union Auto Theft Strike Force has a more effective, and safe, way of dealing with stolen cars, using a successfully developed strategy -- a concept completely alien to the NPD. The Newark police tells us they can't do anything about the institutionalized drug dealers on the corner, yet they go Rambo chasing stolen cars. Go figure.

[Doofus1]

To be fair, NPD doesn't really chase stolen cars the way they once did.

[Outside]

What is the essex/union strategy??

[ForOurYouth]

I thought that Newark Police Officers were forbidden to give chase? I could have sworn that policy was passed about 4 or 5 years back?

[Outside]

Saw nothing on this anywhere, guess it looked worse than it was...

[Miss Tam-Tam]

What is the essex/union strategy??

From the Essex County Prosecutor's Newletter - 2004

One Strategy used and not mentioned in this article is that the officers of the Auto Theft Strike Force do not actively pursue stolen vehicles; the patrol areas are broken down into sectors. They come upon the stolen vehicles in a more or less passive fashion. Sometimes they may not even attempt to box in a vehicle if they feel that it may endanger life, but will bide their time and wait for another opportunity.

<<In the first month of its thirteenth year in operation, the officers from the Essex Union Auto Theft Task Force broke the all time record for stolen car recoveries in January of this year.“It’s just unbelievable what these police officers and detectives have been able to do and in the process they haveeliminated our undesirable reputation for being in the middle of the stolen car capital of the country,” said Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow.

The task force, which has rounded up some 3,300 car thieves and recaptured more than $51 million worth of stolen trucks and cars, started operations in December of 1991.The bottom line, according to Essex County Acting Prosecutor Paula T. Dow, is a total team commitment and effort by police officers, municipal detectives, sheriff’s officers and prosecutor’s office investigators that has been the hallmark of the Essex Union Auto Theft Task Force.

During the first month of the year, the ATTF broke the single month record by more than triple of any 30-day period since it began operations on December 19, 1991.

With a promise to the prosecutors fresh in their hearts,the detectives worked late night and early morning extra hours without pay and brought back 111 high end, latemodel cars, sport utility vehicles and trucks worth $1,420,290 from the streets of both counties. Since the task force celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2001, the number of arrests and recoveries has skyrocketed to the point where the numbers are showing increases of 30 and even 50 per cent hikes in vehicles recovered and arrests made from the previous time period.

For example, said Chief of Detectives RobertBuccino, in 2002, the “Wolf Pack” team members recovered 388 stolen motor vehicles up from the year before andlast year the total jumped to a staggering 670 cars worth $7,488,498.

Irvington Detective Michael Melillo, who is the executive officer of ATTF, said the team members also know that the Cadillac Escalade SUV and the Lincoln LS sedan are the two newest hot tickets for car thieves. “Years ago, Camaros, Jeep products and Toyota Camrys were at the top of the list for the criminals, but times have changed and we’re ready for them,” Melillo said.

Included in the recoveries from last month were two tractor trailers that had been stolen from a business in Mountainside that were worth more than $120,000 alone. Lt. Joseph F. Vitelli said the numbers more than speak for themselves. Since the inception of the regional autotheft task force on December 19, 1991, 3,640 stolen vehicles have been recovered, he said. The group, out most nights until long after sunrise, averages some 50 recovered cars worth about $400,000 each month, but last month was the topper.

A dozen years ago, the North Jersey area was suffering from a plague of auto theft, and three municipalities—Newark, Elizabeth and Irvington—were in the top ten listing of worst rate of auto theft per capita in the Northeastern United States.That’s when the late Prosecutor Andrew K. Ruotolo Jr. got the ball rolling with the help of a federal grant.

THE STRATEGY: The officers use an apprehension and recovery approach that includes special “Boxing Techniques” to seal off stolen car drivers and avoid high speed pursuits and dangerous chases. The ATTF officers are given extensive training including emergency tactical driving courses provided at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, plus a series of in-service training courses. The New Jersey State Police Helicopter Unit has also assisted in many arrests and recoveries.

“You just cannot believe how satisfying it is to work on this team,” said Summit Officer John Rice, senior ATTFField Supervisor. “It is the epitome of a tactical street law enforcement unit.”How successful is it? “Cars are being recovered within hours of being stolen and the ATTF is still the model and envy of not just the nation, but countries overseas. In the last few years, we have had observers from England,Yugoslavia, Israel, Ireland and other countries come to study our techniques and ride along with our officers,” said Vitelli.

In addition, said Romankow, who has rode with the members several times, the unit was featured on programs such as America’s Most Wanted, 48 Hours, 20/20, The Discovery Channel and many other local channels and that generated huge interest on the part of law enforcement around the country. “We’ve had officers from Baltimore,the New York City Police Department, Miami and New Jersey Transit come to train and work with ATTF officers here in Union and Essex Counties,” he said.

THE STRATEGY: Rice said the unique “boxing” technique helps the task force officers, in special equipped vehicles, prevent car thieves from taking off at high speeds and placing innocent civilians, officers and themselves at grave risk of injury or death.

During their six-month or one-year assignments from different towns, officers have recovered dangerous weapons and narcotics, braved violent car thieves who drove stolen cars right at them, talked to wayward juveniles about the pitfalls of a life of crime and collared a 10-year-old car thief who couldn’t even see over the dashboard of a stolen car he was driving at 2 a.m.

Insurance companies are thrilled with the setup, Romankow said, and the Lojack Corporation works on a weeklybasis to monitor and track vehicles recovered and lookups are made on special donated mobile data terminal equipment mounted in each car.Even West Point Cadets have been sent to our task force for law enforcement training as part of their educationevery year. Vitelli said the members appreciate all of the work every officer, every trooper and every detective havecontributed over the years to make the joint mission a total success.

[Outside]

What a job done by the task force. I saw the program on Discovery too, a couple years ago. All great stuff.

The TF started 12/91, so lets say 1992 on for the sake of discussion. The news letter quoted was from 2004, so lets use 1992-2004, or 12 years.

They say they have made 3300 arrests of car thieves during that time. That equals about 275 arrests per year. Break it down a little more and we have 22 arrests per month, which, as we all know, isnt even one a day.

They also have recovered 3640 stolen cars, which again is about 303 a year. Again, break it down per month and we have 25 cars recovered per month, again, not even one per day.

Now the newsletter quotes somebody as saying they "average 50 cars recovered a month", but the numbers do not show that.

Anybody know how many cars were stolen in Newark in 2004? Or any year?

My point here is that they can ride around all night (working extra hours without pay, if you believe that) and check all the license plates of every car they see (many of which must be parked), but are they really putting the brakes on the stolen car problem?

Recovering stolen cars that are parked in the street really isnt helping anybody stop the stolen car problem, is it? Those cars would be recovered anyway. The idea is to catch the bad guys in the cars, and put them away for periods of time.

$$ amounts of stolen cars recovered seems odd to list to me. What does that prove? If each year the TF recoveres higher $$ amounts of stolen cars, are they solving anything?

[Outside]

I see what the strategy is, but does it really work when the numbers are broken down?

Also, in the latest column of Joan Whitlow she states the city of Newark had 471 cars stolen in the month of May. Lets use 450 as the average per month, thats 5,400 cars stolen every year in Newark. NYC (the 5 burroughs) has between 10,000 and 12,000 cars stolen per year.

Newark has less than 300,000 people, NYC has more than 8 million. Now does it seem like the task force is doing much??

[Miss Tam-Tam]

I see what the strategy is, but does it really work when the numbers are broken down?

Also, in the latest column of Joan Whitlow she states the city of Newark had 471 cars stolen in the month of May. Lets use 450 as the average per month, thats 5,400 cars stolen every year in Newark. NYC (the 5 burroughs) has between 10,000 and 12,000 cars stolen per year.

Newark has less than 300,000 people, NYC has more than 8 million. Now does it seem like the task force is doing much??

Notwithstanding your statistics regarding any impact the task force may have on the numbers of cars stolen in Newark, the goal of the task force is to recover the cars once they have been stolen, not to prevent their theft in the first place. My original point concerned the lack of strategy by the Newark Police department regarding crime in general. I used the auto theft task force as an example of strategic policing and my support of their methods in not utilizing dangerous car chases. At the end of the day, stolen cars are not likely to be high on the priority list for the Newark Police, when there is now routine deadly gun fire in our streets.

[Outside]

Notwithstanding your statistics regarding any impact the task force may have on the numbers of cars stolen in Newark, the goal of the task force is to recover the cars once they have been stolen, not to prevent their theft in the first place. My original point concerned the lack of strategy by the Newark Police department regarding crime in general. I used the auto theft task force as an example of strategic policing and my support of their methods in not utilizing dangerous car chases. At the end of the day, stolen cars are not likely to be high on the priority list for the Newark Police, when there is now routine deadly gun fire in our streets.


You form a task force to recover idle stolen cars? That doesnt seem like the best way to address anything to do with the stolen car problem. Its like "go ahead, take them for the night, do your donuts, rob people, whatever, we will come thru during the night when you are done and tow them..." What is that doing?

[Outside]

Law & Order
Thief takes, leaves undercover vehicle
Thursday, June 30, 2005

NEWARK:

A thief apparently didn't know what it was until he got it, and then he didn't want it.

Someone stole an undercover State Police vehicle Tuesday while it was parked outside Rutgers University in Newark, said spokeswoman Jeanne Hengemuhle. The trooper noticed the car, which authorities declined to describe because of its undercover nature, was gone after returning to where it was parked about 4:30 p.m.

The vehicle was recovered about 10 a.m. Wednesday in Hoboken after residents called city police to complain it was blocking a driveway on Jefferson Street, Hengemuhle said. The responding officers ran the license plates and found it was the stolen State Police car.

[ForOurYouth]

HA!!! That's HILARIOUS!!! Maybe if they keep taking GOVERNMENT CARS to chop and sell at the port, police will finally give a crap about auto theft prevention.