Edmonton police say stolen vehicles being used for crime, shipped overseas, as thefts rise
New data released by the Edmonton Police Service on Wednesday suggests officers have been keeping busy with a steady increase in vehicle thefts over the past year.
According to a news release, 4,714 vehicles were reported stolen to EPS in 2023, a 26 per cent increase compared to 2021.
It comes as Canada experiences a record number of auto thefts. Last week, the federal government committed $28 million for the Canada Border Services Agency to curb exports of stolen vehicles.
Edmonton police said most of the thefts follow the same pattern.
“We see mainly two different motives when it comes to auto theft,” said Acting Staff Sgt. Ian Strom with the service’s targeted response to auto theft prevention team in a news release.
“Some vehicles are being stolen and used locally for crime, while others are being shipped overseas for profit.”
Dominic Schamuhn, manager of advocacy and community services for the Alberta Motor Association, said the problem has plagued Alberta for years, and is only just starting to get worse.
He said Alberta has been one of the top provinces in Canada for auto theft over the last decade, with about one in five thefts across the country taking place in the province.
“That’s the unfortunate reality,” he told CBC News. “The other unfortunate piece is that many of these thefts are preventable.”
According to EPS, many thefts happen when residents leave their vehicles running and unlocked.
Schamuhn also said people often leave valuables in their vehicles and don’t hide them properly — some even leaving their keys in their vehicle.
Edmonton police said the city has become a hotspot for stolen vehicles being shipped overseas, contributing to a decrease in the number of vehicles police are able to recover.
Alberta’s recovery rate currently sits at 77 per cent, down from 84 per cent in 2022, according to figures from the Équité Association, a national not-for-profit organization that supports Canadian insurers.
Sid Kingma, director of investigative services for western Canada with the Équité Association, said that seven-percentage-point drop is quite concerning.
“What that tells us is that more of the stolen vehicles are not being recovered, so that really speaks to what’s happening to these vehicles,” he said.
Kingma said “bad actors” seem to prefer older vehicles because they are easier to steal. Once stolen, they are commonly used to commit other crimes, while newer vehicles are exported for profit.
The federal government held a summit in Ottawa last week aimed at confronting auto theft. Some proposals that emerged from the day-long summit included finding ways to ban devices commonly used to steal vehicles and eyeing tougher criminal penalties for perpetrators.
“I think the overall message today is that, to the criminals out there, we’re going to disrupt your activities with everything we have,” Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told reporters last week.
Kingma said vehicle theft is a complex problem that requires complex solutions, but said his organization is pleased the federal government called together a summit to discuss possible answers.
“The more intelligence we have, and the more we can share it, the better off we’ll be,” he said.
Schamuhn said the AMA supports the measures being proposed, but added law enforcement requires additional resourcing and other tools to tackle this crime.
He said governments, police and drivers need to work together to tackle thefts.
That starts with taking preventative measures like parking vehicles in locked garages, not leaving unattended vehicles running, and removing or hiding valuables from inside the vehicle.
“Some of those measures that people can do are simple, but they actually have a pretty significant impact,” Schamuhn said.
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