Yahoo Autos Ontario Police Crack Down Big On Car Thieves
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It’s no secret Ontario has been struggling with a wave of car thefts over the past several years. We reported before how the province was gearing up to spend big bucks fighting the problem. But money alone won’t solve issues like this and thankfully police there have put in the hard work to take a big bite out of criminal organizations.
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In a press conference, Deputy Toronto Police Chief Robert Johnson recently shared some of the results of Project Titanium, the anti car theft initiative. He disclosed that from September 2023 to March 2024 the task force had recovered over $10 million worth of stolen vehicles, which isn’t too shabby.
That amounts to 177 boosted rides found and returned to their rightful owner. What’s more, 124 arrests were made and 749 criminal charges had been filed against those individuals.
In one recent bust in the Greater Toronto Area, 23 stolen cars worth about $5 million were recovered and eight people were hit with 103 criminal charges. Not only did authorities find vehicles, they seized guns, cash, auto theft tools, fake IDs, and stolen car parts.
The big question we have is what will happen to the individuals arrested in Project Titanium. After all, in the latest bust in GTA, police say about half of the 124 suspects were out on bail, reports the Toronto Star.
If suspects are let out of jail and reoffend immediately, the car theft rate won’t drop much, if at all. The same thing goes if prosecutors then cut offenders sweet deals with little to no jail/prison time served. After all, we’ve seen case after case of car thieves released from custody immediately going out and stealing more vehicles.
But this is progress and should be celebrated. Hopefully it’s not just police trying to solve the car theft problem in Ontario and elsewhere because they can’t do it alone.
Image via Ontario Provincial Police
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