Do our patrol cars need LOJACK?

[N7YUO]

ksl.com - Stolen SWAT truck recovered
Stolen SWAT truck recovered
SALT LAKE CITY -- The Salt Lake City Police Department are currently looking for who might have briefly stolen one of their unmarked SWAT vehicles.

Other interesting articles about stolen police vehicles:
Stolen Police Car Articles
06/08/02 How To Get Home Quickly in a Stolen Police Car
07/11/01 Two police cars open fire on each other in Seattle
08/14/02 Woman in custody for shoplifting in stolen police car
09/25/03 Ten year old boy leads police on high-speed chase
12/20/03 Jewel Thieves Used Collier Sheriff's Patrol Car as Getaway Car
01/16/04 Cuffed suspect stole cruiser then struck UHP trooper
02/20/04 Man Arrested After Allegedly Stealing Patrol car with Crane
04/10/04 Robbery suspect flees in police car, leaves Texas driver's license behind
11/02/04 Decatur, GA officer survives violent stabbing attack, ride in trunk
02/15/05 Plywood patrol car stolen in Oregon
02/21/05 Naked Philly patrol car thief crashes patrol car and bites officer
07/19/05 Naked Man Dies After Driving Cop Car Into Bus In Philadelphia
08/09/05 Arizona SWAT Team Commander's police car stolen with weapons
12/17/05 Salt Lake City Utah - Thief Steals Police Car
03/01/06 UT - Shootout leaves Man Dead in Stolen Police Vehicle
10/16/06 Salt Lake City, UT - Suspect Stole Police Car - 4 City Chase
04/24/07 Lehi, UT - Police Car Stolen from Utah Co.
06/03/07 West Valley, UT - Handcuffed Suspect Steals Patrol Car
06/23/09 Ogden, UT - Unmarked Dept Of Corrections Cruiser Stolen - Torched
07/29/09 Salt Lake City, UT - Sheriff's Car Stolen At Walmart
12/17/09 West Valley City, UT - Handcuffed Voyeurism Suspect Steals Police Car
06/22/10 West Valley City, UT - Naked Woman Steals Car - Crashes - Steals Police Car

 

[Hooligan]

From the brief & vague media report I read, entry into the van was not gained via breaking anything, so the police were "unsure" how entry was made to the vehicle. Of course, if it were yours or my vehicle, the immediate assumption was that we were idiots that left the vehicle unsecured....


Anyway, I think a lot of the vehicles do have a form of tracking, in the form of GPS tied-into their mobile data computer system. In the old days, lots of cops objected to their patrol vehicles being tracked for obvious reasons, though for other obvious reasons, it improved officer security & computer-aided dispatching so these days, I think it's a given, for public safety agencies that already have most of the technology in the vehicles already (GPS + mobile data system).

The other thing they could have tried would be to remotely put the stolen van's 800MHz radio into transmit mode, then quickly round-up people who know how to RDF.