A 16-year-old Palestinian was arrested on suspicion of stealing a car and driving wildly without a license/Israel Police Spokesperson
The data from the police and insurance companies reveal that in 2023 there was a dramatic jump in the rate of vehicle thefts with almost 20 thousand cases - almost doubling the number of thefts in two years.
According to the data, while in 2021 about ten thousand vehicles were stolen, in 2022 the figure increased significantly to about 14 thousand cases.
In 2023, it turns out, 19,759 stolen vehicles were counted throughout the country.
The consistent increase in the number of thefts indicates the failure of the police in combating this phenomenon, which costs the citizens of Israel hundreds of millions of shekels every year and severely damages the sense of governance and personal security.
Despite hundreds of thefts foiled throughout the country and the arrest of dozens of suspects, many of them residents of the territories, the numbers do not lie and testify to a prosperous business, which is worth the risk for the thieves.
"There are two items of property that are the most valuable to every resident of Israel, one is his house and the other is his car," says retired lieutenant colonel Guy Nir, former commander of the car theft detection and apprehension unit (ATGR) in Blade 433, in a conversation with Walla. "When a person gets up in the morning and his car is not sadness and complete helplessness.
We must eradicate this scourge and reduce it to at least tolerable numbers."
20 thousand cars are stolen every year, illustration/pointer
For over two decades the Israel Police has been devoting manpower and strenuous activity to eradicating the phenomenon, but the existing model is not functioning - and the criminals are celebrating.
"The Atagar unit is unique in the Israel Police, it has a focus on the phenomenon," explains Nir, "this concept was copied from the Americans, from the FBI, who established a task force for all kinds of purposes.
Today there are task forces for the Israel Police, to fight against criminal organizations and more, but Atagar is the task force with the most personnel, it is allowed to operate at the national level and perhaps the only body that enters into criminal enforcement in Area A against the perpetrators of car thefts. It is a complete task force and can give Solutions not only in enforcement aspects."
"As long as the Ethgar unit exists - there is an address that you can come to with demands and hold it accountable," states Nir, and emphasizes: "Anyone who says that it has no effect on vehicle thefts is misleading the public." Nevertheless, he clarifies that its challenges are multiplying .
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So what doesn't work?
According to Nir, the effectiveness of the unit in its current form of activity is questionable today.
"Etgar must constantly monitor the phenomenon through its intelligence, its operational activity and also in its research fields.
Not to say 'today such and such cars were stolen', but to answer [and respond] to those who cause this phenomenon.
If the Palestinian Authority does not enforce its part, or if the IDF is less able to operate in the field, then it will have an effect." According to him, "At the time, I proposed to turn the Etgar unit into a national unit, like Yalakh or Yahbal, and expand it in terms of Personnel, with arms and branches, because this is a phenomenon that costs us money and the public pays expensive prices for insurance and it costs the taxpayers hundreds of millions.
But it was decided not to, but there is certainly justification to re-examine it, and at the same time to check if the Ethgar unit is effective today."
Nir Bible/courtesy of the photographs
"When I was the commander of the unit, there were about three million vehicles in Israel, today the number is close to four million. But we are talking about an increase in thefts not only in absolute numbers but in percentages, and you have to see what is happening here: you have much more advanced systems (he mentions, for example, the " "Ein Hantz" - SH), you have a dedicated unit, but there is theft on it," he adds.
"Let there be no doubt, the unit sometimes works in very complex ways, but in my opinion the slaughterhouses are at the heart of the phenomenon. I really like the unit, but I don't know if it deals with other things as well."
"The phenomenon of vehicle theft in Israel is very unusual," claims Nir, "in the United States, for example, there are several mechanisms that the law enforcement system has, one of which is called Lemon, which gives you the complete history of the vehicle by typing in a vehicle or chassis number, therefore even an American He will not buy a vehicle that has been welded together from all kinds of parts. But in Israel this does not exist, because we have an entity (the Palestinian Authority - S.H.) that everything drains into because the enforcement there is reduced. Obviously, if all the slaughterhouses were operating in Israel, we would be in a completely different situation."
The Israel Police stated that "the main mission of the Etagar unit was and remains in the field of the fight against vehicle theft, alongside the Israel Police's fight against the phenomenon of the use of illegal weapons.
The Atagar unit will continue to work to eradicate vehicle thefts in Israel as well as the crime of trafficking in weapons of war, and in this context will use all the means and maximum efforts at its disposal."
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