Police officer override: The price of abandonment in the field of car theft
The thieves' squads are becoming more sophisticated, daring and violent, the number of thefts is increasing, the punishment is a joke.
The murder of the policeman tonight was a matter of time, and so was the next case
Keenan Cohen
17/07/2022
Sunday, 17 July 2022, 08:24 Updated: 08:50
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A 17-year-old Ramallah resident was arrested on suspicion of murdering a police officer in the Sharon area, after he ran over him to death at a checkpoint during an escape attempt.
July 17, 2022 (Photo: Israel Police Spokeswoman)
In the terrible tragedy that took place tonight at the Raanana junction, all the pieces of the puzzle that make up the sad picture of car thefts in Israel have been put together.
The signs that indicate them we warn every few months, when the headline returns announcing an increase in cases of car thefts in Israel.
Starting the time of the incident around 2:00 at night, right in the middle of the thieves' "working hours" between 22:00 and 5:00 in the morning.
The place from which the car was stolen, Gush Dan is a favorite area for car thieves.
The escape route in the direction of Raanana, which may indicate the final destination of the car - the cities of Tulkarm or Qalqilya, the "capitals" of stolen cars in the Palestinian Authority.
The type of vehicle matches the keen demand for jeeps and crossovers among thieves, and jeeps already make up about 48% of theft attempts.
Even the 17-year-old suspect matches the profile of the roles in the car thieves' squads, which consist of intelligence, patrol and observation personnel, burglars, "crackers" who disrupt cellular signals and break into the car's computers and even the juniors in the squads - those who move the car to PA and their price is "cheap" Relative in terms of tactical value to squad activity.
Even on the issue of the wild driving of stolen vehicle drivers we have touched with testimonies from the locating teams of companies like Ituran and Pointer.
As mentioned, in each of the articles we pointed out exactly these squads as a problem, later as a danger and last night these components came together into an incident that ended in the death of a police officer.
Nothing will make us happier than to make a mistake, but unfortunately, without a fundamental change in approach to this phenomenon, there is no reason to believe that it will not happen again.
Event time, location, even type of vehicle stolen - everything matches the trends (Photo: Israel Police Spokeswoman)
Car theft allows criminal organizations to run mostly non-violent business, creates demand for new cars and insurance companies probably do not miss the story
Because car theft in Israel has become a very attractive business in recent years.
The numbers prove it easily.
After deducting the year 2020, the traffic is limited and the number of closures in which "only" 8,644 cars were stolen, in 2019 9,914 cars were stolen, in 2021 we finished with 12,147.
The year 2022?
An increase of tens of percent.
According to data from the search companies Pointer and Ituran, there was an increase of 63% to 72%, respectively.
This is despite the tightening of IDF and police activity along the seam line and the repairs made to it as part of the ongoing "breakwater" operation. Although its purpose was security, it also affected the criminal aspect - two intertwined from base to end.
The reasons for the limited achievements in the war on car thieves are many.
There is the short blanket of the police, the one that stretches on thwarting terrorist incidents, law enforcement and keeping order with too few cops on too many occurrences. Or just a very partial motivation to stop the mechanism of car theft, the one that ultimately serves too many owners Interest - it allows criminal organizations to run a mostly non-violent business, it creates demand for new cars, insurance companies probably do not miss the story and in the end it is always the citizen who wakes up to an empty parking lot from a car left helpless.
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The daring of thieves is rising, advertising stolen cars openly on social networks (Photo: screenshot, screenshot)
But even when car thieves are caught, it is difficult to say that the state manages to produce a real deterrent to returning and engaging in the field.
For example, the punishments imposed by the court are ridiculous, miserable, insulting, tainted with an excessive degree of compassion for those who see this approach as proof that the law enforcement system and the justice system do not consider car theft a serious incident.
Recent examples: An illegal resident convicted along with two partners was sentenced to only 18 months, one of the reasons?
His confession to the offense saved the court time.
Another thief, who was convicted of no less than three charges of aiding and abetting a car theft was also sentenced to 18 months, of which 6 in practice the reason?
"The defendant consoled himself for his actions, and it is to be hoped that the rehabilitation efforts in his case will be crowned with success."
Tulkarm, Qalqila and Ramallah have become cities of refuge and activity centers for car thieves (Photo: Pointer)
In the great story of the theft of cars in Israel, the following forces are on both sides of the barricade: on the one hand, the problematic demand for stolen parts and car thieves from the last of the escape drivers to the tops of the criminal organizations.
On the other side of the barricade are supposedly the police and the courts which at least according to the conception of a state of law are supposed to protect the citizens from the first ones.
And in between those citizens some of whom are asking themselves if they will find the car in the train parking lot this time or just glass on the floor.
Reality in recent years has shown that when a determined police force puts a cross on a particular area and allocates resources to it it copes nicely, crime in the Arab sector as a last example.
When the courts will also be harnessed to the necessary change perhaps and only perhaps we can begin to hope that terrible tragedies like the one that happened last night will not be repeated.
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