 Well, good morning everyone. I apologize for being late But duty calls over at the mayor's office, but I'll go ahead and jump right in so as many of you know when when I was appointed to chief I identified pretty quickly a top priority of Preventing crime lowering our crime rate and working in collaboration with the community It's also no secret that one of our greatest crime challenges is auto theft and we also know that many auto thefts lead to other crimes often violent crimes. And so It's really been A challenge for us and in here today, we're going to announce The beginning of a new program in partnership with the community that gives us a greater ability to prevent cars from being stolen Allow them to be recovered much more quickly and great give us a greater opportunity To catch those individuals that have stolen those vehicle those vehicles and hold them accountable So with that I'll introduce a lieutenant Ryan Harris who cannot talk about the specifics of this particular program Thanks, chief So a little bit about me again Ryan Harris I work as a lieutenant in the Southeast district district 3. I was assigned there in 2022 Later last year and I spent most of my career in and bison narcotics and other investigations when I came out to district 3 My dad actually contacted me who used to live in district 3 and in 1981 my parents moved to Denver and My dad tells me about his car getting stolen in 1981 and what am I doing about auto theft? So obviously auto theft was an issue in the 80s. It was an issue in the 90s in the 2000s but we're seeing a level of auto theft that's much higher than we've ever seen before So with chief Thomas and commander Aragon The ask is for us to come up with innovative strategies So we looked at the the data What was it telling us and we looked for strategies that we could impact the Auto thefts that we're seeing in our community So one of the the ideas we came across was from Cook County, Illinois And we found that they had developed a vehicle tracker partnership and that vehicle tracker partnership was to combat Carjackings for their city to their city which includes Chicago is about the size of 5 million people and they were having upwards to 2700 carjackings a year now. We're not experiencing The same level of carjackings, but what we are experiencing is out of those so we repurposed that idea and we're here today to Release information about it. So in reviewing that the information from Cook County What we found is vehicles that are newer than 2015 the vast majority of them already have some level of tracking Built into them. So this could be an infotainment system. This could be a telematic system GPS and other devices What we also know is that people across our city regardless of what type of car they have are taking In a beyond themselves to place some kind of tracking device in the vehicle and that could be a Bluetooth device It could be an aftermarket GPS What we have not done as a community is share that information with our offenders Share that we are tracking our vehicles and share that we are in a partnership with the Denver police department That if my vehicle is stolen that I'm going to work with the Denver police department to recover that as quickly as possible So this program works in two ways one or three ways this deters Autotheps we're going to place this sticker on People's vehicles, and I'll explain that process in a second, but the information that we obtained from Cook County Gave us information that the desire to steal a car when we advertise this sticker Reduces by up to 50% So this isn't going to be perfect But this is something that the community members can do to make their car less likely a car that's going to be stolen So in addition to deterring crime We're going to make arrests on a more frequent basis with this partnership with the community and giving us information About where you're stolen car is we can arrest our suspects and provide meaningful law enforcement intervention to those offenders And then third will reduce that when we look at all the crime that we're looking at last year we had Of all of our auto theft arrests 70% of those people arrested were arrested for a secondary crime so Everything starts with the vehicle crime a lot of our burglaries our other property crimes and violent crime starts with the use of a Stolen vehicle so if we can decrease the amount of time that we have a stolen vehicle out there Our hope is and we're confident that we'll be able to decrease other crime categories as well So how does this work? so We created Denver track. So Denver track is a website It's on Denver gov.org slash Denver track Anybody that lives in the city in County Denver or works in the city in County Denver is eligible to register When you go to this website you go to the registration form and this registration form will ask for some Some pertinent information This will include the year to make the model your VIN number your license plate and the state of issuance Next page is going to be the owner information and the owner information is is the owner information for the vehicle And that needs to be the person that's filling out this form By filling out this form what you were doing is you're attesting that you are the registered owner of this vehicle that you will That you do have some level of tracking available in your vehicle and that if your vehicle is stolen at a later date You will provide consent to the Denver police department. So as far as the consent goes We're asking for that people to attest that they will provide consent at some time But I wanted we want to get that consent on The front end of that steel and that's for a couple reasons one to ensure that that Consent is not stale to ensure that we have the registered owner and so that We get that as soon as that car is stolen So once you fill out this information You'll be provided a couple options about what sticker you would like to have so these stickers We have two different kinds right here. So if you Get on here, you will be provided with these two stickers right here One of the stickers right here will be placed on the lower right hand corner of the driver's door Right where an offender would gain entry into your vehicle The second sticker is this one and this one will be placed on the windshield of the car facing towards the driver and this is another way to advertise that The vehicle is being tracked and to notify that offender that this vehicle This you will you won't have this vehicle for long and law enforcement will be coming for you We have another option as well that Does not have the DPD badge for residents that do not want to have a DPD badge on there They don't feel comfortable with that. There is an option for there, too So how do we get this program to be effective? First is getting community members to sign up We've met with community members in southeast Denver and we presented this program And we've had overwhelmingly positive feedback on this So we need to get this information out to the public and we're going to do that through not only talking to the media But getting information out on social media and other digital platforms But it's not just important that we push this information out to our community members But we also need to advertise this to our offenders So if you look at this poster right here, we've partnered with the Denver Sheriff Department And the Denver Sheriff Department is going to have these placed in the intake and in all the pods in our jails This is that they'll be receiving information about what this program is about So if they come across a vehicle if we have an offender that's going to reoffend They will know that this vehicle will be recovered in a short period of time So we understand that some people Might have problems filling out this filling out this form online So we've opened up an auto theft prevention week for next week. So Monday through Friday Community members can go to any one of our six district stations between the hours of four and seven p.m And there we'll have some police volunteers and officers available to assist any community members with signing up for this program Additionally, we'll be providing catalytic converter etching kits to any community member that might need that I want to do a quick. Thank you to a lot of partners with this We started developing this program in November of 2022 and that took a lot of help That started with the Colorado Auto theft prevention authority who's been a big help in this RTD we've recently reached out to RTD and we know that a lot of their ridership has been victims of these crimes And we're working collaboratively with them not only with RTD and their marketing team, but their transit police On this issue and then lastly the Denver Sheriff Department has been a great partner with this and I believe will continue to do so Any questions Will the Denver Police Department be able to trap people Who don't opt into opt into this but don't actually report their car stolen? Great question. No, so if your car is not reported stolen We will not we cannot track and it's important to state when we talk about the the level of tracking that people have So if you have a Bluetooth device Like an air tag or a tile you can register for this program The person that holds that information about where that location is is the vehicle owner So what we're saying when we ask for consent is we're asking for your consent for you to give us that information We don't hold that information. Let's talk about other ones. Sorry So on start on start blue link my Ford You connect there's a numerous amounts of telematic systems that are inside vehicles that are 2015 and newer So with those ones that company owns that information The the consumer might have the access to see that but we don't have access to that and again The consent is if your car is reported stolen that we will use that consent to work as your Advocate to locate your vehicle You mentioned was that you know while this is a great innovative thing having that sticker is a huge deterrence piece For someone who doesn't want to opt in are you guys going to be making these stickers available for people to pick up? To slap on their vehicle. So that's something we're looking at in the future, but currently With us adopting data-driven Approaches to crime prevention and evidence-based. We need to prove some effectiveness of this program. So before we do that We're going to demonstrate some effectiveness Do you think that a program like this could have prevented Situations like we saw in early February where a vehicle owner decided to take the matter of a stolen car in his own hands and Resulted in the death of Elias Armstrong So as far as that is that incident This program is Demonstrates that we can't put the toothpaste back in the tube people are already tracking their vehicles What this program does is provides us a safe alternative to finding your own car And if people take one thing out of this this press conference, what we need to get across is do not go find your own stolen car work with the police department and We will help you safely recover your vehicle So is there any private privacy concerns or considerations other than you know provide information like say for instance You have a car that's not stolen, but actually, you know, let's say to have a Registration to have the person owner has a warrant out for the rest with that information from this program be used for that as well No, so again the consent that we would obtain all of this is a testing that you will consent at a later date We're not using this consent We we can't use this consent to go to on-star my forwarder or if you have a Bluetooth device I can't do anything with that information So we would only track the vehicle if your car is reported stolen We obtain a consent at that time and then and then we would work with a third party to gain Location information most of the time that's going to be the community member that community member if they're paying for on-star They're paying for blue link to pay for a lot of these products or if they have that Bluetooth device like tile or air tag They're going to be the owner of that information. We're just asking for that information to be shared with us again This is a voluntary program I Don't but what I will say is I think that that percentage might be not necessarily helpful to us understanding How many people are tracking their vehicles because what we found is people that live People that live across the city are using tracking devices regardless of the vehicle On-starring so forth I'm glad you brought up that question so that's not necessarily the case so what we found in reaching out to these telematics Companies is that a lot of them will allow you to activate it after the car is stolen if that is the case then that might create a fee or a cost that would Be responsible to the the citizen that has their vehicle stolen To pay for to reactivate it But that's not that's not always going to be the case in some cases We might have where a telematics system or an infotainment system provider that will not provide us the information if the If they're not paying for that pay-to-play option Yes, sir And the other thing that I'll add to add to answer your question is We track the top 10 stolen vehicles most likely to be stolen and all of those vehicles are within that 2015 range And it was mentioned that in Cook County There was data that suggested that desire to steal a car when there was the use of a program like this went down Do you know what kind of data was collected to reach that conclusion? So the data that was obtained for that was based on jailhouse interviews So they did what's called TTP interviews inside the jail with offenders to learn more about The MO and people committed crime when this press when this program when their program Was presented that was where we got 50% reduction in desire that came back with that data But I will say that they rolled out this program publicly in October of 2022 They did this data about 30 days in before there was a big push out to not only the offenders But to the public so I believe and I'm confident that that number will only increase This is a question for the chief This all might be just be a coincidence, but earlier this year Governor Polis essentially asked lawmakers to create tougher laws around Car theft Is this a product of that sort of mentality coming from the top? No, you know as he mentioned this is something that we have been discussing and trying to identify solutions since late last year I know there's a statement made about wanting to make more car theft arrest obviously a product like this will help you guys out but Wanting to you know have the legal authority to make those arrests and How sentencing works when the person is you know arrested for a car theft is that all at all encouraging from the governor's push Certainly certainly because one of the things that we understand is helpful in crime prevention is surety consequence So the likelihood that someone is going to be arrested and then later held accountable and face consequences I think that that's going to help us significantly with reduction. I Saw that the first round of stickers was purchased by the Colorado Prevention Authority has there been any thought to potential long-term funding needs for the program Yeah, so what we've what we found is we've had a lot of different partners come forward and other jurisdictions So as we started putting this forward this program forward We had neighboring jurisdictions that found out about it and have started reaching out So working with the Colorado out of that prevention authority has been has been huge But potential other financial means to obtain more stickers or develop this program into a Metro wide program is a possibility So yeah, all options are on the table Correct so Yeah, if you have an air tag and if you look at the cost associated with these it really makes it equitable to the entire community Regardless if you have a vehicle that's you know worth a hundred thousand dollars or you have that six Disc CD changer in your vehicle You can open this up to to really any any community member by the purchase of one of those devices And we're not just talking Bluetooth devices. They're aftermarket GPS devices that are relatively inexpensive with inexpensive Service plans, but by far the cheapest option to do this is a Bluetooth tracker similar to the Apple air tag or the tile and other Bluetooth devices The only advice that I'll give on where to place it is put it in a place where an offender won't easily find it I don't want to give out an exact location so that we're advertising to the offenders Where we're going to be placing those but put it in a place where where the offender won't find it The Yeah Is this strictly for cars or would other vehicles like motorcycles be included so motorcycles can be included in this anything That's considered a motor vehicle But if you look at other other items across the board This isn't designed for those items, but people are already tracking those tracking those things if you look at construction sites a lot of construction equipment now has a Bluetooth device Attachment where you can put that on construction equipment and other items that are commonly stolen If you do not Ahead of time, but you have an airtight in your car and your car gets stolen You can't come to the place afterwards and say I have an airtight. Do you guys go find this thing? We will still go find that vehicle. So if we have information regardless if you sign up for the program We will we will follow up on that now as far as how we follow up on it in both situations It's going to be dependent on the variables that are there if we have the vehicle That's let's say and in the state of Wyoming We're going to be limited on what the Denver Police Department can do We can work as a referral agent at that time to work with the local agency to recover that vehicle So I want to make sure I understand how this will work You fill out this form and then your car gets stolen and I call you to say what's stolen And I've already opted at that point then you go Get the data to figure out where it is. Yeah, let's walk through that So you sign up for the program when you sign up for the program and fill out the registration form And we send you the two stickers. The stickers are important because we're advertising to Our offenders that your vehicle is being tracked Which will act as a deterrent of your vehicle getting stolen So we're trying to stop your vehicle from getting stolen initially If your vehicle is stolen then you contact the police department first thing You report it an officer will come out and obtain the information The officer will have information that you're part of the program through some Data that we put that we put into our rms and they'll ask you about it Once they ask you if you have real-time information because you pay for a provider Or if you have one of those providers that that has real-time information Give it to the officer the officer will then utilize that information to To take a good faith effort Let's say we come into a circumstance where that information is not readily available If that information is not readily available and you have a telematic system and gps system that you don't have the information We'll ask you to fill out a consent form completely voluntary And then we'll forward that to our detectives to work as your advocate to obtain the location information about your stolen property You mentioned other forms of transportation. You can already register bicycle and non motorized vehicle with dbd Do you have any plans to incorporate gps if i want to throw an air tracker in my bike To incorporate that in the bicycle stuff not currently so currently we're we're limiting it to motor vehicles I saw data in here about report of eagle soul last year. Is there any updated data for so far this year? I know it's just a couple months in but Uh, I do not have I don't have that information readily available In a way could you compare this maybe to like the doorbell video Subscriptions a lot of people are doing in different cities where you can say hey, I have a doorbell You can't watch it right now, but in the case you need it, you know where to find it Is it similar to that concept? I mean it's similar in the concept that we're we're utilizing existing technology To to deter crime. So yeah, I mean in that sense it is it is some It's also similar in the fact that we have to get that permission before we're able to do it Could you just clarify what a catalytic converter etching kit is? So catalytic converter etching kit is a a way for Community members to mark their catalytic converter and register it with a unique number So that does a couple things for us one when you get it There's a sticker that you place over your catalytic converter and then there's a A low acid level paint that you paint on there That's clear and then that will inscribe a unique number onto that catalytic converter Then you go online to a third party vendor And register to hey, this is my this is my catalytic converter So what that does is two things one it deters criminals from stealing that catalytic converter Because they know it's registered and then two if it unfortunately it is stolen and law enforcement comes across that catalytic converter They can work with that that that company to see who is that catalytic converter registered to How much is this cost and all like for an owner, you know, I don't know if you set the price or anything like that As far as the the services and stuff. Yes. So it really depends on the provider. So if you look at A bluetooth device, you're talking less than 30 dollars with no service fee If you're talking about an aftermarket gps device, you could be talking between 30 and 50 dollars with a service fee In probably about the 20 dollar range Is that annual monthly what it's completely dependent on the provider But there's no fee here. There's no fee here to register for this program. This is an absolutely free program That the Denver police department is is asking you to register So if you have a car that's already equipped with a tracking Sort of mechanism built in within the car or if you are one who has an air tag and you're able to come to police Even if you're not opted into this you said that you guys would still be able to use those devices to track the car So it's really the incentive or the benefit of opting in really to just expedite the amount of time You guys have expedite the process to locating the vehicle Yes, so I mean you you talk about expediting that and shortening that time that that vehicle is stolen So I think I mentioned earlier, but of last year when we looked at all the vehicles that were stolen There were 70 percent of those of the arrest 70 percent of those arrests involved the secondary crime So that could have been a property crime a crime of violence Um, a lot of different crimes. So if we can decrease that window that that vehicle is stolen Ideally we decrease other related crimes If I fill out the form and I registered then my car gets stolen and for whatever reason I don't want you all to use the tracking device after all. Am I able to say no at that time? Yeah, so if you do not want us to use the tracking information at the time of time of the theft Don't fill out the consent because that's the only time that we're going to utilize it and that can sense Really only going to be used if you have a third party third party vendor So Yes, you can and then let's say you're part of the program and you no longer want to be part of the program If that's the case you can send us an email which is provided on the the website and say I would like to opt out of the program and we will remove you from the program Do you guys currently or do you plan to have any kind of program for people who can't No, 30 bucks might not sound like a lot but some people it's a lot to help provide people Who can't afford an air tag or after market advice with it. It's something that we've talked about but we're not at a place Where we're doing that currently Have you talked to dealerships about this because I mean there's their new car owners that might not get their title in You know for a certain amount of time and their tag and everything like that registered and they may be vulnerable there Have you talked to them about this program? You know part of the auto theft prevention throughout the city has involved us partnering with not only the dealerships But with the manufacturers themselves. So yeah, those conversations have been at In addition to that kind of outreach and I know you mentioned you've had some meetings in district three What other groups have you reached out to to start publicizing this? Well today's the big the big first push, right? So I appreciate you all being here The we presented this at our community advisory Meeting that we hold once a month a couple different times now And the main reason for that was to get public feedback We've also presented this in our Lowry neighborhood At a community meeting to see what the input was and i'll tell you I I cannot say thank you to those community members enough Because a lot of times they mentioned things and provided feedback that was in our blind spot So I think that feedback loop between the community And the police department is extremely important on getting the program like this off the ground I just clarify on the The thing next week from four to seven I'm in here Friday. That's at the district stations, but not here Correct. It's at all six district stations not at headquarters And again, it's it's four to seven p.m. Every district will have that I will say that some of the this some of the districts are expanding on those hours So if you live in one of those communities, please look at our social media posts And there are some additional opportunities beyond that as well Thank you You