New York Metropolis is including a brand new weapon to its crime-fighting arsenal: Apple AirTags.
No less than some persons are eligible to obtain the free bluetooth-powered monitoring gadgets to fight a spike in automobile thefts within the 5 boroughs, Mayor Eric Adams introduced on Sunday. The town will distribute 500 of the gadgets, donated by the Affiliation for a Higher New York, to residents, together with within the Bronx the place automobile thefts rose 19.4% from this time final yr, NYPD data reveals. Citywide, the variety of stolen automobiles has climbed from 3,756 to 4,184, up 11.4%, over that very same time span.
“It permits our officers to be extra strategic whereas mitigating pursuits, preserving us secure and preserving the neighborhood secure,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell mentioned of the AirTags. “Hopefully we get well your automobile undamaged, we take a nasty man off the streets, and also you get a automobile again to conduct your online business and it would not impose in your life.”
Automobile homeowners can stash the AirTags in unassuming locations, just like the automobile’s glove compartment or trunk. If a person’s car is stolen, they’ll find it in an app that tracks the person’s automobile in actual time utilizing a bluetooth sign.
Automobile homeowners should notify the police if they think their car is stolen. The NYPD is not going to have entry to the situation of automobiles tagged with the free gadgets, Mayor Adams famous.
“This isn’t a centralized monitoring system the place we’re accountable for monitoring somebody’s automobile,” Adams mentioned.
Nonetheless, some social media customers expressed their discomfort over utilizing the police-provided trackers.
“Certain Air Tag your Automobile for the POLICE,” one Twitter person wrote. “How concerning the police giv[ing] us GEOTAGs or observe[ing] the automobile utilizing your navigation system already put in in your automobile?”
Auto thefts fueled by TikTok
New York Metropolis auto thefts have reached a 16-year excessive, mirroring a nationwide uptick in carjackings, in accordance with NYPD data.
A TikTok development that encourages customers to steal Kias and Hyundais appears to be driving the latest spike in automobile hijackings, Mayor Adams mentioned. The “Kia Problem” encourages would-be thieves to hijack Hyundai and Kia automobiles by utilizing a USB twine to take advantage of a vulnerability within the automobiles’ designs. The problem has racked up 5.3 billion views on TikTok.
NYPD officers recorded 104 Hyundai thefts and 99 Kia thefts final December, the NYPD reported. By comparability, simply 12 Hyundais and 10 Kias had been reported stolen in September of that very same yr.
Automobile thefts have reached their highest stage nationwide since 2008, in accordance with a November knowledge analysis by the Nationwide Insurance coverage Crime Bureau. Motorcar thefts throughout 30 main cities have elevated by 59% from 2019 to 2022, in accordance with an evaluation by the Council on Felony Justice (CCJ).
The rise in thefts corresponds to the rising worth of used automobiles and automobile elements, which surged attributable to a pandemic-driven scarcity of recent automobiles, in accordance with a report from Deloitte.
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