Baitcar homevideo

June 2, 2005 11:37 AM

Vancouver's Bait Car Program. Its not just for stopping crimes; it now also provides tons of funny videos, via the police's own blog.
posted by Iax (35 comments total)

Featuring our patented EntrapmentCam.
posted by gwint at 11:41 AM on June 2, 2005

link isn't working
posted by mrgrimm at 11:56 AM on June 2, 2005

dammit, the server's down. You got my hopes up for nothing :(
posted by cmonkey at 11:56 AM on June 2, 2005

How is this entrapment, gwint? It's not like the police are making an offer to an individual to commit a crime.
posted by solid-one-love at 11:59 AM on June 2, 2005

Reminds me of when I was a bored teen working at a bike shop. For kicks, someone would grab an extra bike of theirs, loosen the nuts on the wheels and headset, then leave it unlocked at the Mall. You'd sit in the parking lot and wait for someone to make a break with it, and crash soon after. Hilarity ensued.
posted by mathowie at 12:10 PM on June 2, 2005

Then what happened, Matt?
posted by Optimus Chyme at 12:22 PM on June 2, 2005

Will it stop the crimanals though? [See tags]
posted by sudasana at 12:23 PM on June 2, 2005

Sweet Jesus! Make the link work!
posted by McBain at 12:25 PM on June 2, 2005

Worked for me, this isn't entrapment, this is allowing a car to be stolen that they can then stop and arrest the theives. Nobody is being coerced into stealing the cars, they're just being caught and prosecuted alot faster.

More power to them, car thieves suck.
posted by fenriq at 12:34 PM on June 2, 2005

Here's a link to the Vancouver PD's baitcar program.

The real question is: do crimanals always break in through the trunk?

sorry
posted by googly at 12:36 PM on June 2, 2005

If I was a cynic, I'd suggest that there was some politics involved in todays launch of the Vancouver dumbest crooks videos.

And am I the only Vancouverite that despises those mean spirited immature ads touting the bait car program on the radio? I wish I could find them online, because they seem to pretty accurately detail the tenor of any interaction with the VPD.
posted by Keith Talent at 12:43 PM on June 2, 2005

Keith Talent: No, I always thought they were fairly representative of the perceived VPD attitude as well. But I still like the program.
posted by sharpener at 12:48 PM on June 2, 2005

And am I the only Vancouverite that despises those mean spirited immature ads touting the bait car program on the radio? I wish I could find them online, because they seem to pretty accurately detail the tenor of any interaction with the VPD.

/signed.
posted by The God Complex at 1:09 PM on June 2, 2005

Works for me. I just wish I could legally booby trap my property - like thumbtacks glued under my car door handle.
posted by tomplus2 at 1:32 PM on June 2, 2005

there were print ads for the vancouver program in the link googly posted. smart-ass is rather unflattering for a PD.
posted by slimslowslider at 1:35 PM on June 2, 2005

Hello, fellow Vancouverites.
posted by ori at 1:44 PM on June 2, 2005

Nah, the VPD are going to have to come up with more original content. Guy Ritchie's production co. Ska, had Swag on Channel 5 in the UK in 2003 featuring the truck that turned into a mobile cage when the thief climbed in, the TV that broadcast pictures of the thief trying to nick it and a curious spot that featured minor UK celebrities convincing members of the public to commit crimes with them with remarkable success.
posted by BoundlessJoy at 1:46 PM on June 2, 2005

Neat. They should do it in Toronto with bicycles. ;)
posted by dobbs at 1:56 PM on June 2, 2005

I love the bait car ads as they play exclusively on the radio, and I don't know about you but most people I know listen to the radio in the car, a place many car thieves probably find themselves most often post-theft... somebody needs to think through their choice of medium. I would've gone with flyers in urban areas.
posted by mek at 2:29 PM on June 2, 2005

woohoo seems to be back up now!
posted by shepd at 2:42 PM on June 2, 2005

102,000 Hits to BaitCar.com in Past 34 Hours!

Click whores.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:46 PM on June 2, 2005

Man, Canada's great!

Video: Mr. Innocent
Innocent until arrested.
posted by rxrfrx at 3:01 PM on June 2, 2005

Neat. They should do it in Toronto with bicycles. ;)

Damn right. I'm not trying to be ironic when I say that while crimes like rape and murder should be top priorities for police, I really wish they would divert some time to go after the guys that stole my bike. A few "bait bikes" would be awesome.
posted by bobo123 at 3:16 PM on June 2, 2005

It's my understanding that bait cars have become fairly common in urban centers with car theft problems. Because they work.

It's not entrapment. It's just a car sitting parked on the street. That happens to be equipped to record what transpires inside of it.
posted by raedyn at 3:26 PM on June 2, 2005

I love the bait car ads as they play exclusively on the radio, and I don't know about you but most people I know listen to the radio in the car, a place many car thieves probably find themselves most often post-theft... somebody needs to think through their choice of medium. I would've gone with flyers in urban area.

The also advertise the program on the bus and Skytrain, just in case you were getting fed up with public transit and decided to drive, I suppose....

Site crashes Safari almost instantaneously. Three times in a row. I just thought I'd mention that.
posted by jokeefe at 3:33 PM on June 2, 2005

"Due to the popularity of BaitCar.com, we are upgrading our server to service our visitors better. We thank you for your patience and will return shortly."
posted by quonsar at 4:51 PM on June 2, 2005

Why hasn't this been done before in, like, every town on the planet? Cops scared they'll catch too many crooks?

I like the idea of bait bikes too, bobo123. The amount of bike theft from university campuses is a joke where I live. It's almost like an unwritten agreement between university *ahem* security and the thieves. A bait bike program would be a great idea, and it would most definitely work.

Pity it's such a screamingly obvious idea and it took a blokey-type website to make it popular, but I hope this catches on.


ps: Dunno why, but I got the vision of a guy pleasuring himself as he wrote this in the comments section:

"Just watching the Bait Car program and Police in action via this website was exciting and an adrenilan rush."


pps: I hope that entrapment quip was supposed to be a joke!
posted by uncanny hengeman at 7:13 PM on June 2, 2005

sudasana: Will it stop the crimanals though? [See tags]

I think, of course, he meant "craminals"...one who stuffs many crimes into a single incident.
posted by dejah420 at 7:17 PM on June 2, 2005

well, that was an unfortunate typo...


The site has comments enabled, I wonder if spammers will try posting their crap on a site run by the police.
posted by Iax at 8:48 PM on June 2, 2005

These videos are just the thing for a Friday afternoon...

Note: Above link goes to Archive.org. BaitCar.com's server is overloaded at the moment.

Entertaining. Thank you, Internet!
posted by cup at 9:19 PM on June 2, 2005

Argh. My last and only beautiful bike was stolen in Van... from the bike racks in front of the law school.

I knew it was too beautiful to hold on to...

Yes, bait bikes, bait bikes.
posted by dreamsign at 10:17 PM on June 2, 2005

Why hasn't this been done before in, like, every town on the planet? Cops scared they'll catch too many crooks?

Because, until recently, the cost of the various technologies required were too prohibitive for this to be widely deployed. It's quite a lot of money to be throwing at one specific crime when most police departments are already under very tight budgets.
posted by randomstriker at 12:25 AM on June 3, 2005

I like how they have "404" as a feature under 'popular content.'
posted by greatgefilte at 8:38 PM on June 3, 2005

I believe ICBC fronted most of the money.

From watching the videos its clear that the crooks are worried about baitcars, but they each seemed to have diffrent reasons for thinking the baitcar was a regular car.
posted by Iax at 10:10 PM on June 3, 2005

Just as stupid as our criminals, only with funnier accents!

I love that the guy in "What's All This?" had stolen copies of GTAIII and Vice City on him when he was arrested.
posted by sellout at 10:34 PM on June 3, 2005