About IMPACT & The Bait Car Program

I.M.P.A.C.T.

This website is operated by the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team (IMPACT) which is based in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. Our team consists of eighteen specialized police auto theft investigators from five police forces in the Greater Vancouver Area. The mandate of IMPACT is to develop innovative strategies to reduce auto crime in British Columbia – this website is just one of those strategies. IMPACT is currently operating four major initiatives: the Bait Car program, Automated Licence Plate Recognition, the stolen vehicle Enforcement Team and public awareness.

IMPACT operates and manages the Bait Car Program for the Greater Vancouver area, Vancouver Island, the BC Interior, and the North – it is the largest Bait Car fleet in North America. The Vancouver Police Department operate their own bait car program for the actual City of Vancouver, but IMPACT provides bait cars for the surrounding 16 municipalities.

A bait car is a vehicle owned by the police and is intended to be stolen. After a bait car is stolen, the location, speed, and direction of travel of the vehicle is monitored by police dispatchers at E-Comm through GPS tracking. Everything that takes place inside the bait car is caught on audio and video. The dispatcher will coordinate a police response and once officers are in position behind the bait car, the engine will be disabled at the click of a mouse button which allows for the quick arrest of the car thieves.

The Bait Car web site would not have become a reality without the help of the following people:

• Web design, setup, configuration and hosting has been arranged and donated by Shane Birley of Left Right Minds.
• Richard Lau donated this site’s domain name, and was instrumental in the startup of the Bait Car web site.