From: believer@telepath.com Subject: IP: Tracking: Bar Codes/Elec.Tags for License Plates Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 11:28:20 -0500 To: believer@telepath.com Source: London Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000150689433551&rtmo=Vu5wFmwx&atmo=99999 999&P4_FOLLOW_ON=/98/10/17/ntag17.html&pg=/et/98/10/17/ntag17.html Car tagging may help cut theft, says minister By Andrew Sparrow, Political Correspondent CAR number plates could be fitted with bar codes or electronic tags in a move to cut crime. Alun Michael, a Home Office minister, said it was "odd" that while consumer goods such as whisky bottles could be tagged, valuable items like cars were not dealt with in the same way. Tagging is being considered as one option that could help the Government hit its target of reducing car crime by 30 per cent over the next five years. Mr Michael said the Government's Vehicle Crime Reduction Action Team, which includes ministers, police officers and car manufacturers, was examining the practicalities of improving security features on cars. The Government would also improve security at car parks, where more than 30 per cent of all auto crime occurred. Cars left in car parks were 200 times more likely to be stolen or broken into than those garaged at home, Mr Michael told an Association of Chief Police Officers car crime conference. Yet car parks that had improved their security had seen break-ins fall by an average of 70 per cent. Mr Michael said the action team would also encourage owners of older cars to make them harder to steal. A car registered in 1985 was 14 times more likely to be taken than a new car. Manufacturers will be urged to make their products more theft-proof. Mr Michael said innovations that the Government would like to see introduced as standard included toughened glass windows to ward off opportunist thieves stealing stereos and handbags from vehicles. Delegates heard that commonly quoted statistics placing Britain at the head of the European vehicle theft league might be misleading. Elaine Hardy, of the International Car Distribution Programme, said that while figures showed vehicle theft in England and Wales to be roughly double the European average as a percentage of the number of vehicles on the roads, definitions of car theft varied enormously. For example, she said, in the Netherlands a vehicle was listed merely as "missing" until it had been gone for more than a month. In other countries, cars recovered within 90 days were wiped from the figures. The true story could be that domestic statistics were roughly comparable to others in Europe. © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 1998. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer ****************************************************