Help Prevent Car Theft: Let the Denver Police Department Track Your Stolen Vehicle's Location

If you ask the Denver Police Department, the surveillance state could pose one advantage: helping prevent car theft and recover stolen cars.

The DPD unveiled a new DenverTrack program that enables those who live or work in Denver and have vehicles with installed GPS, as well as those who have purchased Bluetooth tracking devices, to register with the DPD so that the police can quickly access location information if the vehicle is stolen.

Those who register will also receive stickers to place on the driver’s-side door and front windshield of their vehicles to let potential thieves know it's enrolled in the DenverTrack program.

“Vehicles that are newer than 2015 — the vast majority of them already have some level of tracking built into them,” said DPD Lieutenant Ryan Harris at a March 3 press conference announcing the program. “This could be an infotainment system. It could be a telematics system, GPS and other devices. People across our city, regardless of what type of car they have, are taking it upon themselves to place some kind of tracking device in the vehicle, and that could be a Bluetooth device, it could be an aftermarket GPS.”

The goal of the program is to make sure the DPD can access the location resources people are already using to recover stolen cars and let those who might steal a car know they have that capability.

Harris works in DPD District 3 and says that when he was appointed there in late 2022, his dad told him about getting his car stolen in that district in 1981. Harris was struck by the fact that the problem had only gotten worse: In 2022, there were 14,900 reported stolen vehicles in Denver.

He began looking for ideas to thwart the thefts; ultimately, the district found a potential solution in Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago. Police there had developed a similar program to combat carjacking, deploying it in October 2022. After a month of interviews with people arrested for various crimes, Cook County found that stickers advertising a vehicle as part of the program decreased the desire to steal that vehicle by 50 percent.

“This isn't going to be perfect, but this is something that the community members can do to make their car less likely to be a car that's going to be stolen,” Harris said.

Of those nearly 15,000 stolen vehicles, DPD has arrested 1,484 suspects.

Another goal of the program, however, is that if thieves aren’t deterred by the stickers, they can be caught more easily.

To enroll, people can visit the DenverTrack website and fill out the online form. The person filling out the form must be the registered owner of the vehicle and must be able to specify what type of tracking device it contains, be it a manufacturer-provided device or one they add themselves, such as an Apple AirTag or Tile. By consenting to have data related to vehicle location be accessed by the Denver Police Department before a vehicle is stolen, the DPD can move more quickly if it happens, rather than having to wait for a subpoena.

Those who register will then be sent the stickers to place on their cars. The DPD also has partnered with the Denver Sheriff’s Department to place posters advertising the DenverTrack program inside intake pods in jails so that those who enter jails will know about the program and be less likely to steal a car.

The program is 100 percent voluntary; the DPD won’t be given tracking information unless a car is stolen and the person who owns the car gives their consent at that time. In cases where the location device was purchased by the vehicle owner, the owner is most likely the one who will give the police access.

In 2022, 70 percent of the people arrested for auto theft were arrested for a secondary crime after stealing the vehicle. According to the DPD, tracking car location more quickly could decrease those secondary crimes, too.

“Everything starts with vehicle crime: All of our burglaries, or other property crimes, and violent crime starts with the use of a stolen vehicle,” Harris said. “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.”

At the time someone reports their vehicle stolen, they still have to give consent again to let DPD track the vehicle, so even those who registered for the program who change their mind about vehicle tracking aren’t obligated to give consent. Additionally, those who register for the program but don’t want to be registered anymore can email [email protected] to withdraw.

Those who don’t register but have their cars stolen can still give DPD tracking information after the fact, but having a jump on the process helps, Harris said.

Denver police chief Ron Thomas said that all of the top most-stolen vehicles in Denver were made after 2015 and likely have built-in tracking services. Those who don’t have built-in tracking can buy their own device and hide it in a hard-to-find place.

The Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority purchased 10,000 stickers to kick off the program, and Harris said the department is exploring other partnerships to fund and expand the program going forward, including nearby police jurisdictions that are interested in helping it go metro-wide.

Harris also stressed that people should not be tracking down their own stolen vehicles, even if they have GPS information. That can lead to dangerous interactions between car thieves and owners.

“What this program does is provides us a safe alternative to finding your own car,” he said. “Do not go find your own stolen car. Work with the police department, and we will help you safely recover it.”

Head to any DPD district station between 4 and 7 p.m. from March 6 to 10 to receive help registering for the program; check in with your local district to see if it has expanded hours. While supplies last, DPD will also be giving out catalytic converter etching kits and license plate theft-prevention screws.