Center for Problem-Oriented Policing
POP Center Problems Carjacking Summary
Appendix: Summary of Responses to Carjacking
The table below summarizes the responses to carjacking, the mechanism by which they are intended to work, the conditions under which they ought to work best, and some factors you should consider before implementing a particular response. It is critical that you tailor responses to local circumstances, and that you can justify each response based on reliable analysis. In most cases, an effective strategy will involve implementing several different responses. Enforcement responses alone are seldom effective in reducing or solving the problem.
| Response No. | Page No. | Response | How It Works | Works Best If… | Considerations |
| General Responses to Carjacking | |||||
| 1 | Establishing carjacking task forces | Promotes collaboration among police, other criminal justice agencies, community-based organizations, and researchers for the purpose of addressing difficult crime problems | …there is active participation by all relevant local, state, and federal agencies, as well as relevant non-criminal justice organizations and the work is informed by a deep understanding of the local carjacking problem | Task forces are challenging to manage as each partner entity has its own priorities and objectives | |
| Specific Responses to Carjacking | |||||
| Offender-based Responses | |||||
| 2 | Identifying and focusing attention on repeat criminal offenders | Reducing criminal offending generally tends to also reduce specific crime types, including carjacking | …your community’s repeat offenders are also engaged in carjacking | If carjackers in your jurisdiction tend to specialize in that one crime, then broader repeat offender initiatives are unlikely to affect carjacking | |
| Victim-based Responses | |||||
| 3 | Launching carjacking awareness and prevention publicity campaigns | Raise drivers’ awareness of carjacking risks in terms of place, time, vehicle make, and carjacking methods | …the campaigns include practical and specific recommendations for reducing the risk of carjacking victimization | Unless carefully designed and targeted to the at-risk audience, crime prevention publicity campaigns can be costly, but ineffective | |
| Place-based Responses | |||||
| 4 | Reducing the risks of carjacking at high-risk locations | Reduces the opportunities for carjacking by increasing risks of detection and the effort required to carjack vehicles | …carjackings cluster in significant numbers at specific locations | Because carjacking can occur in any location where operated vehicles are close to pedestrians, there might be no specific locations where carjacking commonly occurs | |
| 5 | Make vehicles less attractive targets for carjackers | Leads carjackers to conclude that the risks of detection are greater than the rewards | …carjackers are averse to the risk of detection and don’t benefit greatly from the crime | Carjacking for thrills rather than for profit makes carjackers care less about the attractiveness of the vehicle | |
| 6 | Educate vehicle owners about remotely disabling their carjacked vehicle | Increases the probability that the vehicle will not operate for long after being stolen and thereby makes carjacking a less appealing crime to commit | …many vehicles are equipped with remote disabling technology | Many vehicles won’t come equipped with remoted disabling technology and many of those owners won’t invest in installing it | |
| 7 | Track carjacked vehicles | Increases the probability and speed of police recovery of the vehicle, making the crime less rewarding if financial gain is the motive for committing it | …vehicle owners can quickly authorize police to receive the vehicle location information | Many vehicles won’t have tracking technology installed | |
| 8 | Set up 24-hour hotlines with vehicle manufacturers | Increases the likelihood that police will be able to locate the stolen vehicle quickly, thereby discouraging carjackers from committing the crime | …police can be quickly authorized to receive notification of the vehicle’s location | Requires some administrative effort to establish 24-hour notification arrangements with vehicle manufacturers | |
| 9 | Install facial recognition technology in vehicles | Prevents starting or operating a vehicle if the driver is not a recognized authorized driver | …high-quality facial-recognition technology is installed in the vehicle | Many vehicle owners will not choose to invest in facial-recognition technology due to cost, privacy preferences, or a desire to avoid possible inconvenience in operating one’s vehicle | |
| 10 | Make vehicle key fobs hard to clone | Makes stolen vehicles harder to sell; requires carjacker to take more time to find the key fob in the vehicle or rob the driver of it | ...vehicle manufacturers are willing to redesign key fobs | Requires coordinated police communication with vehicle manufacturers who might be reluctant to redesign their product | |
| Responses with Limited Effectiveness | |||||
| 11 | Arresting and prosecuting carjackers | Deters carjackers from repeating their crime and deters others who learn of arrests from committing carjackings | …arrest rates are high enough to persuade carjackers that the risk of apprehension is unacceptably high | Given the suddenness of carjackings, victims commonly have difficulty describing or identifying the carjacker, making arrest and prosecution difficult even if the vehicle is recovered and/or a person driving the vehicle is detained |