Understanding and Preventing Car Crime

From theft and vandalism to hit-and-run and arson, car crime is a national issue that continues to plague many States.

The first step towards tackling car crime is to understand the root causes behind it, any contributing factors, and how you can prevent your business or properties from being impacted by this. 

Being the USA's leading supplier of mobile surveillance parking lot security solutions, we’ve formed a detailed guide on car crime and prevention tools you can utilize.

What is Car Crime?

Car crime is a blanket term covering several car-related crimes: vehicle theft, property theft from inside or outside a vehicle, and vandalism.

Unlike other crimes that can occur in a retail or business environment, such as shoplifting and burglary, car crimes directly impact your tenants, visitors, or customers.

These types of crimes can negatively impact their experiences with you and have lasting effects on their relationships with your business. 

It could prevent them from utilizing your parking lot or business following such incidents, in turn creating financial loss for you.

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What Are The Most Common Car Crimes?

Motor vehicle theft is the third most common property crime in the United States. 

However, with vehicle theft having recently decreased over the last year, many businesses may feel a sense of security now, but this is dangerous. Car theft is still a prevalent issue, and there are various other car-related crimes that every State needs to remain aware of. 

The most common car-related crimes that occur are as follows:

• Theft of vehicles
• Theft of property from vehicles
• Hit-and-runs
• Vandalism to vehicles
• Catalytic converter theft
• Fuel theft

Compared to other locations, vehicles in parking lots are exposed to much greater risks due to their open access and often assumed, poor security.

And although parking lots are external to most properties, as business owners, landlords, and managers, you are responsible for the security of it and those who utilize it. 

Therefore, you could be held liable for any car crime faced by those using your parking lot, creating large legal and financial fees for you. 

Repeated incidents could cause long-term reputational damage that prevents existing and new users from using your parking lot. 

Find Out More on Common Parking Lot Crimes

What Should You Look Out For With Car Crime?

There are numerous contributing factors to car crime and in order to prevent this from impacting your business you need to understand the conditions that allow for these crimes to occur. 

Below, we explore the who, where, and when of car crimes, all of which will help build and establish this knowledge:

Who Commits Car Crimes?

Car crime can be committed by various individuals, however, generally you’ll find it will be opportunist criminals and organized crime groups.

Both will be looking for high-value resale items, whether it be the vehicle itself, car components such as catalytic converters, or goods from the car such as electronic devices (GPS navigation systems/phones, etc.).

Metal theft has risen dramatically over the years due to the resale value, meaning catalytic converter thefts continue to remain at steady rate, attracting the interest of hardened criminal groups who can remove upwards of 100 units in less than an hour. 

Although opportunistic thieves are often less coordinated with their place, they carry high amounts of knowledge and experience on car crime. This means strikes are quick and efficient, with minimal risk of their identity being revealed. 

They will look for personal items in open view, unlocked cars, or simply opportunities to commit random acts of destruction such as vandalism.

Discover The Top 10 Most Commonly Stolen Items From Vehicles

Where Do Car Crimes Occur?

Where a vehicle is parked directly correlates with its crime risk.

Your parking lot’s layout and design could unknowingly be creating various opportunities for criminals to steal or damage vehicles there. Examples of this are as follows:

• Several vehicles parked alongside each other, providing line-of-sight issues and hiding spots
• Cars left unattended for long periods of time
• Open access to pedestrian traffic
• Lack of surveillance or security provisions in place at the parking lot

Some of the most prone locations to car theft are:

• Retail parking lots
• Commercial parking lots in urban areas
• Parking facilities with easy access to freeways
• Surface lots with open pedestrian access
• School and university parking lots
• Medical center parking facilities

Crime risk can also depend on other locational factors such as by State. Unfortunately with certain States there is a greater chance your business or parking lot could be impacted by car crime.

According to the most recent statistics from NICB, the top 5 States for vehicle theft alone: 

1. District of Columbia
2. California
3. New Mexico
4. Colorado
5. Nevada

Risk assessing your location and parking lot layout will help uncover any blindspots, weak access points, and unknown dangers that before may not have been visible to the human eye.

When Do Car Crimes Normally Take Place?

The times of day, week, and year when car crimes occur follow a similar trend to burglaries.

It is unlikely a criminal will strike at your parking lots in broad daylight or when your parking facility is busy.

Crimes typically occur under cover of darkness or when cars are left unattended for extended periods of time - such as in the evening or at weekends. 

Typically, seasonality plays a role, though experts are split on this logic.

Some studies indicate that criminals are more active in the Summer months when it is warmer, with others highlighting Winter months are their long periods of darkness as the time when criminals choose to strike.

This is why all-year-round protection is required for parking lots to ensure maximized security, whether it be the middle of Summer or during Winter

How Can Car Crimes be Prevented?

At LotGuard, we specialize in providing Mobile Video Surveillance Cameras specifically optimized for deployment in parking lot environments. 

The results our units deliver for our client base confirm our belief that surveillance cameras are the most effective way of preventing car crime, mainly when the cameras are backed by live remote monitoring and proactive response. 

There are several other steps you can take to enhance the security profile of your lots. Below, we have highlighted some of the key crime prevention methods that you can utilize depending on the type of lot you manage, and it's the layout:

Restrict Pedestrian Access Through Your Parking Facility 

The risk of parking lots is the presence of both vehicles and pedestrians leading to potential car accidents and other crimes.

Therefore, for pedestrian safety you should restrict the available routes throughout the parking lot that they can use to reduce the risk of injury or worse taking place.

To do this, assess your parking lot’s layout and establish where a safe route would be for pedestrians. 

You should keep routes to a minimum, but also ensure that the routes can manage the number of pedestrians without creating more risk from overcrowding in particular areas. 

Improve Your Parking Lot’s Pedestrian Safety

Install Video Surveillance Cameras

Often considered the best form of defense against parking lot crimes, specifically car-related crimes, installing video surveillance cameras offers both criminal deterrence and live monitoring.

Without a live monitoring system, there will be no video evidence or any chance of intercepting and preventing crime at that moment.

Standing at 20 ft, the LotGuard PRO Surveillance Trailer is a strong criminal deterrent that live monitors and records your parking lot 24/7/365.

Backed by remote monitoring services whereby security experts live monitor footage, assess threats, and respond appropriately to prevent crime from happening in the first place. 

Compared to other security services, our Trailers can be moved by yourself to various areas of your parking, depending on your surveillance needs.

Highlight The Presence of Cameras With Signage

There are many uses for signage in parking lots, but for security, you can utilize them to highlight any surveillance cameras on site.

Within this signage, including information on the monitoring taking place, any criminal repercussions, and a number to report crime, will all help boost your security. 

They work as physical criminal deterrents as for opportunistic criminals, they will be less likely to target a parking lot they are aware is being monitored by security. 

Keep Your Parking Lot Well Maintained to Reduce Hiding Spots 

Criminals are knowledgeable in how to successfully approach crime, and one weakness they will always look for in parking lots are for any hiding spots.

They will utilize these hiding spots to conceal their identity whilst committing car crimes throughout your parking lot. 

To avoid this, you should aim to keep your parking lot maintained by trimming any shrubbery on site, placing lighting in any known dark spots, and ensuring your parking lot layout does not create obstructed views for any surveillance. 

Install Security Lighting For Nighttime Parking Lot Crime Prevention

As mentioned, lighting should be used in any known areas that remain dark during the day and at night, however, overall you should consider security lighting during the nighttime. 

For some parking lots, you’ll find that your site and any cars located there will become more of a target for criminals. This is because it is easier to hide their identities and avoid capture from Law Enforcement.

Placing lighting around your lot removes that sense of security and makes it simpler for witnesses or surveillance systems to identify any criminals.

However, do keep in mind that placing lighting too near to your surveillance system can inhibit their capabilities, so ensure there is enough distance between them.

Reduce The Number of Entrance And Exit Points

Managing the security of a parking lot with multiple entrances and exits is extremely difficult, if not impossible to do at a high-quality level. 

Therefore, to both support any surveillance solutions set to manage this and to help reduce any security risks to cars parked there, you should restrict entrances and exits. 

For some, this may be minimizing it to 1 or 2 entrances and exit points, and for larger parking lots, potentially 3 to 4 access points. 

This will simplify security management and make monitoring easier if any car crime takes place to find those involved.

Reduce After-Hours Traffic

Particularly beneficial for retail stores and offices where there will be closing times where less cars will be present within the parking lot, you need to reduce the after-hours traffic entering your parking lot. 

The more cars driving in and out of your parking lot will make tracking any suspicious behavior back to that of the individual(s) displaying it.

To reduce this, setting up some form of access control can minimize traffic. From pin pad entry, perimeter fencing, barriers, and security guard units, you can utilize these systems to prevent any unauthorized access.

Encourage Employees or Guests to Use Steering Locks or Other Security Devices

In addition to implementing parking lot security, you can also encourage employees and guests to use steering locks and other security devices to protect their own cars.

These devices will personally protect their vehicles in case any criminals enter the parking lot and are looking to commit illegal activities against them.

Encouraging this provides employees and visitors additional security to any parking lot surveillance already in place.

Secure The Perimeter of Your Lot With Fencing 

Although not suitable for all parking lots, perimeter fencing is beneficial for restricting access and in creating a visible criminal deterrent. 

You can install them around the perimeter of your parking lot to restrict access to individuals except through the entrances and exits provided.

For private parking lots, you could even implement gates at any access points that will boost the security of any cars by only allowing access to those authorized.

Below you can download our free guide on recognizing and responding to car crimes:
Guide: Recognizing and Responding to Car Crimes

Why Choose LotGuard’s Parking Lot Surveillance Solutions?

LotGuard is the USA's leading supplier and specialist manufacturer of mobile surveillance cameras that help reduce crimes such as vandalism and theft towards vehicles, whilst keeping your employees and visitors safe. 

LotGuard units can operate without onsite power, internet connectivity, and/or mounting poles, making them fully autonomous and completely mobile.

They can be provided customized security camera profiles to meet your requirements including, IR PTZ cameras, thermal cameras, License Plate Recognition cameras (LPR), and four-way multi sensor cameras.

Every LotGuard camera can deliver live and recorded footage through cellular connectivity.

We can back every unit with a fully-managed service, including live video monitoring and response, including alarms, live audio challenge, and Law Enforcement dispatch.

Interested in learning more about LotGuard’s parking lot surveillance solutions? Get in touch with an expert today!

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