“Rat Trap” vehicles

18th May 2012

Durham Constabulary is always looking at innovative ways of apprehending and identifying criminals who target motor vehicles to either steal or steal from. To help us with this your local neighbourhood police teams have deployed a number of vehicles on your streets which are sometimes referred to as ‘sting’ or ‘rat trap’ vehicles.

These vehicles have state of the art technology fitted to them which enables us to either apprehend the offender at the time of committing the offence or identify who is responsible and arrest them at their home addresses.

When asked about this ongoing initiative Inspector Mark Hall said, “Let me reassure our communities that we are using every available means to initially prevent and where necessary detect crime. The use of these ‘rat trap’ vehicles across our streets is only one of our many different ways in which Durham Constabulary is tackling crime in your local area.”

The police also want the community to assist in the prevention of vehicle crime. A vast majority of these types of offences are committed by opportunist thieves who see items of value being left on visible display within vehicle. Durham Constabulary want to work with our communities in the prevention of vehicle crime and Inspector Hall went on to say, “We urge the public to remove from their vehicles any items of value while your vehicle is unattended or if this is not possible then to place these items out of view”.

It is not only the initial loss of property and damage to the motor vehicle which effects us as individuals but the bigger picture is that if we have to make a claim on our individual motor vehicle insurance policies then we find that future monetary premiums tend to increase.

Pc 1636 John Seymour
Trimdon Beat Officer
Sedgefield Neighbourhood Police Team
john.seymour@durham.pnn.police.uk
Non – Emergency Number – 101
Durham Control Room 0345 60 60 365
6614670