Mesa County law enforcement leaders have seen a decrease in auto theft cases over the past year.
Two programs created to specifically combat vehicle theft may have helped with that decrease, or will help bring the numbers down even further.
"It's gone way down in Western Colorado, but we're still seeing some motor vehicle theft rings," District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said.
As of April 21, auto thefts statewide were down 29%, according to Mesa County Sheriff's Office Sergeant Brian Eldridge. In the western region, that figure was down 45% from last year.
One focus of both programs is cases that involve auto thefts, as well as additional crimes.
"There's a nexus of all of the crimes, right?" Eldridge said. "Your burglars are stealing cars, your drug users are stealing cars, car thieves are burgling and doing shoplifts. All these crimes are kind of interconnected."
CATPA
CATPA (Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority) funds a prosecutor and investigator in several different regions in Colorado focused solely on vehicle theft and related crimes.
In western Colorado, the prosecutor and investigator are housed in the 21st Judicial District Attorney's Office in Grand Junction, but also investigate crimes in the 22nd (Cortez), 6th (Durango), 7th (Montrose) and 9th (Glenwood Springs) districts, according to prosecutor Todd Norvell.
"I have an investigator and a prosecutor that have immense experience and the ability to take these cases that have the auto theft nexus to a higher level," Rubinstein said.
Rubinstein said he wants Norvell and the investigator, Rob Heil, to focus on organized crime and violent crime aspects of car thefts and related crimes.
"Our focus is on prolific offenders," Heil said.
Rubinstein noted many auto thefts are not simply auto theft cases, but will involve other crimes committed as part of the same case.
"One thing (CATPA) has made clear is that the auto theft nexus to criminal conduct is something that contributes to inability to catch or prosecute offenders," Rubinstein said.
For example, Rubinstein said, a crime could be committed by someone who steals a car in order to commit a bank robbery so that they won't get caught.
"The auto theft problem is a much bigger problem than just stealing the car," Rubinstein said.
The multi-jurisdictional model is something that hasn't been tried before, Rubinstein said.
"I think the biggest benefit of this is rather than having a bunch of different agencies that don't know what each other are doing, we have these two, who are handling the cases in all the jurisdictions, and can start to see patterns," he said.
There have been some complications getting all the jurisdictions involved, with each having its own computer system and policies for investigations and prosecutions, but Rubinstein said progress is being made.
"I'm the employing agency, but when they're reporting to other jurisdictions, they're reporting to the other jurisdiction's elected," Rubinstein said. "And so there's been some unforseen complications putting this regional model into effect, but we're working through them"
BATTLE
BATTLE (Beat Auto Theft Through Law Enforcement) is a series of operations run by Colorado State Patrol focused on reducing very high levels of auto theft, Eldridge said.
Mesa County received a $165,000 grant from the state of Colorado to fund BATTLE operations through June 30.
Local jurisdictions get grant money for funding overtime pay for these operations, Eldridge said. the Mesa County Sheriff's Office is currently doing one operation a week.
The multi-agency operations are dedicated to finding stolen vehicles and closing stolen vehicle cases, Eldridge said.
"Sometimes we have stolen car reports where we know who the bad guy is, like an ex-wife, and ex-boyfriend who took the car, so we'll put that information out, 'Hey this car may be related to this person,' and then we'll start pulling that string, say 'Where was this person last known to be, who are their associates,' and then we'll flood the area and look for that vehicle," Eldridge said.
Operations can last all day, depending on how busy it is, Eldridge said. Operations don't just involve officers, either. Dispatch, jail, crime analysts and others are also involved in BATTLE operations.
Operations have evolved in sophistication over time, Eldridge said, from driving around hoping to encounter a stolen car 10 years ago, to getting search warrants and analyzing data.
The majority of auto theft cases in Mesa County are crimes of opportunity arising from someone leaving their car running or leaving keys in a car, according to Eldridge. BATTLE divides the state into several sections, according to Eldridge. That allows law enforcement to focus on different individual areas and bring the number of auto thefts down across the state.
"It's a statewide effort," Eldridge said. "If we were just doing this and other parts of the state weren't, I don't know that we would have seen so much production because it's such a transitory issue."