Bait car program suspended: car thieves rejoice

I talked to deputy chief of the Dallas Police Northeast Division Jan Easterling about bait cars for a column in our April issue.

She explained why bait cars and other clandestine police operations are successful. I’m all for the idea — use bait cars and publicize it heavily. It might stop someone from stealing my car. Plus, the bait cars have helped police catch and arrest hundreds of crooks. In the same column, though, Easterling shared her frustration about how little time said captured crooks spend behind bars.

The DPD is facing scrutiny after a man stealing a bait car hit and killed an 85-year-old woman Monday. The bait cars are equipped with a “kill switch” but police don’t activate that switch until they have the stolen car in their sight, for obvious safety reasons. In this case there was some sort of delay in between spotting the car and disabling its engine that turned tragic. There was no chase. The crook apparently saw a squad car, got spooked and gunned it, barreling into the woman at an intersection.

There’s an investigation ongoing as to why the bait car was not disabled in time to prevent the accident. But I would hate to see this accident blamed on the “bait” program — it’s an effective program. What’s not working? Continuously letting habitual criminals back on the street. The car thief Eddie Ramirez, 28, had just days before the accident been released on parole following a previous bait-car theft arrest. And no, that wasn’t his first time — his criminal history includes convictions for evading arrest, burglary of a vehicle, burglary of a habitation, theft and drug possession. This scum needs to be spending years in prison — not going through a revolving door in and out of county jail. That’s no way to break a criminal’s habit.

A crime doesn't usually carry serious time if it isn’t labeled “violent” or “aggravated” but with a creep like Ramirez, it was only a matter of time before an innocent person got in his way. Habits like robbing our homes and stealing our stuff don't stop — they only escalate. When a judge decides to let someone out on parole they should consider above all else what level of threat the candidate is to the community — this guy is obviously a parasite and has been for a long time. It’s too bad he had to kill someone before facing any real punishment. Now he's facing murder charges.

Easterling also indicated that putting just one thief behind bars often eliminates a bulk of crimes in the neighborhood surrounding the arrest— at least during the days or weeks that criminal is actually locked up.

Now that the bait program is suspended indefinitely, I'm going to get one of those ugly Club things for my car.

Comments

[Edie]

That's too bad. It was a great program. Nearly all the ills of our criminal justice system could be solved with enough prisons to hold the criminals. According to a Bureau of Crime Statistics:

"State courts sentenced 31% of convicted felons to straight probation with no jail or prison time to serve.

Felons sentenced to a State prison in 2002 had an average sentence of 4 1/2 years but were likely to serve 51% of that sentence - or just 2 1/4 years - before release, assuming that 2002 release policies continue in effect."

That's FELONS. So the chance of putting or keeping a lesser criminal in jail is practically nil.

The answer seems simple: Beef up our courts and justice system to be able to handle the cases timely and build adequate prisons so we stop deferring sentences, letting people off with only probation, and granting early release. Unfortunately, even though the majority of Americans will list crime as one of their main concerns and will back any efforts to support fighting crime, even raising taxes, our money seems to go into a bottomless pit. I know in recent years, Dallas voted for a tax to go to police, and it was only a few months later I read that much of that money had been allocated not to the police but in some other way. Until we can control what governmental entities do with our money, we are powerless to solve this problem. It seems to me that politicians often merely use the promise of fighting crime in order to pass tax hikes and then never deliver.

I urge everyone to write all of their politicians demanding more prisons so that we can abolish early parole.

[Robert]

We need more vigilante (citizen) justice.

The police, courts, and prison system are all overwhelmed. It's time for citizen's to take actions on to themselves.