Starting Dec. 1, anytime a car is stolen in Seattle, dispatchers will immediately post the basic information of the vehicle to their new Twitter account “Get Your Car Back” (http://twitter.com/getyourcarback).

This most recent step in utilizing social networking to better law enforcement was revealed at a press conference at the West Precinct on Dec. 1.

“A few short years ago we were number six in the nation (in car thefts), we’re now down to the 30s,” said Lt. Mike Edwards of SPD Investigation Procedures. “We are pretty proud of the fact that we really dramatically addressed auto theft in this region; however, there are still over 3,000 cars a year on average that get stolen in the city of Seattle. For us that’s still too many, so we are now looking for this technology to assist in one, not only reduce the number of cars stolen, but two, increasing our recovery of vehicles.”

Lt. Edwards, who has been on the force for 30 years, urged citizens who identify a stolen car to call 911 instead of contacting the driver of the vehicle themselves.

“Twitter is more than a craze. It’s been around long enough now that clearly its something the average citizen at almost any age is aware of and using, so for us it is an opportunity to get information out in a very timely fashion, much quicker than we have been able to in the past,” Lt. Edwards said. “So what will happen is once the officer has arrived and confirmed it is a stolen vehicle, our dispatch center will then tweet it …”

Dispatch tweets will look like this:
COLOR:silver yR:1993 MAKE:HONDA MODEL:ACCORD BODY: 4DR LIC:608YTL ST:WA ***DO NOT MAKE CONTACT CALL 911***

In addition to aiding in the recovery of vehicles, Lt. Edwards said the existence of the “Get Your Car Back” program may deter criminals from stealing one in the first place.

“They’re (criminals) are using social networks probably more than the average person,” he said. “They are fully aware of it and they are using it. We see that time and time again when we arrest and interview folks on how they are communicating with others. And this is just one more thing they are already using so we want to use it too.”

Lt. Edwards said they often see criminals bragging about their exploits on social networks and using it as a communication tool in the drug trade.

“They are using it for bad reasons, we are using it for good reasons,” he said.

Lt. Edwards said the SPD decided to try the program after seeing it used successfully in other police departments around the nation, such as Albuquerque, N.M. After a year, he said they saw a dramatic decrease in auto thefts.

At this time, the SPD only tweets when a vehicle is stolen, not when it is recovered.

“The reason we are not going to have the recovery tweeted is because we want people to call 911,” Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said. “We don’t want them to know: is this stolen, is this recovered, should I make an assumption? You don’t need to make an assumption, just call 911 and let the operator know and let the police handle the felony crime and thank you so much for participating and making our city safer and helping people get their property back.”

The “Get Your Car Back” Twitter account is separate from the SPD’s regular account (http://twitter.com/seattlepd), which currently has around 7,000 followers. Lt. Edwards said he hopes the new account will have at least that many followers, and hopes that local media outlets will also spread the information as they receive tweets.

“There may only be 7,000 following us, but tens of thousands will actually get the information (if local media spreads the information),” he said.

Depending on the success of “Get Your Car Back,” Lt. Edwards said the SPD will look at expanding the technology to other areas such as tweeting traffic collisions and the movement of demonstrations that disrupt traffic.

“One of the important messages from all of this is as technology continues to grow and expand we are growing and expanding,” Lt. Edwards said. “We are looking for new and different ways to do what we’ve done and part of that too, is to engage the public a lot more and get the community more involved and aware of what we are doing.”

For more information on “Get Your Car Back”, please read the SPD Blotter post below.

From the Seattle Police Department Blotter:

SPD announces “Get you car back” on Twitter: Using social networking to combat auto thefts

This year through October, 3,011 cars have been stolen in the City of Seattle. That is an average of 9.9 a day and up from 8.46 cars per day during the same period a year ago. While Seattle certainly isn’t the stolen car capital of the United States – Laredo, TX has that distinction* – the number of auto thefts and the fact that they have increased has kept auto theft prevention a priority.

Effective today, the Seattle Police Department will begin to tweet stolen car information in the hopes that that victims of auto theft will be able to get their cars back sooner and to let thieves know that their stolen rides just got hotter.

The protocols for tweeting auto theft are simple. When a car is reported stolen in Seattle, employees in the Seattle Police 911 Center will tweet the color, year, make, model, body style and license plate of the stolen car. Twitter followers who spot a car that has been tweeted as stolen on “Get your car back” should call 911. Citizens are directed not to make contact when coming into contact with a previously tweeted stolen car and any potential occupants. All 911 calls will be screened to ensure that the car information is correctly matched and to verify that the car has not been returned to its rightful owner. If the car is still listed as stolen, the information will be broadcast so that officers can respond to the area. Stolen cars that have been recovered will not be tweeted – in other words, leave the sorting of what is stolen and what is not to the experts at 911.

Chief Diaz says “I believe that this program will integrate seamlessly into our strategy to prevent and reduce auto theft in Seattle. It will also serve to increase public awareness on the subject.”

The Twitter site for this new program can be found at http://twitter.com/getyourcarback. Seattle PD currently has 6,980 followers on Twitter. If you aren’t following us already, you can do so by visiting http://twitter.com/seattlepd.