TORONTO, May 20, 2024
/CNW/ - Équité Association, the national authority on insurance
crime, thanks Public Safety Canada for the comprehensive,
solution-focused National Action Plan on Combatting Auto
Theft announced today. The Action Plan closely aligns to
recommendations, which Équité has been advocating for, on behalf of
the property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry.
"Public Safety Canada's National Action Plan on Combatting Auto
Theft represents a turning point for auto theft in Canada," said Terri
O'Brien, President & CEO of Équité Association.
"Insurance crime, including auto theft, is a deeply complex and
multifaceted issue with real and devastating consequences for our
communities. The coordinated, actionable solutions provided in
today's Action Plan show a clear understanding of the current
landscape and a real commitment by the federal government to take
down auto theft and protect Canadians."
The National Summit on Combatting Auto Theft held on
February 8, 2024, underscored the
federal government's commitment to combat serious and organized
crime and ensure community safety. Today's Action Plan is a
continuation of that commitment through a meaningful and
coordinated response, focusing on three pillars: 1) Intelligence or
information sharing; 2) Intervention; and 3) Legislation,
regulations and governance. Équité is especially supportive of the
following measures and initiatives:
Intelligence or information
sharing
- Engage all partners in the export trade, such as port
authorities, shipping lines and rail operators, to develop
actionable intelligence on stolen vehicles.
- Engage foreign border services, such as the US Customs and
Border Protection (CBP), the Border Five and FRONTEX, for
collaboration, best practices and technology solutions.
- Enhance customs information and intelligence sharing to support
municipal and provincial police forces. Review existing legislation
and regulations to identify and reduce barriers to information
sharing.
- Strengthen active international cooperation with foreign law
enforcement partners through the RCMP's international network.
- Establish a National Intergovernmental Working Group on Auto
Theft led by Public Safety Canada with federal, provincial, and
territorial governments to coordinate actions, monitor progress,
and explore new initiatives that may be undertaken at all levels
for a multi-faceted approach to combatting auto theft.
- Dedicating federal resources to the provincially led Auto Theft
Joint Intelligence Group, with key police forces and leveraging
private sector collaboration.
- Using the CISC network, to provide actionable intelligence, and
the Canadian Integrated Response to Organized Crime (CIROC), to
coordinate national operational approaches to organized crime,
including vehicle theft.
- Provinces and territories should take steps to combat
"revinning," or the use of fraudulent vehicle registrations to
re-sell stolen vehicles. This could include investments to enable
comprehensive data sharing across jurisdictions through the
existing Interprovincial Record Exchange (IRE).
Intervention
- Enhance collaboration with port authorities, rail and shipping
partners to expand export cargo container examinations, including
the deployment of scanning and detection technology in new
locations (e.g., rail yards).
- Integrate the use of advanced data analytics and artificial
intelligence (AI) to better target containers with suspected stolen
vehicles.
- Invest $28 million to bolster
efforts in combatting auto theft, including:
-
- Hiring new frontline Border Service Officers and deploying them
to ports, railyards and intermodal hubs to expand examination
capacity in response to intelligence developed by the CBSA and law
enforcement.
- Dedicating new resources to intelligence and targeting
capabilities specific to stolen vehicles.
- Identifying and testing new Detection Technology tools to
expand capacity to screen containers for stolen vehicles.
- Leveraging data from interdictions of stolen vehicles and use
AI to predict location of suspected stolen vehicles, as well as
complicit entities within the supply chain of the export of stolen
vehicles.
- Develop and implement a "GPS tracking protocol" for auto theft
victims to share location data of stolen vehicles with relevant
authorities for safe retrieval.
- Invest $9.1 million over three
years in municipal and provincial police services to improve their
capacity to provide timely referrals, information and actionable
intelligence to the CBSA, as well as take custody of stolen
vehicles intercepted by CBSA.
- Invest $3.5 million over three
years to support INTERPOL in combatting transnational organized
vehicle crime.
- Through the National Crime Prevention Strategy, continue
investing $51 million per year in
community-based prevention initiatives for youth-at-risk for future
involvement in the criminal justice system, including to prevent
at-risk youth from joining gangs.
- Prioritize new project funding under the Youth Gang Prevention
Fund for community-based initiatives that prevent at-risk youth
form joining gangs and divert them from future involvement in
criminal and anti-social activities, such as youth delinquency,
auto theft, substance use and gun violence.
Legislation, regulations, and
governance
- Modernize the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to ensure
they consider technological advancements to deter and prevent auto
theft.
- Review existing legislation and regulations, such as the
Customs Act, with a view to enhance compliance with export
controls; increasing accountability for all partners and facility
operators involved in export operations; increasing penalties for
non-compliance and false reporting; befitting from international
best practices; and assessing legal authorities to ensure export
regulations are effective for law enforcement.
- Introduce legislative amendments and regulations to compel rail
and port operators to provide adequate accommodation for the
examination for exported goods by CBSA officers.
As previously reported by Équité, a vehicle is stolen every five
minutes in Canada. Canadian
vehicles are targeted by criminal organizations both nationally and
internationally. Organized crime groups engage in auto theft
because it is an increasingly low-risk way to make profits. The
majority of stolen vehicles are either exported or re-VINed and
sold in order to finance and carry out other criminal activities,
including gun and drug trafficking in our communities.
Équité eagerly anticipates bolstering the Action Plan by closely
collaborating with insurer members, as well as national and
international law enforcement agencies, government bodies, CBSA and
industry partners.
About Équité Association
Équité Association is a not-for-profit, national organization,
supporting Canadian property and casualty (P&C) insurers.
Équité combats the multi-billion-dollar insurance crime problem
that exploits vulnerable Canadians through advanced analytics,
intelligence best practices, and coordinated investigations.
Delivering improved service
and fraud analytics for vehicle, property,
and cargo recovery to its members, Équité collaborates with law
enforcement, partners and industry organizations to protect
Canadians against exploitation. Learn more about Équité Association
at https://www.equiteassociation.com/.
SOURCE Équité Association