Fellow fiends and jag-o-philes:
There have been some doubts expressed concerning the effectiveness of the
silent auto alarms that notify police via a hidden radio transmitter. I was
curious about these too and whether or not the police would bother. So, I
asked a neighbor who is a deputy Sheriff in Wayne County, MI (the county in
which Detroit, and myself, are located). He surprised me by saying he
estimated they (Detroit Police) recover 90% of the stolen vehicles so
equipped and that each precint in Detroit has 1 car equipped with the proper
receiver (donated by the company). He says the cops view them as virtually
guaranteed 'collars' and that they do indeed go for it. In fact, they
apprehended a teenage car jacker (who had shot the car's owner in the chest)
about a month ago (car jacking is a popular summer/gang crime here in the
gritty city).
The problem he is aware of is when the car is taken inside some types of
buildings (?) that shield the transmission; the police loose the signal. He
also said that there is a monthly fee for the system (sort of like a
cellular telephone fee), that I was unaware of. I am gathering that the
system is pretty expensive.
Important note: neither he nor I have any thing to do with the company that
markets these devices. I'm not trying to promote these items but just add
my verbiage to the discussion on auto (and driver) security. He fudges on
his golf score once in a while, but I suspect the above is largely correct.
Will Zehring
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