Parliamentary Committee Notes: National Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft
Auto theft is a complex problem that requires manufacturers, insurance companies, shippers, law enforcement agencies and governments to work together to identify solutions. Each partner has a role in making it harder to steal vehicles, recover stolen vehicles, prevent their exportation, and apprehend the perpetrators of these crimes.
Canada is not alone is experiencing a rise in vehicle theft. It is an increasingly transnational criminal phenomenon that requires international and cross-jurisdictional collaboration.
The National Summit on Combatting Auto Theft, held on February 8, 2024, brought together senior officials from federal, provincial and territorial governments, law enforcement and industry representatives. Following the conclusion of the Summit, participants endorsed a Statement of Intent, committing to work together to combat auto theft and to finalizing an action plan.
The National Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft outlines actions focused on disrupting, dismantling and prosecuting the organized criminal groups behind auto theft. The action plan identifies various measures and initiatives that will be carried out by the federal government in cooperation with provincial and territorial governments and their partners, in accordance with their respective roles, priorities and responsibilities. It will be continuously reviewed and updated to be responsive to the evolving tactics employed by criminal networks.
Concerted efforts undertaken to combat auto theft since the beginning of 2024 are yielding results.
In January 2024, RCMP liaison officers posted in Italy collaborated with local authorities at an Italian port on the seizure of 251 cars stolen in Canada. In April 2024, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), in collaboration with police forces across Ontario and Quebec, announced the recovery of nearly 600 stolen vehicles from the Port of Montreal. As of May 4, 2024, CBSA has intercepted 1,205 stolen vehicles in railyards and ports in 2024, which is a 105% increase compared to the same period in 2023. In addition, in the first six weeks of the integration of stolen motor vehicle records from the RCMP’s Canadian Police Information Centre with INTERPOL’s Stolen Motor Vehicle Database, there were more than 1,000 international partner queries that matched to Canadian stolen motor vehicle records.
Building on these results, the measures outlined in the National Action Plan will further support the efforts deployed by Canada’s law enforcement to crack down on auto theft.
Contents
- Intelligence or information sharing
- Intervention
- Lead: CBSA
- Lead: CBSA, local police and RCMP
- Lead: RCMP
- Lead: Public Safety Canada
- Lead: Transport Canada
- Lead: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)
- Legislation, regulations, and governance
Intelligence or information sharing
Lead: Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)
- Enhance customs information and intelligence sharing to support municipal and provincial police forces.
- 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.
- Review existing legislation and regulations to identify and reduce barriers to information sharing.
Lead: Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
- Deliver Canadian Police College courses on auto theft investigative techniques, to municipal, provincial and federal levels of law enforcement.
- Completed: Develop and release Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada (CISC) public reports on vehicle theft and organized crime threats.
Lead: Joint RCMP and CBSA
- Completed: The CBSA and the RCMP are already active members of multiple active auto theft operations and joint task forces across the country led with key provincial and municipal police services and will continue to participate in new partnerships as they emerge.
- Strengthen active international cooperation with foreign law enforcement partners through the RCMP's international network.
Lead: Public Safety Canada
- 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.
Lead: Joint CBSA, RCMP and local police
- Strengthen existing ways of sharing intelligence and information among law enforcement and public safety partners by:
- 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.
Lead: Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC)
- Continued efforts to strengthen Canada's Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing (AML/ATF) regime, including supervising implementation of AML/ATF measures and reporting by regulated sectors to FINTRAC, which in turn can lead to useful financial intelligence to address money laundering and proceeds of crime linked to auto-theft, will support overall efforts by law enforcement to address auto-theft in Canada.
Lead: Transport Canada
- 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
Lead: CBSA
- 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 by:
- 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.
- Continue to explore, test and if effective at deterring, procure new detection technologies for improved stolen vehicle interdiction, with a particular focus on existing mobile technology.
Lead: CBSA, local police and RCMP
- Ongoing: Increase export examinations at port, rail and intermodal facilities to disrupt the export of stolen vehicles.
- Ongoing: Maintain CBSA's 100% response rate for intelligence received from law enforcement to conduct container examinations.
- Develop and implement a "GPS tracking protocol" for auto theft victims to share location data of stolen vehicles with relevant authorities for safe retrieval.
Lead: RCMP
- Completed: Connect Canada's stolen motor vehicle records from the Canadian Police Information Centre to INTERPOL's Stolen Motor Vehicle Database.
- Ongoing work to respond to international requests about Canadian stolen vehicles on the INTERPOL Stolen Motor Vehicle Database and monitor for trends.
Lead: Public Safety Canada
- 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.
- Continue investing $390 million over five years to support provinces and territories through the Initiative to take Action Against Gun and Gang Violence to address the increased links between gun and gang violence and auto theft.
Lead: Transport Canada
- Work with public safety partners to identify high-risk Port facilities and conduct targeted security assessments for potential vulnerabilities.
- Revise and validate security plans for high-risk container facilities.
Lead: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)
- Leverage existing programs to support innovation solutions for vehicle protection.
Legislation, regulations, and governance
Lead: Department of Justice
- Amend the Criminal Code to provide additional tools for law enforcement and prosecutors to address auto theft. These include:
- New criminal offences related to auto theft involving the use of violence or links to organized crime; possession or distribution of an electronic or digital device for the purposes of committing auto theft; and laundering proceeds of crime for the benefit of a criminal organization.
- A new aggravating factor at sentencing if an offender involved a young person in committing an offence under the Criminal Code.
- Examine effectiveness of legislative tools to respond to auto theft and develop new responses if required.
Lead: ISED
- Amend the Radiocommunication Act to regulate the sale, distribution, and importation of radio devices used for auto theft.
Lead: CBSA
- Review existing legislation and regulations, such as the Customs Act, with a view to:
- enhancing compliance with export controls
- increasing accountability for all partners and facility operators involved in export operations
- increasing penalties for non-compliance and false reporting
- benefiting from international best practices
- 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.
Lead: Transport Canada
- Modernize the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to ensure they consider technological advancements to deter and prevent auto theft.
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