Police target car thefts

A huge spike in the number of stealing offences from cars has led to Kwinana Police rolling out a targeted operation to address the issue.

Operation Sky Rank was rolled out in July, with Police working to curb incidents.

Kwinana Police senior-sergeant officer-in-charge Rob Read said the program was a response to the huge increase in thefts from motor vehicles.

“We started noticing we were getting a large number of thefts which were well above both the annual and the five-yearly averages,” he said.

Since July, there have been 178 reported cases of thefts from cars, an 87 per cent increase from the same time last year, where 95 cases were reported.

Items ranging from phones, tablets, jewellery and handbags have been stolen, with several people charged with offences.

As part of the operation, Police will be increasing their patrols in certain areas, executing more search warrants and working to deal with offenders as soon as possible.

Snr. Sgt Read appealed to the public to report incidents to Police and to check photos that were released to help identify offenders.

“There is no real explanation to the spike, but it is always better to keep cars locked and to make sure nothing valuable is left in the car. Those are the cases where offenders will usually try and smash windows,” he said.

Any-one with information is asked to call Kwinana Police on 9411 4311 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.