Making progress

Good news for Regina residents, as the auto theft prevention strategy put in place a few years ago is producing huge results:

Auto thefts are down by 44 per cent in Regina, a city that earlier in the decade had the dubious distinction of being Canada's car theft capital.

While there were around 3,800 motor vehicles stolen in 2001, in 2005 the number had dropped to about 2,100.

Police attribute that to the Regina Auto Theft Strategy, a policy the Saskatchewan government, the City of Regina and the Regina police department introduced four years ago. The program takes the approach that although thousands of cars were being stolen every year, the majority of the crimes are being committed by a relatively small group of repeat offenders.

The plan includes curfew checks and electronic monitoring for those repeat offenders. It also prepares offenders for work once they're released from custody.

The program helps to demonstrate that while added punishment may not have any effect, a combination of stronger monitoring and positive options for offenders can work wonders in reducing crime. There's still a long ways to go yet, but at the moment Regina is setting the standard in how to deal with car theft. And the lesson is one that shouldn't be ignored when it comes to dealing with other crimes as well.