The Aurora Police Department starts a free program to prevent vehicle thefts with GPS persecution and stickers as visible deterrent.
Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado
Aurora | The Aurora Police Department starts a free program to prevent vehicle thefts with GPS persecution and stickers as visible deterrent.
“Although it is encouraging that the thefts of the motor vehicle in Aurora are in the decline, this is still an important problem that is plagued by our city and our state,” said Curtis Gardner, city council member, in a statement.
MetroTrack is a program for deterrent automatic theft, with which the Aurora police are helping to find stolen vehicles using GPS data provided by the vehicle owner using GPS data.
It starts on Thursday and is available to all residents of Aurora.
“The goal of metrotrack is to offer our officials the technology they need to recover their vehicles as soon as possible to minimize or eliminate all effects on their daily life,” said Gardner in the explanation.
Residents who already have vehicles with GPS tracking systems via a vehicle aid program, including onstar, can also take part in measurement rack.
By enrolling into the program, the residents explain to share the GPS location of their vehicle with the Aurora police if it is stolen, officials said. The owners have to access their Bluetooth tracking app and provide the responding officials in real time. The police cannot access the GPS information of a vehicle without the approval of the owner.
Based on similar programs in Cook County, Illinois and Denver, METRACK has a two-time strategy for the automatic prevention of theft with visible vehicle stickers in addition to GPS monitoring, the explanation says.
“With our discussions with the leadership in Cook County, we learned that the stickers you use are a key component to prevent vehicle thefts at all,” said Mike Hanifin, Commander of the Community Engagement Bureau of the Aurora Police Department, in the explanation. “When thieves see that a vehicle is registered and persecuted by the local law enforcement authorities, tend to look for a simpler goal.”
As soon as the vehicle owners are registered for measurement track, you will receive two free stickers to place in the corners of the driver's windows and the passenger. The stickers are designed in such a way that they are visual deterrent and point out potential thieves that the vehicle monitors and is located by the Aurora police.
Residents who drive older model vehicles that are not yet equipped with a GPS monitoring system can receive a free GPS tracking device to hide in your vehicle. The Aurora police have both Airtags and Chipolo trackers for Apple and Android Personal Device users.
There is a limit of two free devices per household, and there is no subscription fee for the GPS tracking devices provided by the Aurora police department. In order to obtain free tracking devices, vehicle owners must have a valid vehicle registration and car insurance.
The Metrotrack project sponsored by Gardner is a primary initiative of the city council in response to several years of increasing the car theft in the entire state. Colorado took fifth place in the total number of car theft in 2022, but according to the National Crime Information Center of the FBI in 2021 and 2022 in the number of per capita theft per capita.
The car theft has decreased in recent years. In 2024, the police officers from Aurora responded to 3,545 reports on stolen vehicles, from 5223 in 2023 and 6,781 at its most recent top value in 2022. As of March 31, the Aurora police received 596 stolen vehicle reports this year.
For details or to register for metrotrack, visit auroragov.org/metrotrack. After registration, the residents can plan a date and a time to collect a metrack self-installation kit from District 1 of the Aurora police station, 13347 E. Montview BLVD. The self-installation kits include a GPS tracking device, window stickers and important program information.
Metracks self-installation kits will be available from May 5th.
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