TruTV's "BaitCar"

I watched this show last night for the first time and I couldn't help but think how messed up it is for these police to create crime...Granted, the idiots shouldn't steal the vehicles in the first place, but cops shouldnt be able to do this...They should be out stopping murders and preventing crime not creating it!

For anyone that hasnt watched the show, the premise is basically these cops set up a car and put it in a high theft area with the keys on top of the vehicle or wherever and then wait for someone to steal it...They then follow them, turn off the engine and arrest them.

I know there will be people that will say well they shouldnt take the vehicle and it gets rid of criminals and what not, but when you put an escalade with cartons of newports and stuff in a poverty stricken neighborhood unattended, of course someone is gonna steal it...TIMES ARE HARD!

I would like to see yall's opinion on whether you agree with this show or not. What if one of those people stole the car and ran over a child or pulled a gun and shot an officer? Its crazy!

aint those cars remote stoppable and pretty much everythings under police control so they cant even open the windows etc

but even if i saw a car with gold bricks on the backseat with the engine running/keys in the ignition i'd smell a rat and perhaps use the wing mirror to check my hair while spotting the cameras and then walk away towards the nearest large van making piggy noises

Maybe people shouldn't put merchandise on shelves in stores in those poor neighborhoods, either. I mean it's soo tempting to those people who've fallen on hard times. If the shelves were empty, those people wouldn't shoplift.

Or perhaps we shouldn't allow our women to go out in public with any kind of revealing clothes so those poor deprived men won't rape them. It is the women's fault, after all.

You see where this is going? Your logic is so flawed I don't even know where to begin flaming you.

The bait car is used to fill privately owned prisons.

just a thought

reply to post by daniel5383

I watched this show last night for the first time and I couldn't help but think how messed up it is for these police to create crime...Granted, the idiots shouldn't steal the vehicles in the first place, but cops shouldnt be able to do this...They should be out stopping murders and preventing crime not creating it!

I think the point of stings is that they know right where the catch the criminals, instead of letting the criminals steal another car somewhere else and then try to follow up on it once reported?

It's not creating crime, it's merely knowing the target and enabling an easy capture once the crime is committed, to actually CATCH the criminal instead of trying to ID and chase them down later.

Wow... I'm staggered by this thread and the fact it even exists. Are some people *SO* anti-cop that even worthless car thieves become the object of pity and a sense of shared violation at the hands of law enforcement???

Perhaps some folks need to own a car and have it stolen...never to be seen again...and only carrying liability insurance as it goes. Perhaps...and I'm only just guessing here as this thread shows how far the apologists can go....perhaps though, that will demonstrate WHY Police actually exist and WHY this bait technique is sheer genius and should go on for many new areas where the tactic is likely to produce results.

Criminals are parasites on society. Nothing more..and no other way to see it. Anything the Police do to scrub those parasites off the body of society is a good thing in my book and they need to do more of it.

Originally posted by daniel5383
I watched this show last night for the first time and I couldn't help but think how messed up it is for these police to create crime

The police are creating crime like forks make people fat. They set up bait cars so they can catch the criminals that would otherwise be taking a real car. I guess you are ok with your car being stolen and taken on a joy ride?

The Bait Car does not create crime. It merely affords the opportunity for a criminal to perform a crime. There is a difference...unless of course you subscribe to the theory that "I found it so it is mine."

While Bait Car is funny and entertaining I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about entrapment. The way I see it is they did not really stop a crime, they created one. The person stealing the car may or may not have ever stolen a car had they not used entrapment. The irony is that cops have no problem putting you on camera during an arrest/crime (ie. Cops, Bait Car) but as soon as someone films them they get all emotional. I get what they are doing but im sure there is a better way.

You know, I am glad that you brought this one up. I have always been 6's and 7's about this type of 'crime fighting.' Yes on the one hand it gets criminals off the streets but on the other, it creates a false situation in which, under normal circumstances, a crime may possibly not have occurred.

It synthetically places people in a 'too good to be true' position of temptation which might persuade them to commit a crime where under conventional circumstances they potentially would not have. It is almost a chicken and egg argument.

The potentiality is the hairpin in the hat trick. If there is even the slightest chance that LEO's are persuading people to commit a crime through situational choreography then the practice should not be allowed.

Questions:

Is finding and picking up a $20 bill on the street that isn't yours illegal?

Then why is finding a car?

The value?

I dont see it as creating crime. It's more like controlling crime. Somebody who wouldnt otherwise steal a car or break into one isnt going to just decide to steal a car because it's there.

Now if they had some undercover egging the would-be thief on that's a different story.

Though we are getting mixed messages from the police here, arent we?

They tell us not to leave our cars unlocked and not to leave valuables in plain sight because that creates opportunity and opportunity creates crime. In some cities they go so far as to write tickets for "supplying opportunity."

The cops are talking out of both sides of their mouths here.

I used to live in a city that did this with bicycles regularly. Most of the time it was a nice bike chained up. But sometimes they'd just grab any junk bike and lay it in the middle of nowhere on some old fence or on the ground on an unoccupied dead end road. Is that right? I've picked parts off of busted and abandoned old bikes a lot of times over the years. It's just garbage on the street. Should I have been locked up for picking trash off the street?

Mixed feelings for me. It is clearly entrapment, but I hate a thief. A thief is a thief is a thief. Entrapment or not, these people do this as a normal part of their day. This is seriously one of those topics where I am just about stymied because I feel both sides so strongly; kind of a paradox going on in my head.

In the end, if forced to take a position, I think i would have to disagree with the practice, if for no other reason than I think those resources could be better utilized elsewhere.

What the silly OP fails to realize is that the majority of the people who get caught in the sting are prior offenders. Therefore, save your little diatribe and crocidile tears for these pieces of scum that feel they have the right to other peoples property.

Originally posted by Digital_Reality
While Bait Car is funny and entertaining I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about entrapment.

I'm a little baffled by how anything related to Bait Car can be seen as entrapment?

Would you, as an average citizen, be the LEAST BIT tempted to climb into what is clearly not YOUR car, start the engine and drive away...simply because it was left there and a big scene staged in how it came to be left?

If the answer is yes, for some, they are precisely who I want to see this effort trap (not entrap) and prosecute. If the answer is No, I believe you represent the VAST MAJORITY of society and ought to applaud the removal of those parasites who would actually answer yes.........or even hesitate in having to consider their answer at all, IMHO.

Originally posted by HandyDandy
Questions:

Is finding and picking up a $20 bill on the street that isn't yours illegal?

Then why is finding a car?

The value?

Because a $20.00 bill doesnt have a registration or a license plate a car does. With thoughts like yours I think you are part of generation zero.

reply to post by daniel5383


Evidently I am older than most on this thread.

My father - the cop - used to call that entrapment. Today we call it programming and everyone laps it up.

reply to post by HandyDandy

Then why is finding a car?

The value?

No, the title.

reply to post by AwakeinNM


so with that logic I guess its also wrong to bait child predators? I think your logic is a bit flawed....

Whatever, it takes some skill to steal a car... an amateur knows the risk (VIN numbers, license numbers etc)

don't do the crime if you wont do the time...

bottom line

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