By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — Car thieves beware.
DTE Energy and the Dearborn Police department have teamed up to stop car break-ins around the city.
Bait cars, provided by DTE Energy are being placed in locations throughout the city equipped with cameras which are monitored by police around the clock.
The cars have valuable items placed inside to tempt and catch car thieves.
“We truly value our partnership with DTE and we’re gonna use every technology at our disposal to keep our community safe, and that includes bait cars,” Police Chief Ronald Haddad said.
“We’ve used them. We use them at certain times and we’re gonna continue to use them,” said Haddad.
DTE first provided bait cars to Wayne State University Police and extended it to Detroit and Dearborn police, among other departments.
Haddad declined to say much about the use of the bait cars, but did recognize their importance.
“It’s important because auto thefts and larcenies from autos have become high tech and our best efforts sometimes are not enough to apprehend people so we have bait cars,” he said. “They assist us, they’re a force multiplier and they assist us to be in places in a very inconspicuous way.”
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected].)