Metro News Release

For immediate release: August 7, 2003

Metro Transit Police target parking lot crime with new Auto Theft unit

The Metro Transit Police Department will enhance its focus on fighting parking lot crime when an Auto Theft Unit launches later this month.

" Auto theft and thefts from automobiles are a problem in the Washington Metropolitan region, and our parking facilities are no different," said Metro Transit Police Chief Polly Hanson. " In response to this regional increase, officers and other resources will target would-be car thieves and other parking lot crimes."

The most common type of crime reported to the Metro Transit Police is property crime. About 57,000 vehicles park in Metro lots throughout the Washington Metropolitan area on an average weekday.

The Auto Theft Unit will use a variety of resources including officers in plain clothes, officers on motorcycles, officers with K-9 partners, officers on bicycles, portable aerial towers, and even Metro employees who are on workers compensation assignments that allow them to work for the police department as parking lot observers.

" Our customers can expect to see our officers in uniform, and of course, we" ll be in street clothes when we want to blend in and not be spotted," Chief Hanson said.

The new Auto Theft Unit will work varied hours and shifts and will target stations that statistically are impacted by parking lot crime.

To help cut down on parking lot crime, Metro Transit Police offer several suggestions to customers who park at Metro parking facilities. They include:

" Lock all of the doors of the vehicle and roll up the windows.

" Do not leave anything of value in the vehicle. If something must be left in the vehicle, it should be locked in the trunk, out of sight.

" Use an anti-theft device such as a steering wheel locking device. This type of layered protection is often a deterrent to would-be thieves.

" If you see someone acting in a suspicious manner in a Metro parking lot, go directly to the Metro station and tell the station manager. Provide a description of the individual(s) to the station manager, who will immediately notify Metro Transit Police. Or call the Metro Transit Police directly at 202-962-2121.

News release issued on August 7, 2003.