Car crime fighter steps up to the plate

Cars and number plates have always stood out to Jason Smith.

“I just know which plates fit which cars. If they don’t match, it’s a first clue the vehicle may be stolen,” he says.

Jason Smith of South Comms is part of an unofficial network of staff who are passionate about car crime. Photo: Senior Constable Deb Wilson, Canterbury

Jason works in the Southern Communications Centre and is regularly contacted by police members looking for information about suspicious vehicles.

Using his own knowledge and advanced search capabilities of NIA and Business Objects, he’s often able to make a match even if the vehicle’s true identification has been tampered with, the plates are missing, or plate details are incorrect or incomplete.

He honed his knack for identifying cars as a Scene of Crime Officer based mainly in Counties Manukau in 2002, five years after starting full-time work with Police. As he drove to jobs he often spotted cars with false plates and called them into the communications centre. “A number of times they were still being driven by offenders.

Being in a plain vehicle, we were able to follow them until a marked car managed to stop them,” says Jason.

He’s part of an unofficial network of Police staff who are passionate about car crime. Not only is auto theft a multi-million dollar industry in its own right, vehicles play pivotal roles in many types of crime, says Jason. “If we correctly identify the car we can prosecute the right people, tell the vehicle’s owners and insurers and close the file, rather than treating it as an abandoned vehicle.”

Jason became a member of the Australasian Branch of the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators (IAATI) in 2006, when he represented Police at its conference. This year he was appointed Vice-president of the Australasian Branch. He also became the first member of Police to be awarded Auto Theft Investigator accreditation by IAATI. It was presented to him at the organisation’s international conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in August.

Jason has been a car enthusiast since he was a kid and has owned around 50 cars (he just turned 40). His top-rated three are a Supercharged Jaguar XJR, a Jaguar XJS Convertible and a BMW 740i.