CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said his office has started a program to help deter carjackers and return stolen vehicles to their owners more quickly.
Dart said his office’s online car tracking consent form will allow the sheriff’s office to cut through delays caused by some car manufacturers and track the location of stolen cars.
People can sign up now, Dart said, so that, if their cars are taken from them, the sheriff’s office can start the tracking process faster.
“It will be something that will deter people,” he said outside the Sheriff’s Office’s River North Command Post at 500 N. Clark St. “We have talked to people we have taken in custody and, trust me, they’ve been clear that they don’t want to be dealing with cars that they know that we are tracking.”
One drawback of the program is that not all cars can be registered. Dart said only cars made since 2015 have the ability to be tracked.
He said people who sign up for the program will receive stickers for their front and back windshields, which tell would-be car thieves the vehicle is being tracked.
For those worried about police tracking their vehicles when the vehicles have not been reported stolen, Dart said that would not happen.
“There is zero, zero, zero possibility that this information is going to be taken and misused by law enforcement,” Dart said.
Dart said police would get a warrant if they need to track your vehicle based on a criminal suspicion.
You don’t have to live in Cook County to register, either, he said.
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