File this one under “Goodness! How could Americans survive without the helpful hand of government?”
The Police Department in Troy, N.Y. has rolled out a new initiative aimed at keeping the valuables residents leave in their parked vehicles safe from would-be thieves.
The program, according to a report from the Troy Record, works like this: If police spot a valuable in a parked car, they check the plate numbers of the vehicle and leave a blue card in the entryway of the owner’s residence to make the driver aware of his or her misstep. If the owner doesn’t have a local address, police will leave the blue card on the windshield.
If the vehicle is unlocked, the officer may enter it and lock the doors.
The new effort comes in response to a recent increase in thefts from parked cars.
According to Police Chief John Tedesco, the initiative was modeled after similar programs run in Syracuse and Yonkers. It was approved by Mayor Lou Rosamilia after several months in development, The Record reports.
Despite the seemingly warm and good-natured attempt at citizen protection, the program is not without its critics.
Bob Fitzgerald, the president of the Troy Police Benevolent Association, warned that the blue cards on windshields could act as a beacon for crooks looking for valuables — a charge Tresco claimed has not played out in either Yonkers or Syracuse.
Fitzgerald further noted that the program could be a liability for officers who might be blamed for a missing item.
“There are too many opportunities for liability, not only for the city, but the officers themselves,” Fitzgerald told The Record. “We believe that in the event of a possible scenario where something comes up missing in a vehicle, the first person to look at was who was in the vehicle and that’s the officer.”
He added that the program will become even more complicated if an unlocked vehicle is found to have illegal substances. According to Tedesco, however, the vehicle will only be impounded with further action if illegal items are in plain view.
The initiative has already caught the eye of bloggers who claim this a Pandora’s Box demonstrating government’s lack of respect for personal responsibility.
“No word on whether the officers will fill up your gas tank if your fuel level becomes too low, reducing the number of disabled vehicles on city streets, or if they will actually drive people around town in an effort to reduce car accidents as well. … A vehicle is private property, and quite frankly people have a right to defend and protect it — even from the well-intentioned police force,” wrote Rusty Weiss at his blog, The Mental Recession.
To be sure, the program has a much softer ring to it than Weiss’ suggestion: stickers plastered about the city reading “Lock Your Doors, Dumb***.”