Police chief wants juvenile car thieves to wear GPS monitors
NEW CANAAN — With 32 cars stolen this year so far — up 60 percent over this time last year — the town’s police chief said Wednesday he would like to see laws changed regarding juvenile car thieves.
Chief Leon Krolikowski said he wants repeat offenders to wear GPS ankle monitors and to improve support services for the younger criminals to “help get them on their right way,” he told the Police Commission.
He hopes to see local legislators attend the next Police Commission meeting to hear his arguments.
“The key is our legislators,” Krolikowski said. Without changing laws, “we are kind of at a loss for
what we can do. Our hands are kind of tied.”
The chief said he’d also like to see more accountability for young multiple offenders, a better DNA and fingerprint database, police access to juvenile records and funding for task forces to address cars thefts.
Krolikowski plans to invite legislators to the next meeting to “see what they have to say and see what they think is the probability of success.”
Juveniles who steal cars face supervision and diversionary programs, which include a six-month course where they learn the “impact of what they do to victims,” State Attorneys Judicial District of Stamford/Norwalk’s Paul J. Ferencek told the commission on Wednesday.
Juvenile probation officers oversee the supervisory programs which also include anger management classes and family violence education.
“They look to the kids’ needs and they do a great job and they tailor supervisions for what the kids need,” Ferencek said.
The profile of the car thieves has changed, Ferencek explained.
“In the past, it was generally more kids joy riding,” but over the “last couple years it is more gang-related.”
Now, the thieves take cars to “facilitate more criminal activity” and sometimes stolen cars are sold abroad, he added. “It is a larger operation rather than kids just stealing the car for the fun of it."
“We believe the bulk of the 32 are juveniles, we just haven’t caught them yet,” Krolikoski said.
Ferencek estimated fewer than 50 percent of car theft cases in the area are solved, partially because it is hard to press charges “unless we catch the person operating the vehicle shortly after the theft.”
Even if officers are able to obtain DNA off the steering wheel, it does not mean “we have a rock-solid case” and “we still have a hard case to prove,” Ferencek said.
For larceny conviction, prosecutors must “prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that the people who stole the vehicle “intended to permanently deprive the owner of the vehicle,” Ferencek said.
Once a child becomes an adult in the eyes of the law, at 18, all convictions are expunged.
“You could be arrested a dozen times as a juvenile, but you have never been arrested once you become an adult, it is erased,” Krolikowski said. “That would be something good if they changed that.”
Both men agreed the best way to combat the problem is for residents to lock their car doors.
Juveniles will not steal if they have to break a window, Ferencek said.
“Kids don’t know how to steel cars like they used to,” because “the technology has advanced,” he said. “My parting advice is public campaign to lock the cars.”