Grant to curb area auto theft
Mille Lacs County Sheriff Brent Lindgren spoke at a press conference last week about the state grant his office recently received to combat automobile theft.
By LESLEY TOTH
Mille Lacs County Times
Car thieves in Mille Lacs County could find their vocation a bit more challenging with the recent state grant awarded to the Mille Lacs Sheriff’s Office to improve efforts to arrest them.
The local law enforcement agency received a $182,000 slice of the grant pie, which totaled $4 million and was distributed to police and sheriff’s departments across the state.
“This is a big deal for small towns in Central Minnesota,” said Sheriff Brent Lindgren. “Mille Lacs County is pleased to be partnering with the Minnesota Department of Commerce working to reduce auto theft.”
This partnership establishes a presence in Central Minnesota using cutting edge technology in spotting and recovering stolen vehicles, Lindgren said. One of those high-tech purchases he would like to make with the new funding is something called a “bait vehicle.”
“Bait vehicles can be utilized in concentrated areas where motor vehicle thefts and tampering occur and again assist area law enforcement and prosecution,” Lindgren said.
Bait vehicles equip officers with the ability to place those responsible in the act, on camera, on audio recordings, and in possession of the vehicle.
“All of which is critical to later presentation to Minnesota jurors leading to successful prosecution,” he said.
In addition to a bait car, officials also plan to buy two advance technology license plate readers to round out their auto theft prevention arsenal.
“Mille Lacs County is proud to be establishing these new partnerships and looks forward to creating a Central Minnesota Auto Theft Prevention Footprint with this new partnership and funding from the department,” Lindgren said.
ECM Capitol Reporter T.W. Budig contributed to this story.
its wonderful to know our sheriff wants to control auto theft , but when they catch the person and he gets just a slap on the wrist is it worth catching him to let him go how many strikes should a car thief get ? even when he flees the police and holds a knife to the owners throat all they want to do is give him probation to me the cops do their jobs but the county prosicuters are weak on crime . when they want to be that is and cause the car theif crys in court dont make it less horiffic for the guy with the knife to his throat getting nothing at all seems to me like the courts should sentance harsher next time the theif just may take it up a notch how fair is that to this county . we have some great sheriffs just not sure our courts are so good