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In response to Title II of the Anti-Car Theft Act combating title fraud, the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System was designed, tested and improved. The system enables jurisdictions to verify the validity of titles, prior to issuing new ones, thus helping to reduce title fraud and theft. It also curbs fraud associated with junk or salvage titles by including this data in the system, preventing the sale of salvaged vehicles without disclosing this information.

The Anti-Car Theft Improvements Act of 1995 upgraded state motor vehicle department databases containing title information to facilitate their use by federal and state law enforcement officials. The responsibility for implementing the electronic system, which was intended to enable users to instantly determine if a motor vehicle is stolen, was transferred to the Justice Department. The Act grants limited immunity from civil liability to the providers of titling information.

Other Measures To Combat Auto Theft: The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) combats auto theft by investigating cases referred to it by insurers and through its online databases. The data bases allow member insurance companies to search files by driver identification data and also by license plate numbers, VINs, and component vehicle part and type numbers. Information leading to the identification of the vehicle used in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993 was obtained through an NICB database that allows the user to enter a partial VIN. The complete VIN was reconstructed and matched to a van stolen from a truck rental company on the day of the bombing.

In the 1980s, states and regions experiencing high auto thefts began to form Anti-Car Theft (ACT) groups funded by voluntary grants from coalitions of law enforcement groups, state funds, insurers, and consumers to promote public awareness of vehicle theft and lobby for the passage of state legislation aimed at combating thefts. As of November 2004, 13 states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia) have enacted Automobile Theft Prevention Authorities (ATPAs), mostly funded by a small surcharge on driver's licenses or registration fees, or on auto insurance policies sold in the state. Michigan pioneered the ATPA concept in 1986, allocating $1 from each auto insurance policy and channeling the funds toward combating auto theft. Michigan's program, called Help Eliminate Auto Theft (HEAT) includes a toll-free hotline for residents to report thefts and chop shop operations. Since the program’s inception through 2004 HEAT has recovered more than $40 miilion in stolen property.

ATPAs and other states that have formed ACT groups use a wide range of programs to fight auto theft in addition to the HEAT hotline programs. Combat Auto Theft (CAT) programs involve auto owners who voluntarily put stickers on their windshields that alert police that they can stop the car for a theft check after a certain hour. High-theft metropolitan areas have instituted task forces to combat auto theft. In Newark, New Jersey a task force helped reduce the city's theft rate from the highest in the United States in 1991 to sixteenth in 1996.

Find the Chilling Statistics of Car Thefts