Page 35 - July 2020 Board Meeting Agenda_Neat

Once the IA has completed basic training, he or she should become members of the International
Association of Auto Theft Investigators and the ATPA Analyst Working Group that can assist with auto
theft specific training.

FEMA approved training can be found at https://www.dhs.gov/fema-approved-intelligence-analyst-
training-courses. Most of the FEMA approved courses are costly, although, to get around that, state
Fusion centers are common places to host these courses and may sponsor a city or county level
analysis training.

7. Benefits of Vehicle Crimes Analysis
Just like with gang, narcotic, or homicide analysts, vehicle crime analysis can greatly assist auto theft
investigations in ways that other trained analysts might be limited without additional training. For
example, in a carjacking, two suspects pull up to the victim’s car in a vehicle, but a license plate might
not be observed. One suspect gets out and steals the victim’s car and the criminal get away. A vehicle
crimes analyst, with proper training, may be capable to figure out the make, model, and year of the
specific vehicle (using google or cars.usnews.com) and pull all registrations of that specific vehicle
from the Department of Motor Vehicles to identify the culprit and bring them to justice.

Another example of how a vehicle crimes analyst can assist is through the identification of criminal
enterprises that utilize complex methods to commit their crime. A basic trained analyst might see a
car stolen on a surveillance camera and not understand how the crime took place, where a vehicle
crime analyst, might recognize the mode of operation to enter the vehicle (e.g., use of a tablet to re-
program a vehicle’s security system or the use of a bump key ), which may greatly assist in identifying
the individual or group committing the thefts.

There is also the benefit of specific contacts and organizations that can assist with auto theft
investigations. A detective could request assistance in investigating a stolen car that was found burned
in their jurisdiction. If the request is sent to a general analyst, they may only aid with pulling cell phone
data from the area. A vehicle crime analyst may know a group or law enforcement entity that can
download the vehicles infotainment system and provide the detective with a criminal organization
that typically dumps burned cars in that specific area.

Criminals are creatures of habit and unless there is a vehicle crime analyst actively monitoring auto
theft activity, the lack of producing intelligence, information and analysis can leave criminals to
endangering the health, life and safety of our communities.