At weekly community cookouts, the St. Paul Police Department is offering more than food and education this summer — they will be etching small translucent numbers into car dashboards.

The Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) act as fingerprints for vehicles and are used to help determine if a car is stolen. VINS are often printed on several parts of a car to make it more difficult for car thieves to remove them.

They normally cost about $700, according to St. Paul Police Cmdr. Jeff Stiff. But this summer, with the help of a state grant, St. Paul police are doing the VIN etchings for free at Safe Summer Nights gatherings.

Police will use tools from a special etching kit to print out small stickers with VINs on them before using acid to help put translucent VINs onto the lower left dashboard of cars, as well as other places like the driver’s side window.

In addition to VINs, St. Paul police are hoping to have one-on-one conversations with event attendees, telling them about protections they can take against auto theft.

“It’s a really good opportunity and chance to talk to the actual investigators that investigate auto theft,” Stiff said. “Vehicle theft has been on the rise lately and we are making a concerted effort to temper that back.”

The first Safe Summer Nights was Thursday, and they are held each Thursday throughout the summer at different locations in St. Paul. More information can be found at http://bit.ly/SafeSummerNights2019.