You’re more likely to have your car broken into or robbed in the Hamilton area than anywhere else in Ontario, Hamilton police say, and so they’ve have launched a car door locking campaign blitz to curb the problem.

The “lock it or lose it” campaign is a provincial initiative that has been particularly well implemented in Hamilton, says crime prevention coordinator Sgt. Barry Mungar. And it’s a necessary one, it would seem – because the area has a car theft problem.

Between 2009 and 2012, stolen vehicle statistics went up by a whopping 114 per cent in just four years. Those rates dropped by 22 per cent in 2013 (the most recently available data year) but that still leaves us with a car theft rate that is 92 per cent higher than it was in 2009.

It’s a billion dollar business. It’s a massive industry. - Crime prevention coordinator Sgt. Barry Mungar

According to Statistics Canada data, the Hamilton and Brantford census metropolitan areas have the two highest rates of motor vehicle theft in Ontario. “It’s true, the likelihood of your vehicle being stolen in Hamilton is greater than other cities in Ontario,” Mungar said.

Those cars are stolen for a host of different reasons – to be used to commit other crimes, to be broken down in chop shops and used for cheap parts, and sometimes just for joyrides. Some nicked Hamilton cars are even shipped overseas, Mungar says.

“It’s a billion dollar business. It’s a massive industry,” he said.

Robberies from vehicles dropping

Thieves robbing valuables from cars remains a problem too, though those levels have been dropping in recent years. There were 3,212 robberies worth under $5,000 from vehicles in 2013, down from 3,968 in 2009.

Mungar attributes that drop at least in part to the “lock it or lose it” campaign. “There’s a lot of value in the campaign,” he said.

Here’s how it works: each day auxiliary police officers and volunteers go to areas that are often targeted for auto robberies like residential areas, mall parking lots, theatres and underground parking lots.

They peer in car windows and check to see if there are valuables in plain view, as well as checking to see if the doors are locked. Years ago, volunteers would actually pull the handles to see if the doors were unlocked, but they stopped doing that after some complaints.

“Some people were uncomfortable with someone actually touching the vehicle,” Mungar said. Now, volunteers just have to eyeball it through the windows. Once they’ve finished, the auxiliary officer or volunteer leaves a checklist under the wipers telling the driver their car is either safe, or a potential target for thieves.

A 'misguided practice'

But University of Toronto legal expert Peter Rosenthal says the practice could potentially open up legal quandaries if an auxiliary officer or volunteer saw something in a car that led to criminal charges.

“If a policeman sees something [illegal] in plain view, he’s allowed to investigate,” Rosenthal said. “But if it’s part of a problem that includes actively looking around intrusively, that raises some difficult legal questions when it comes to the admissibility of evidence.”

Mungar says to his knowledge, no one has found illegal drugs or weapons during the campaign.

Rosenthal also questioned the validity of the campaign as a whole. “Whey are they doing this? Do they have so much free time in an age of tight budgets?” he asked. “It seems to be a misguided practice.”

Hamilton police distributed almost 50,000 “lock it or lose it” flyers in 2013, and Mungar says they will likely surpass that number this year.

adam.carter@cbc.ca | AdamCarterCBC