Sacramento Bee
July 16, 2007
Front page
State's tops in car theft,
but it shuns U.S. database
Activist wants the California DMV to join a program
that keeps tabs on cars' IDs
By Tony Bizjak - Bee Staff Writer
Rosemary Shahan, prim in a pink sweater and matching pink blazer, sits at the dining room table of her neat Davis condominium, documents spread end to end.
Here's one that gets her going: Latest statistics from the California Highway Patrol that show some 250,000 vehicles were stolen in the state last year.
California is the undisputed national leader in car theft and fraud.
A letter to California officials from the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice grabs Shahan's interest. It says California is one of 20 states that do not participate in the national vehicle information-sharing program designed to reduce theft and fraud. The feds ask what they can do to get California's Department of Motor Vehicles to sign up.
That upsets Shahan.
A familiar face at the state Capitol, Shahan is a soft-spoken but passionate former English teacher who now heads Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, which she runs out of her Davis condo.
If California would just join the computerized national system that tracks vehicle titles, the state could put the squeeze on a teeming underworld of chop shops, car cloning and title washing, she argues.
It would mean fewer thefts, and fewer unsafe cars sold to unsuspecting buyers.
"We desperately need to do this," Shahan said. "It's way, way overdue."
California Highway Patrol officials agree.
"California is the big dog," CHP auto theft Sgt. Troy Rivers said. "Once we get on board, that is going to add impetus to other states to get involved."
Not so fast, California DMV officials say.
The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System is "a good concept and has merit," DMV spokesman Mike Marando said. "We acknowledge the benefits of NMVTIS as a tool for identifying stolen vehicles and protecting consumers."
But the DMV recently launched a major effort to modernize its own computer systems for driver's licenses and vehicle registrations, Marando said. Not until that's done, possibly in 2010, can the DMV seriously consider joining the national information system.
Not good enough, Shahan said. She wants the DMV to join sooner.
Her effort may be quixotic -- given the state's cash-strapped situation and other priorities -- but Shahan has a decent track record.
She was the San Diego housewife who helped launch California's groundbreaking "lemon law." In 1982, she wielded a dogged, one-woman sidewalk picket at a dealership that sold her a defective car.
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader once called her tenacious as a bull and as humane as Mother Teresa.
Over the years, she has been part of the push to get air bags into American cars and was an early instigator for California's Car Buyer's Bill of Rights.
Advocacy, she says, "is in my bones, I guess."
Her parents were seriously injured by a drunken driver when she was a child.
"I still remember that night," Shahan said. "It changed everything."
Shahan is not alone in her new campaign.
The FBI and the Department of Justice recently began what they describe as a "renewed" effort to get more states signed onto the decade-old system. They are looking to consumer advocates like Shahan for some help.
Shahan is among a handful who received briefings at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., this month.
The information-sharing system, authorized by Congress in 1992 and updated in 1996, ideally would hold up-to-date information on the status of every titled car in the country.
Information would be submitted by state DMVs, insurance companies and others. Anyone checking the database could immediately know, for instance, if a vehicle was "totaled" by an insurance company or was reported damaged in a given state.
The system could help law enforcement more easily track stolen vehicles and could warn agencies if two cars have the same vehicle identification number, an indication that one car's identity was illegally "cloned."
The system, however, is far from effective and has languished until recently.
National officials say they want to turn that around. Their interest in improving the system stems from heightened concern about the potential for stolen vehicles to be used in terrorist acts and from possibly dangerous Hurricane Katrina-damaged vehicles being sold to unaware consumers.
Some 30 states participate at various levels, according to the Department of Justice, including the Western states of Oregon, Nevada and Arizona.
California, by virtue of its size, would give the struggling system a huge boost, proponents say.
California has the most registered vehicles in the country. Federal crime data listed 257,000 vehicles stolen here in 2005. Texas was a distant second at 93,000.
Per capita, California ranked sixth in the nation in vehicle theft in 2005. Nevada was first among the states, though topped by the District of Columbia.
Jason King, spokesman for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators -- mainly state DMVs -- said states with ports, like California, tend to have higher theft rates.
Cars can be stolen and quickly shipped out of the country, he said.
Locally, vehicle theft Sgt. Bill Montague of the Sacramento Police Department said he is not familiar with the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, but he'd love to see an auto theft information-sharing system in place, at least among law enforcement agencies in the Sacramento region.
Shahan has been on a roll in recent weeks. She's buttonholed several DMV officials to pitch the national system.
This past week in Washington D.C., she lobbied staff members of several California congressional members, including those of Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.
She also asked transportation committee officials in the state Senate to hold a meeting on the issue. Committee consultant Carrie Cornwell said officials are planning to set up a meeting.
Shahan says she's in a hurry.
"Time means economic hardship," she said. "Time means lives."
Note: Progress! After the Sacramento Bee published reporter Tony Bizjak’s excellent front-page report, representatives of the CA DMV met with CARS President Rosemary Shahan and key counsel for the California Legislature, the CHP, and American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. At that meeting, the CA DMV announced that CA will start to participate in the National Motor Vehicle Titling Information System starting in 2008, instead of waiting until 2010.
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