As the number of auto thefts decreases across the country, it remains substantially above the norm in the Brantford area.
Statistics released this week by Statistics Canada show that, due to a major push by Winnipeg to reduce auto thefts, Brantford has been left with the title of vehicle theft capital of Canada.
But statistics from three local police services --Brantford, Brant OPP and Six Nations -- show substantial drops in the auto theft rate in 2009. Vehicle thefts dropped 13% in Brantford, 16% in the area covered by Brant OPP and 19% in Six Nations.
Still, hundreds of stolen vehicles are recovered on Six Nations territory, leading Chief Coun. Bill Montour last year to characterize the area as the recovered vehicle capital of Ontario.
And other police forces are frequently quoted in the media pointing fingers at Six Nations as a dumping ground for stolen cars and trucks.
"It's not fair to blame Six Nations," says newly appointed Six Nations police Insp. Rob Davis.
"We have a handful of individuals from here who have aligned themselves with non-natives off the reserve and are using our accessible geography for their purposes."
The 19,000-hectare reserve is surrounded by large urban areas, within an hour of the Greater Toronto Area and Golden Horseshoe, and easily accessible to provincial highways. It's lightly populated and heavily canopied by trees that offer a perfect cover for large-scale chop shop operations and hiding the discarded carcasses of stolen vehicles.
"We recognized we have an auto theft problem," said Davis. "So, we spearheaded a joint initiative with all the stakeholders around southern Ontario.
Davis, who worked for years with the RCMP at the Canadian Police College, watched as Winnipeg --the 2008 stolen vehicle capital of Canada --took a firm stance against their problem and made headway.
"When the number (of thefts) go up, all the agencies see an increase in pursuits and that's when cops get shot and people get run over as a result."
Instead the proactive project has lead to more charges, less thefts and fewer recoveries.
"Everyone that's a member of the initiative is reporting the numbers are down dramatically and I'm fairly confident that the title of auto theft capital of Canada won't stick here for too long."
Six Nations police and their partners in the initiative are still recovering a lot of stolen cars and trucks. But, more and more, they're picking up vehicles before they are stripped and burned. And they're laying charges.
Last year, Six Nations police slapped 336 charges against 39 people from both on and off the reserve. And officers have executing numerous search warrants -- often for large-scale operations. It's one of the reasons all the surrounding areas are seeing a dramatic decline in auto theft.
Davis declined to give out the stats on where the recovered vehicles are from because he said it's important intelligence the police use to help track the thieves.
"We know where they're working and we know they move around when we centre on an area."
He said that stolen vehicles that typically end up on Six Nations tend to be high end Chevrolet products valued for parts that taken off-reserve to be sold. In other areas, stolen vehicles are more likely to be cars used for joyrides.
Davis said the decline in auto theft is leading to fewer vehicles being recovered on Six Nations.
In 2008, 85 vehicles were stolen on Six Nations and 708 recovered. In 2009, those numbers dropped to 69 stolen and 650 recovered.
So far this year, there have been 31 thefts and 250 recoveries.
The inspector also noted that of the 650 vehicles recovered in 2009, about 250 of them were as a direct result of the coalition working together to get them before they were destroyed.
"This is an intelligence-led operation and it's a very effective use of our resources."