Southeast Texas Auto Theft Task Force

🚨 STOP LEAVING GUNS IN YOUR VEHICLE

Criminals are actively targeting vehicles looking for one thing: fi****ms.

When a gun is stolen from a vehicle, it doesn’t just disappear, it often ends up in the hands of criminals, gang members, or violent offenders and can be used in robberies, assaults, or worse, homicides!

A locked vehicle is not a gun safe.

Every unattended firearm left in a vehicle is an opportunity for a thief. In many cases, it takes only seconds for a criminal to smash a window, grab a firearm, and be gone.

Protect yourself and your community:
🔹 Remove fi****ms from your vehicle whenever possible
🔹 Use a secured lockbox if temporary storage is necessary
🔹 Never leave fi****ms in plain view
🔹 Always lock your vehicle
🔹 Report stolen fi****ms immediately

The next stolen gun could be used in the next violent crime. Don’t make it easy for criminals.

Take it with you. Lock it up.

Last year, Austin made the decision to turn off its Flock camera network following a public pressure campaign built on misinformation about how the technology works. This weekend showed what that tradeoff can look like.

For nearly 24 hours, three suspects moved through Austin in stolen vehicles, carrying out a shooting spree across 12 separate locations. People were shot. Homes, apartment buildings, businesses, and fire stations were hit. Robberies and additional car thefts piled up as the suspects kept moving.

The response was massive. 200 officers, helicopter support, K9 units, a full manhunt. Even with all of that, the suspects stayed ahead of law enforcement. Then they crossed into Manor, Texas.

Manor is a city of roughly 20,000 residents with a fraction of Austin's resources. What Manor has is an active license plate recognition network and the community support to keep it running. Manor PD located the suspects almost immediately. The spree ended. Residents stayed safe.

We're grateful for the officers in both cities who worked to bring this to a close, and we're glad it's over. Austin is a great city full of people who deserve to feel safe in their neighborhoods. Our hope is that stories like Manor's can help inform the conversation about what these tools actually do, and what communities lose when they're taken away.

🚨 TOP 5 WAYS YOU CAN PREVENT YOUR VEHICLE FROM BEING BURGLARIZED🚨

1️⃣ Lock your doors. Because apparently “trusting people” isn’t working out anymore.

2️⃣ Don’t leave valuables in plain sight. If a thief can see your stuff easier than you can find your keys, that’s a problem.

3️⃣ Park in well-lit areas. Criminals hate attention almost as much as they hate honest work.

4️⃣ Don’t leave your keys in the vehicle. Yes… people still do this. Don’t be that person.

5️⃣ Use alarms, cameras, or steering wheel locks. Make thieves move on to a vehicle that looks less annoying to steal.

🔒 If You Like It, Lock It!