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Criminal Justice students learn how to prevent and fight theft |
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 SU West Palm Beach (Spring 2009) - The criminal justice students at the West Palm Beach Campus learned the "how to's" when protecting personal property from a local expert. Detective Walter Robinson (photo left) of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department was a guest lecturer. He has over 20 years of expertise in the area of theft and theft prevention and is on the Florida Auto Theft Task Force.
He described how criminal organizations operate and turn auto theft into a revenue source. Understanding how these criminal organizations operate is a critical first step for the Florida Auto Theft Task Force, which is a collaborate effort that involves the cooperation of all police departments in the state of Florida. If a vehicle is reported stolen, the local agency will send the description of the vehicle to the Florida Auto Theft Task Force within minutes.
Detective Robinson also shared with the group various tactics used by criminals and criminal organizations to hide their stolen property including: “chop shops,” the illegal transportation of cargo to and from ships, how the boats themselves are stolen, and how large numbers of pharmaceutical drugs are transported. A clear understanding of how thieves try to hide stolen property and how they transform it into revenue is key to stopping crime and, in some cases, recovering the property. |
