Lakewood will be the lead agency, but Tacoma, Fife, Puyallup, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, Washington State Patrol and other jurisdictions are expected to join.

Lakewood Police Chief Bret Farrar said Tuesday that the $530,000 grant from the Auto Theft Prevention Authority will help pay for new resources, including:

 • Hiring a Pierce County prosecutor to handle only auto thefts.

 • Hiring a Lakewood police detective to investigate only those crimes.

 • Renting a centrally located space where police countywide can coordinate their efforts.

 • Buying an automated license plate reader video system that can inform patrol officers whether a vehicle is stolen.

The money, Farrar said, will allow police to crack down on the county’s vehicle theft problem while freeing up officers to focus on other crimes.

Pierce County has a long way to go to bring its motor vehicle theft rate closer to others in the region.

Statistics from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs showed the number of vehicle thefts in Pierce County fell by almost 8 percent in 2007 compared with the previous year.

Still, Pierce County had the highest rate of car thefts – 834 per 100,000 people – when compared to other counties in the Puget Sound region.

King County was second (743), followed by Snohomish (741) and Thurston (314).

Agencies such as Lakewood don’t have enough officers to dedicate one or two solely to stolen vehicles. The department assigns a part-time officer, which isn’t enough to tackle the problem, Farrar said.

“A bulk of your manpower is directed at violent crimes,” he said. “A lot of times, property crimes go to the bottom of the list.”

Smaller police departments, such as Fife, often get bogged down trying to investigate stolen cars. The fact that Fife is bisected by Interstate 5 keeps officers busy – the city has one of the highest car-theft rates in the area.

“Auto thefts take up a lot of our time because we get a lot dumped from throughout the county,” said Fife assistant chief Mark Mears. “It’s generally the same people stealing the cars.”

A car theft can take place in seconds and leave law enforcement with little to no clue about the thieves.

The greater Pierce County area is a perennial placeholder in an annual National Insurance Crime Bureau survey of the worst car-theft rates in the country. Last year, it ranked 16th. Yakima was ninth-worst in the country and worst in the state.

The state Legislature authorized $12 million over two years to help jurisdictions fight the problem. The money comes from a $10 surcharge on traffic infractions.

Farrar said the grant money is awarded annually, and the county task force will have to re-apply.

If it doesn’t lock up the money again next year, governments in Pierce County will have to choose whether to pay for the effort out of their budgets or disband the program, he said.

Agencies such as Tacoma say they like the effort because it brings together police from all over Pierce County. Tacoma already has an auto-theft unit; two of those officers will work with the Lakewood team.

“If someone needs extra help, we can assist them. If we need it, they can assist us, and that’s a whole lot of information-sharing,” said Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum. “Hopefully, it will put a big dent in the auto-theft problem we have in the area.”

Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653

Investigating Department 2006 2007 Percent change

Tacoma 3,601 3,211 -11%

Lakewood 536 566 6%

Puyallup 496 490 -1%

Fife 150 137 -9%

Pierce County 1,854 1,718 -7%

Total for entire county 7,087 6,542 -8%