WASHINGTON — In testimony to a Senate panel Tuesday, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation emphasized automakers’ commitment to working with law enforcement and policymakers on the growing prevalence of carjackings, while stressing the importance of protecting their customers’ privacy.
“Clearly, the sharing of location information — with anyone, including law enforcement — needs to be appropriately balanced with consumer privacy,” Alliance CEO John Bozzella told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing on federal support for preventing and responding to carjackings.
The hearing follows efforts in January by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to urge the U.S. Department of Transportation to work with automakers and law enforcement agencies in addressing what he called an “alarming increase” in carjackings across the U.S.
In separate letters sent Jan. 26 to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Bozzella, Durbin urged the department and automakers to develop standardized methods for law enforcement that can be used to locate stolen vehicles.
Many newer vehicles are equipped with telematics systems that can track a vehicle’s location, but Durbin, who is chair of the committee, argues the process of contacting automakers to gain access to the location tracking data “often results in unnecessary delays that impact law enforcement’s ability to effectively combat these crimes.”
Durbin says the procedures for agencies to access the vehicle tracking information from automakers also vary widely across the industry and can take law enforcement “hours or even weeks.”
Durbin is calling for the auto industry to “do more,” including developing uniform industry procedures to make it easier for law enforcement to contact automakers and gain access to location data on stolen vehicles.
Last month, Durbin also urged the Department of Justice and FBI to improve nationwide data collection of carjacking offenses.
“This is an important and serious topic, and Congress has an important role to play in combating the rise of violent crimes, and carjacking is just one of them,” ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in opening remarks.
Thomas Dart, sheriff of Cook County, Ill., said carjackings in Chicago have tripled in the last decade — a concerning trend that has spread to other major cities such as New York City and Philadelphia as well as in the District of Columbia.
“One of the most effective tools available is manufacturer-installed geolocation equipment commonly available in most vehicles built after 2015,” Dart told the committee. “But while some manufacturers are very helpful, others can be reluctant or unwilling to track carjacked vehicles.”
Dart said it often isn’t clear who law enforcement should call to get information about the vehicle and that some automakers have limited hours of availability.
“Sometimes staff are poorly trained and demand we obtain warrants which are clearly not relevant,” he explained. “In egregious cases, the companies require customers to pay an upcharge to initiate the tracking of the car which was just stolen from them.”
Bozzella pointed to the industry’s privacy principles, which prohibit an automaker from sharing vehicle location data with an unaffiliated third party, including law enforcement, without consent of the vehicle owner.
Bozzella also emphasized challenges such as variation in telematics capabilities among automakers and within vehicle lineups and contractual limitations within their customer agreements on when location data may be provided to third parties, including law enforcement.
He also stressed the importance of verifying that a request for vehicle location data from law enforcement is a legitimate request related to an active carjacking and defining the necessary circumstances related to a carjacking that allow law enforcement access to real-time vehicle information.
“Is it any case where a vehicle is stolen by force?” Bozzella asked. “Does it only apply in a circumstance where the theft places the owner or a passenger in imminent danger?”
Bozzella referred to the increase in carjackings over the past two years as a “disturbing trend” and said his members — which include most major automakers in the U.S. — have been meeting to examine the issue and improve their collaboration with law enforcement.
“This is a complex issue, and one we take seriously,” he said.
