Animation set to tackle car crime
Avon and Somerset are using animation to educate people about the dangers of car crime.
Avon and Somerset are using animation to educate people about the dangers of car crime.
Car Thief Keith features a character called Keith who attempts to break into a car. When he breaks the window, a variety of weapons spring out of the boot and Keith is stopped in his tracks.
There are three different versions of the cartoon, each seeing Keith meet his end in a different way by an AVSOM wackomatic, a plasma cannon or a freeze gun.
Viewers are reminded that this is a cartoon and you cant really buy a plasma cannon to protect your car but all you need to do is remove all property and lock your car and you won`t have to – it will be safe from thieves.
One cartoon per week will be launched on the Avon and Somerset website, www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/keith. People can download the cartoons from here, text them to friends or save them as wallpaper. They will also be available on YouTube and Avon and Somerset is hoping the message will spread.
It is part of Relentless on Vehicle Crime, trying to get the simple message across to car owners that if you don`t leave property on display in your car there will be nothing for a thief to steal.
Victims of car crime predominantly fall in the 18-27 age bracket. Police have found it traditionally difficult to reach this age group using standard messages.
They are hoping that these animations will interest the target audience and get the messages across in a new way.
Chief Superintendent John Long said: This is about trying new ways of getting through to different audiences. Our standard ways of getting message to the younger audiences just aren`t working.
For years, the message hasnt changed if you remove your property from your car, there will be nothing for the thief to steal. The vast majority of car theft is opportunistic a thief is walking past a car, sees a handbag or sat nav on display, breaks the window and takes it.
If the sat nav or handbag isnt there, the chances are the thief will walk on by and your car window will stay in one piece. This is such a simple message but we are still seeing hundreds of vehicles broken into across the force where property that has been left on display has been stolen.
We are now trying different ways of getting this message across if a light hearted cartoon is what it takes to get a serious message across, then that is what we will try.