City police considering a task force to study car thefts

Car thefts are down 65 percent this year in Annapolis, but city police are trying to further combat the problem by creating a multi-jurisdiction task force.

Chief Joseph S. Johnson got the task force idea when he noticed several cases where cars stolen from the city wound up in Prince George's County, or when cars stolen there are left in the city. There were 135 cars stolen through November this year, compared to 223 in the same period in 2004.

"We thought (the car thieves) were changing cars, riding one up (to Prince George's County) and one back," Chief Johnson said. "(The task force) would target a neighborhood where it...