Lockdown Your Car
Challenge
Auto theft has been on the rise in Colorado for the past 10 years, fueled by major population influxes and violent crime increases. What many people don’t know, however, is that auto theft is more than just a property crime and can seriously implicate the safety of a community—74% of adult car thieves are charged with additional crimes such as drug trafficking, identity theft, armed robbery, and home invasion (down from 97% in 2018). This truly is a statewide issue, affecting both metropolitan areas and rural communities.
Solution
While not every case of auto theft can be prevented, nearly 50% of auto thefts are due to driver error (i.e. not locking your car, leaving it running unattended, and so forth). We launched the “Lockdown Your Car Campaign” focusing on decreasing auto theft throughout the state to make the community a safer place overall. The Lockdown Your Car campaign was a statewide effort, spanning urban and rural areas, and employs an integrated communications approach. To reach every corner of the state, we partnered with law enforcement on a community level to spread our message and tailored talking points and communications specifically for the auto theft that those areas were facing—trailer and truck thefts—as opposed to the different trends that were more prevalent in Denver and the Front Range, which we messaged about in a different way.
Results
The Lockdown Your Car campaign moved the needle in the right direction:
- The number of Coloradans who see auto theft as a major problem increased by 26% from 2016 to 2019
- When asked to identify why cars are stolen, the number of respondents who indicated ‘to use the car in violent or drug related crimes’ increased by 53% from 2014 to 2019
- Throughout the lifetime of the Lockdown campaign, it amassed 255 million impressions via paid media, social media and website views. It also garnered a staggering 322 million earned media impressions via public relations efforts.
- The campaign received recognition for its work in 2018 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police with the “Leadership in Prevention of Vehicle Crimes Award.”
