Sharjah Police target careless motorists

Sharjah: Police plan to shock motorists into not leaving their car engines running by taking their cars away for a short while.

The police intend to take away cars left unattended by careless motorists. When the owners return and see their car missing, they will realise their actions were an open invitation to car thieves.

“Don’t leave your vehicle with its engine running, otherwise it will be stolen by thieves or the police.”

The Sharjah Police Programme ‘Al Rased’ — which means ‘the observer’ in Arabic — has adopted this idea to increase awareness on the risk of leaving cars with engines running.

A team will be deployed in specific areas where people tend to leave their cars unattended when running a quick errand, such as near banks or pharmacies.

The police will target these cars to make their owners experience the panic of losing their property and teach careless motorists a lesson to avoid such behaviour in the future.

The Al Rased team will “steal” the car and, when its owner returns, the Al Rased camera will record their reactions.

The police will let the owners believe their car has been stolen before returning it to them.

The police are attempting to educate people that a policeman cannot protect every car on the road, especially those left with their engines running.

Lieutenant Colonel Ahmad Bin Darwish, Director of the Patrol Department at Sharjah Police, told Gulf News that the media and public relations department at Sharjah Police thought of the idea to increase awareness among people.