King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, the guest speaker at Wednesday’s Greater Redmond Chamber of Commerce luncheon, told attendees how agencies such as Redmond Police and ATTACK (Auto Theft Tactical Analysis Center for King County) have successfully worked to reduce car thefts in the region.

A key factor, said Satterberg, has been the realization that car thefts are more than just property crimes. In recent years, prolific car thieves have been tied to many more serious crimes, from drug sales to burglaries to endangering public safety during high-speed chases.

As a prime example, Satterberg showed a TV news clip of a traffic chopper following the actions of a shameless car thief in downtown Kirkland. The desperate criminal — who later was found to be a meth addict — used three different cars to elude police, including a wild ride down busy Lake Washington Boulevard. This kind of behavior isn’t unusual, it turns out, Satterberg said.

“Not all thieves are kind enough to steal cars on the evening news,” Satterberg wisecracked, “but most are pretty brazen.”

However, back in 1980, it took seven car theft convictions before you’d go to prison for maybe six months, said Satterberg. Stealing cars seemed like a golden opportunity for bad guys, because “cars are valuable, stuff inside is valuable and it was easy to do,” he remarked.

The state tolerated car thefts for a number of years because “we were told it costs too much to put people in prison,” Satterberg noted. “Car theft was looked at as a property crime but it is very dangerous.”

To further illustrate the point, he showed a video of a frightening “wrong way” car chase on Aurora Avenue in Seattle. That car thief was a robber, also wanted on a gun warrant Car theft is not just a property crime, he reiterated.

In 2004, Redmond Police hired crime analysts and statisticians to keep tabs on repeat offenders, find out who they are, where they live, how many times they’ve been in prison and so on. What came to be known as The ATTACK Center was modeled after a federal fusion concept to help law enforcement agencies “share notes,” so to speak, on individuals or groups who go from city to city perpetrating crimes.

“A small number of people are responsible for a vast number of crimes,” Satterberg pointed out.

Now Redmond Police and colleagues from Bellevue, Kirkland, Federal Way, Des Moines and elsewhere throughout King County create “Top 20 Most Wanted” lists and ways to stop known car thieves in their tracks, such as finding out when they were due to visit their probation officer — and waiting for them to show up for the meeting, usually in another stolen car.

ATTACK has also used “bait cars,” outfitted with cameras and devices to shut down the engine and lock the doors until the police come to catch an infamous perpetrator.

In the past four years, car theft in King County has decreased by a whopping 60 percent, Satterberg stated — partly because of proactive policing and also because of stiffer penalties for convicted car thieves. A third car theft now means a jail sentence of 17-22 months and a fourth car theft, 43-57 months in jail.

Satterberg also mentioned the precedence of car prowls in the area. As well, he talked about prolific home burglars and the long-term benefits of “investing in the infrastructure of criminal justice,” as opposed to having a detective tell a victimized home owner, “Just call your insurance company.” In 1980, the average King County household spent an average $557 on such infrastructure. Now it may cost more like $1,223 per year. But this year, there is 39 to 42 percent less crime.

Bad guys, behind bars, can’t prey on innocent people again and again, Satterberg said.