Bait Car is an American television series airing on the truTV network. The show depicts would-be car thieves caught in the act of auto theft. Police target criminals with a high-tech bait car

Bait car

A bait car, also called a decoy car, is a vehicle used by law enforcement agencies to capture car thieves. The vehicles are modified, with features including GPS tracking and audio/video surveillance technology, and can be remotely monitored and controlled...

, rigged with hidden cameras and radio trackers. Viewers are taken along for the ride from the moment the car is stolen to the thief's arrest.

Production and broadcast history

The Bait Car series premiered in August 2007 on Court TV (now truTV). Season two of the show premiered in August 2009 on truTV, and season three premiered in June 2010. The first three seasons of the show were primarily shot in Los Angeles and New Orleans.
After nearly four months with no new episodes, Bait Car began airing a fourth season in December 2010 on Mondays at 8:30pm EST. Shot in San Francisco, this fourth season was produced by KKI Productions, and a 2007 Honda Accord was used as the bait car.

Format

In this crime reality series, teams of undercover officers drive the bait car to areas with high rates of auto theft, where they park it and leave it unattended with the engine running. The idea is that would-be car thieves will hop in and drive away. Unbeknownst to the criminals, a hidden camera and a radio tracker have been placed on the dashboard, and a police force is watching their every move. The thief is then tracked down and arrested.
Bait Car operations typically call for about a dozen officers on duty, and the cases are often charged as misdemeanors

Misdemeanor

A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...

.

Controversy

Opponents of Bait Car have expressed concern that the show merely creates crime and might even be considered entrapment

Entrapment

In criminal law, entrapment is conduct by a law enforcement agent inducing a person to commit an offense that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit. In many jurisdictions, entrapment is a possible defense against criminal liability...

. "What this boils down to is crime creation", a San Francisco public defender says. "It's crime created for the purposes of entertainment. I don't know how any district attorney could in good conscience put this before a jury."

Those in law enforcement argue that the show is a legitimate and effective way to catch auto thieves. "John Q Public doesn't climb into bait cars," a Florida officer states. "We are talking about people who have been arrested time and time again. Everybody we've arrested with a bait car has had an extensive criminal record."

Operation locations

Known States	Known Cities	Known Organizations
Alabama Alabama Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...	Birmingham Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...	Birmingham Police Department
California California California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...	Los Angeles Los Ángeles Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...  County San Bernardino San Bernardino San Bernardino, California is a large city in the Inland Empire Metropolitan Area of Southern California.San Bernardino may also refer to:-Landforms:*San Bernardino , a torrent that flows through the Italian province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola... San Francisco	California Highway Patrol California Highway Patrol The California Highway Patrol is a law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and also acts as the state police.... Criminal Investigations Unit Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is a local county law enforcement agency that serves Los Angeles County, California. It is the fourth largest local policing agency in the United States, with the New York City Police Department being the first. The second largest is the Chicago Police... San Francisco Police Department San Francisco Police Department The San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD and San Francisco Department Of Police, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California... Taskforce for Regional Autotheft Prevention
Georgia Georgia (U.S. state) Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...	Atlanta Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...	Atlanta Police Department Atlanta Police Department The Atlanta Police Department is the law enforcement agency of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.The city shifted from its rural-based Marshal and Deputy Marshal model at the end of the 19th century. In 1873, the department was formed with 26 officers...
Illinois Illinois Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...	Chicago Chicago Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...	Chicago Police Department Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...
Louisiana Louisiana Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...	New Orleans	New Orleans Police Department New Orleans Police Department The New Orleans Police Department has primary responsibility for law enforcement in New Orleans, Louisiana. The department's jurisdiction covers all of Orleans Parish, while the city is divided into eight police districts....
Nevada Nevada Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...	Las Vegas Las Vegas metropolitan area The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...	Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is a joint city-county police force for the City of Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada. It is run by the Sheriff of Clark County, elected every four years. The current Sheriff of Clark County is Douglas C... Vehicle Investigations Project for Enforcement and Recovery
Washington	Seattle  Spokane Spokane Spokane is a city in the U.S. state of Washington.Spokane may also refer to:*Spokane *Spokane River*Spokane, Missouri*Spokane Valley, Washington*Spokane County, Washington*Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War*Spokane * USS Spokane...   Tacoma  Everett Everett - Places :* Everett, Washington, the county seat and largest city in Washington state's Snohomish County*Naval Station Everett* Everett, Massachusetts, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts north of Boston* Everett, Pennsylvania, in Bedford County, Pennsylvania...   Yakima	King County Sheriff's Office  Snohomish County  List of counties in Washington Most Washington counties have active bait programs.

External links

• BSM Wireless Inc. - Manufacturer of the industry-standard Stinger bait vehicle system featured on TruTV's Bait Car program.