Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott announced today that the Sheriff’s Department OH 58A+ Helicopter is the first aviation unit in South Carolina to track, locate, and recover stolen motor vehicles utilizing Lojack technology. Sheriff Lott stated in 2006 the Sheriff’s Department began utilizing Lojack technology in our patrol vehicles in an effort to locate stolen motor vehicles. Lojack is the nation’s first and only stolen vehicle tracking and recovery system integrated with and used by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The system is based on proven Radio Frequency technology. With a better than 90 percent success rate in recovering stolen cars and trucks, the LoJack System enables area law enforcement agencies to use Police Tracking Computers (installed in their vehicles) to track down and recover not only LoJack equipped cars, but trucks, motorcycles and construction equipment as well. On November 4, 2010 Lojack technology was added to the Department’s helicopter. With the helicopter fully operational with Lojack, it received its first signal on January 27, 2011. The signal indicated that there was a stolen motor vehicle in the Lower Richland area. That signal was coming from a Toyota Camry that had been stolen from Richland County on January 26, 2011 from Willow Oak Drive in Northeast Richland County. The helicopter was able to conduct an aerial search for the stolen vehicle and located it in Eastover. On January 29, 2011 the Department’s helicopter received a second Lojack signal that a stolen vehicle was in Downtown Columbia. The signal was coming from a stolen Chevrolet Malibu that had been stolen from the City of Columbia. Sheriff Lott added the helicopter was able to track and locate the stolen vehicle at an apartment complex in the City of Columbia. The use of technology is important to fighting crime. The Sheriff added that he will continue to find advanced technology that allows the Department to create greater awareness to crime prevention techniques and that also provides cost effective ways to recover stolen property and to locate criminals. Sheriff Lott added that citizens are receiving the benefit of Lojack technology at absolutely no cost to the taxpayers -- The Lojack Corporation funds the complete cost of the tracking computers and equipment. Citizens can access important information about crime prevention, free safety training and community resources at: Website: www.rcsd.net Twitter: http://twitter.com/RCSD Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rcsd.net Nixle: http://local.nixle.com/richland-county-sheriffs-department/
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