I recently watched a couple episodes of "Bait Car" a TV program in which the police "bait" a nice looking car by placing it in an area of the community in which it is claimed that there has been a high incident of car thievery, by leaving the keys in the car, the door open to the car, and it appeared to me, the engine running. Inside the car are cameras to record both audio and video, and nearby to the bait car, are a few cop cars, to track the car if it should be "stolen", an offsite audio/video command center to monitor all the action, and a helicopter up in the air, to track the car. Within this TV program, there are several fundamental problems, which I will address in the following paragraphs.
First off, the entire concept of catching criminals by setting up a bait car is a total sickness displayed by the police authorities. The reason it is sick, the reason it is wrong, is that the car is placed purposely only in minority neighborhoods, deliberately to induce the lowest lying fruit of the neighborhood, who are impoverished for lack of opportunity, to take an impulsive action, which they will invariably do. The fact that the car is ultimately "stolen" shouldn't surprise anyone, since the police have done everything within their power to say, "come get this nice looking car," and the police really honey the pot by leaving both the car door open and the engine running to encourage those in the neighborhood, to investigate the situation which may initially be from a perspective of concern, especially if the car is parked at a weird angle or in an unauthorized parking spot.
Additionally, while the police authorities charge those that take the vehicles with car theft, at worse, they are taking out the vehicle for a "joy ride", as at no point are they ever in position to actually steal the car, as it would be one thing, if the car was simply left alone, abandoned, and it's an entirely different thing for the police to be able to control this "stolen" car in such a manner that they can disable the engine as well as lock the doors from the inside so that the driver cannot even exit it. Also, in the real world, anyone that abandons their vehicle, along with leaving their engine both running and their car door open, is culpable themselves in any criminal activity that occurs, since they have not performed normal and prudent actions to protect their property, especially in an area that is suppose to have a high incident of car thievery. In addition, none of the bait cars taken have been broken into by force, or jerry-rigged to get the car started, or anything that would normally occur if someone was a real car thief, and stealing a vehicle.
Furthermore, the cost of this "sting" operation in regards to the expenditure of monies on police personnel and their equipment is absolutely a total waste of the community's money. The police have not in actuality caught any criminals, they have at best, manufactured people that are impoverished and impulsive as criminals, but without the baited car, there would not have been a crime, so the police have not done anything positive for the community except to harass and to in essence, demonstrate that some people are susceptible to temptation.
In fairness to the community at large, for every "bait car" episode, there should be a "bait cop" episode, in which real undercover federal agents play the role of being neighborhood drug dealers, to which, when they see a real police car rolling up on them, they scatter to the wind, accidently dropping money, drugs, and other paraphernalia, all properly baited for tracking purposes, and all being recorded via drones up in the air.