Halton Police Get $300,000 From the Province to Fight Auto Theft

Halton Regional Police have been given $300,000 by the province to keep working on auto theft, announced at a media conference at the service's Oakville headquarters. Halton is one of 22 police services across Ontario getting a share of the funding.

The money is aimed at the Organized Crime Strike Team, the task force Halton set up in 2024. That team has recovered 400 stolen vehicles, made more than 50 arrests and laid close to 240 charges since it started, according to Oakville North-Burlington MPP Effie Triantafilopoulos. Deputy Chief Jeff Hill said the funding supports the boots on the ground work, and some of it may go toward new technology and public education.

The thefts themselves have been falling. Halton recorded 1,701 auto thefts in 2023, 1,402 in 2024 and 1,120 in 2025, numbers set out in the service's annual reports. Across the region last year the drop was about 20 per cent.

What has changed is who is doing the stealing. Milton MPP Zee Hamid, formerly the associate solicitor general for auto theft and bail reform, said the crime has gone from opportunistic to organized, run by crime networks using newer technology to get into vehicles. "It's a sophisticated business," he said, and "it requires a coordinated, sophisticated response."

Triantafilopoulos put the cost in plainer terms. Losing a car is the obvious part, she said, but "people feel vulnerable and very much less secure in their own homes in their own community."