The Denver Police Department is giving out hundreds of Apple AirTags and Samsung SmartTags as part of a program called DenverTrack to monitor car thefts, according to a press release Tuesday. The department will give out 450 trackers over three days, from March 19-21.
Signing up for the program “preauthorizes” the Denver Police Department to “work with GPS information, provided by a vehicle owner, when a vehicle is reported stolen.” But police say they’re not gaining any kind of direct access to the AirTag location data. It’s about empowering people to track their own car thefts with a free gadget that typically costs around $20-30.
“In the unfortunate event a vehicle is stolen, the vehicle owner is responsible for providing the location of their vehicle to responding officers,” the police department press release reads.
“To accomplish this, the vehicle owner contacts their GPS service provider or accesses their Bluetooth tracker app and shares that location in real-time with officers. In certain situations, officers may work with victims to get verbal consent for their tracking service to give real-time updates to officers,” the press release continues.
Anyone interested in getting one of the free trackers needs to sign up at the Auto Theft Prevention section of the Denver website. Clicking on DenverTrack Registration Events brings up options for registering a vehicle and drivers will need to sign up to physically arrive at one of six district stations on March 19, 20, or 21 during a timeslot from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
After signing up, drivers need to show up to their scheduled timeslot with their vehicle registration information and the phone they want to use for tracking the vehicle. Volunteers will reportedly be around to help anyone who has difficulty pairing their AirTag or SmartTag with their phone. Walk-ins aren’t accepted.
Even if you miss out on the free AirTag, people can still sign up for the program. After registering the car, a DenverTrack decal is sent to the owner through USPS, and drivers are encouraged to place it in the lower part of the driver’s side window. “This decal alerts thieves that the vehicle is registered with DenverTrack and, if stolen, this vehicle will be tracked,” the website reads. But that definitely seems like the kind of thing that would just alert potential thieves to search for the tracker once they’re inside the vehicle.
The police have partnered with the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority (CATPA) for the Bluetooth tracker program, which first launched in 2023. The overall budget for the program isn’t immediately clear but Denver police say they’ve made progress against car thieves, with auto thefts down 33% compared to 2024. And that’s on top of the 29% reduction from 2023 to 2024, according to the police department.
