Stolen Vehicle Operations Cut Car Theft, Win Awards

Targeted efforts credited with ongoing declines

IACP Award

The Portland Police Stolen Vehicle Operations (SVOs) have continued to show results, including arrests and recovered stolen vehicles. Additionally, the innovative, data-driven initiative is getting more national recognition.

This year, there have been 10 Stolen Vehicle Operations missions, involving PPB and nine outside agencies, including the Gresham Police Department, Port of Portland Police Department, Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, Vancouver Police Department, Multnomah County Parole and Probation, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the United States Department of Justice-District of Oregon.

During the missions, 75 arrests were made (including 64 arrest warrants serviced), 69 stolen vehicles recovered, and 11 illegally possessed guns seized. Thirty-seven times, drivers attempted to elude police, and there were 12 vehicle pursuits under the PPB pursuit policy. 

In 2025, the Stolen Vehicle Operation (SVO) continued to build on the momentum from previous years. The program has grown significantly, expanding its knowledge nationwide and earning an international award for its innovative approach.

SVO continues to attract strong interest, with a waitlist of officers eager to participate in the operations. The program also strengthened relationships with surrounding agencies and community partners. Most importantly, stolen vehicle incidents continue to decline across Portland and the metro area, the very outcome that motivated the program's creation.

The Stolen Vehicle Operation (SVO) was awarded the 2025 International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Leadership in the Prevention of Vehicle Crimes Award. This award recognizes law enforcement agencies, task forces, community partnerships, and other prevention alliances worldwide that demonstrate exceptional results in vehicle-crime reduction and enforcement.

The recognition highlights SVO's significant success in reducing stolen vehicles and its groundbreaking partnership with cancer researchers at the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). This innovative collaboration, paired with measurable community impact, sets SVO apart as a national and international leader in vehicle-crime prevention. This is a major honor that underscores the operation's effectiveness, innovation, and real-world results.

In 2025, the Stolen Vehicle Operation (SVO) continued to strengthen and expand its collaboration with the community, specifically through PDX Stolen Cars, a community-sourced group of over 30,000 participants. The information provided by this group is actively leveraged by SVO to support operations.

Throughout the year, PDX Stolen Cars assisted in seven SVO missions, helping recover 11 stolen vehicles and demonstrating the effectiveness of this unique community–law enforcement partnership. This collaboration serves as a model for how community-sourced information can be strategically integrated into law enforcement efforts to achieve measurable, positive outcomes.

The SVO continues to implement the updated pursuit policy effectively, with the objective of stopping eluding vehicles that pose a significant risk to the community. Recent data shows an average pursuit duration of 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Officers use controlled pursuits to close distance on fleeing vehicles and apply approved intervention techniques to safely disable them. This capability has proven instrumental in the apprehension of dangerous offenders. Pursuits are a coordinated operation involving multiple units, air support, and specialized intervention tactics to ensure the highest level of safety and operational success.