The Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy injured Wednesday while recovering a stolen pickup is a member of the Jefferson County Regional Auto Theft Task Force, a law-enforcement group focused solely on stolen vehicles.
The task force is one of seven statewide that were formed July 1, when a new law required all insurance companies to contribute $1 to the fund for each vehicle insured in Colorado.
There are roughly 3.5 million licensed vehicles in Colorado. The Jefferson County task force received $920,000, one of the largest grants for the year.
The Jefferson County task force includes officers from the Lakewood, Arvada and Wheat Ridge police departments and the Jefferson County sheriff’s and district attorney’s offices.
The task force has four investigators, a sergeant, a technician who processes the recovered cars and other evidence, and a commander, Mike Becker of the Lakewood Police Department.
The task force already has logged some successful cases, including the arrest of a man officers linked to 50 stolen cars.
“It’s a good program, particularly since it’s not funded by taxpayers,” said Jefferson County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Shires.
