Stolen cars are being used to drive at police officers at an alarming rate and almost 1,700 cars have been stolen in the territory since July last year, according to ACT police.
ACT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan said a special task force, named Operation Toric, had now been established, made up of 40 officers, to address the issue of car theft and dangerous driving in Canberra.
The territory has one of the highest rates of motor vehicle theft in the country, and Deputy Commissioner Gaughan said more needed to be done to address that rate.
"So, the task force is doing a good job to bring it down, and we've asked for some legislation reform as well that we'll hopefully get through," he said.
"We need to have a big focus on this."
'I don't feel safe anymore'
Uber driver Manzar Ali is one victim of car theft in the territory recently, with his car — which he used for work as well as personal transport — being stolen from outside his home in Curtin.
"I parked my car right in front of my house, I went inside to grab something and when I came out, after literally 10 minutes, my car was gone," he said.
"I immediately called the police and they tried to chase it, but they had to stop the chase due to public safety.
"After two to three hours my car was found totally burned."
Mr Ali said the incident took a toll on him, stopping him from being able to work and leaving him scared.
"It left me terrified and jobless for a few days," he said.
"In total I think I lost nearly $5,000, including my valuables and cash and my wallet in the car.
"I suffered a great loss, especially the mental pressure on myself due to this car and due to this accident. It was really terrifying."
He said living where he does in Curtin was expensive, but he had felt the safety of the neighbourhood was worth it.
But after the incident, he is not so sure.
"I don't feel safe anymore," he said.
Motor vehicle theft rate 'ridiculously high'
The ACT had the second-highest rate of reported car theft in the country last year — 281 per 100,000 residents — after the Northern Territory (284 cars per 100,000 residents).
Car theft has worsened in both territories in recent months, increasing by more than 30 per cent.
But while theft levels in the national capital remain significantly lower than they were two decades ago, Deputy Commissioner said it still remained a major issue for the police force.
Earlier in the week, ACT Policing said a 17-year-old girl was facing 11 charges after she allegedly drove a stolen vehicle at a police officer, rammed a police vehicle and bit an officer.
The police officer suffered minor injuries.
"This type of behaviour sees dedicated officers off work injured and police vehicles written off," ACT Policing said.
"Each time that happens, there are fewer resources for ACT Policing to deploy to keep the Canberra community safe."
Deputy Commissioner Gaughan said it was the 27th time since July last year that a police vehicle had been deliberately rammed.
He said 1,700 cars had also been stolen in that time, amounting to nearly 30 per week.
Deputy Commissioner Gaughan called that number "ridiculously high" and said he hoped the newly established task force would help to bring that figure down.
"What I've done is I've pulled resources from across different areas of ACT Policing — it's primarily intelligence-led," he said.
"It's not rocket science for us to work out who these offenders are."
He said 18 people had been arrested in the past two or three weeks for these offences and had all committed similar crimes previously.
Deputy Commissioner Gaughan has said previously that police had hired a criminal psychologist and were turning to technology to assist police in tracking offenders and arrest them safely, including by implementing drones.
But he repeated his request that the ACT government consider changes to legislation to make it easier for police to stop offenders before they resorted to dangerous driving during a pursuit.
"In short, unless my officers have eyes on a driver at the time they're in a stolen motor vehicle, driving it, I can't charge him, I can't charge him with stolen car offences, even if their DNA is in it," he said.
"It's a gap in the legislation that we need to fix and it will be fixed, and that will allow us to actually arrest people without actually going through the issue of seeing them drive a car."
He also repeated his call for bail laws to be reviewed in the ACT and echoed concerns raised by the police union, which said ACT police officers were being "let down" by judicial outcomes.
"We've got to look at the whole of the victimisation here — you know, the community's at risk," Deputy Commissioner Gaughan said.
"I think we need to look at it, the same way we're looking at drug reform and other things in the territory."
