How many vehicles are stolen daily citywide in San Jose? San Jose Police Department Community Service Officer (CSO) Jordan Bravo thinks for a moment, "It's hard to say ... between dayshift and swing shift and all the divisions, maybe twenty to thirty a day. There might be more." This is one of many questions asked during a ride along with CSO Bravo. And, although locating stolen cars is just one of a long list of duties that CSOs perform, CSO Bravo has become a recognized master of spotting pilfered vehicles.
Driving to his division, CSO Bravo reviews the event list on his computer. Based on priorities, he takes a residential burglary call. Since CSOs do not make arrests or engage in confrontations, they investigate reported burglaries, not robberies in progress.
At the home of the burglary, CSO Bravo carefully investigates the crime scene and offers words of advice and consolation to the resident. "I like helping people," comments CSO Bravo, "I enjoy talking to people and being a CSO gives me that opportunity. I can take the time with a citizen at a call and not have to quickly do a report in five or ten minutes before rushing off to the next call."
Each CSO has his or her own way of being proactive on the job. For CSO Bravo, it is driving through the streets in his division, looking for stolen vehicles and running the license plates of suspicious-looking cars through his computer.
"I'm a car guy," says CSO Bravo, "I've always been into cars and car clubs. Looking for stolen vehicles is something I like to do. I also like helping out with car accidents. If there's an accident, I'll attach and help out in any way I can. Even though we don't take those reports, we do traffic control."
CSO Bravo recalls, "I started looking for stolen cars as soon as our class got on the streets. At that time, we didn’t have the tools to run the plates. So, I had to get out of my car and look inside the suspicious vehicle for things like: if the glove box is open or if the car was ransacked … those would be the clues I look for. Then, I’d ask Dispatch to run the plates. It was a slow process, and, I think without my computer, I found three stolen cars. Today, I’ve located over 155 stolen cars in two years using the plate runner app."
Helping out officers or other agencies is another way that CSOs can be proactive on the job. On this day, CSO Bravo hears about a truck fire on Highway 101 and drives over to see if he can help direct traffic. Arriving at the scene, the highway patrol officer tells CSO Bravo that the situation is under control and no help is needed.
A native of the San Jose, Jordan Bravo was a graduate of the San Jose Police Department's first CSO class in 2014.
After leaving the truck fire and taking care of other calls, CSO Bravo returns to searching for stolen vehicles, "After driving the same area day-in-day-out, I get to know which cars belong in a particular neighborhood. That helps a lot because when I see a car that doesn't look familiar ... most likely, it's going to be stolen."
Numerous details signal to CSO Bravo that a car might be stolen: the way the car is parked, the position of the seats and the rear view mirror, whether the windows are rolled up or not, and so forth.
In keeping with his passion for recovering stolen vehicles, CSO Bravo is passing on his skills to other CSOs, "I've trained three CSOs and got them hooked on looking for stolen cars. They'll call me and say, 'Oh, I found one. I'm at number eleven now.' Or, they'll text me, 'I just found a stolen car. I'm keeping your legend alive.' (laughs) I say, 'Cool, thanks.'"
Credits:
Photos by Curt Fukuda