Maryland authorities in Prince George County are concerned about a recent rise in vehicle thefts and are pushing to expand the authority of police to execute wiretaps in an effort to combat this category of crime.

Prince George's County has a serious auto theft problem. The county, which has about 15 percent of Maryland's population, now accounts for nearly half the state's auto thefts.

This auto theft problem dwarfs even those of Baltimore, the reigning king of auto theft in the state for most of the 1980s and early 1990s.

The number of vehicles stolen in Prince George's has more than doubled since 1999, a period when vehicle theft declined or leveled off in every other major Maryland jurisdiction.

Fifty cars are stolen every day in the county, and with nearly 18,000 car thefts reported in 2003 -- the most recent year for which figures are available -- each household in the county stands a one in 17 chance of being a victim.

Under a bill heard last month in a Maryland House of Delegates committee, police in Maryland would be permitted to intercept oral or electronic communications in the course of investigating the theft of a vehicle. Current state law permits such intercepts for investigations into murder, kidnapping, rape and other crimes, but not for automobile theft.

The measure, sponsored by Del.Pauline H. Menes (D-Prince George's), is designed to allow police to intercept audio from "bait cars" that county police have set up to apprehend automobile thieves. The cars are now equipped with hidden video cameras that are activated when the car is started, allowing investigators to track the car once it is driven away.

Calls for urgent measures to address the auto theft problems have been made by C. Philip Nichols Jr., a Prince George's County Circuit Court judge and member of a task force convened to study the auto theft problem.

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