SALT LAKE CITY -- Salt Lake City police swept through the city on Saturday to search for stolen vehicles using a scanning system.
The officers were able to scan about 18,000 cars, which led to the recovery of seven stolen vehicles and one trailer suspected to have been stolen.
This isn’t the first such sweep Salt Lake City police have preformed, but it is the largest auto theft operation they’ve ever conducted.
Detective Rick Wall, Salt Lake City Police, said this sweep will not be the last. He said they aim to be proactive about recovering stolen vehicles.
"We know that unfortunately sometimes those are things that happen in today's society,” he said. “We do get cars that are stolen, and so in an effort to try and head that off—that's why we're trying to be proactive and get out there into the community, out on the streets and really increase our presence."
Wall said they will be conducting more operations like this one in the future now that they have an entire team, the vehicle recovery and auto theft division, dedicated to reducing auto thefts.
