Vancouver police and the city's parking lot operators have come up with a new program they hope will make downtown parkades safer.

Const. Jeff Campbell said Friday he hopes an award system will improve safety at city parking lots.
(CBC)

Five lots in downtown Vancouver have earned "Safer Parking" awards, and will display signs to show they have made a special effort to prevent auto break-ins.

The city is hoping that this will be a wakeup call for parking lots that didn't make the list.

Vancouver police estimate that 1,600 cars are broken into every month in the city, many in downtown lots and underground parkades that are often not secured, dimly lit, littered with trash, and not patrolled. Because a lot of break-ins go unreported, the real number is likely much higher.

The hope is that the safer parking initiative will be an incentive for parking lot operators to invest in lots to make them safer.

The Vancouver Police Department wants drivers to be able to easily identify parking lots that are considered safe, Const. Jeff Campbell said.

"So when they park their car, they have a reasonable expectation that their car will not have been broken into or stolen," he said.

But while the program rewards parking lot operators who make an effort to improve safety, there is no punishment for those who don't, and no bylaw to force them to make improvements.

"At this point we're not looking at a stick [approach],'' said Coun. Kim Capri.

She said the city wants parking lot operators to act voluntarily in the hope that they will be rewarded for their efforts. " That's what we're looking at at this point," she said

Capri says drivers are bound to choose parkades that display the safe parking sign and bypass lots that don't.