Although it will be understood that the present invention is not limited to such an application, one important application of the invention is in the field of emergency response vehicles such as police cars. The theft rate of such vehicles is on the increase and the potential use of such stolen vehicles in terrorist activities is a dangerous prospect particularly because people tend to accept the legitimacy of the presence of such vehicles at sites where ordinary vehicles would raise suspicions.
Another aspect of the problem is that police cars and other emergency vehicles are often left running or left with the ignition key in while the policeman or other emergency response personnel tends to whatever task is at hand. For example, the police may temporarily leave a police car running or the keys in the car or otherwise unsecured when investigating an incident on the side of a highway or in another situation where only a quick stop is made. Further, criminals, terrorists or others may simply break into the car and “hot wire” the car or effect other starting thereof to enable the car to be driven off and may also use the equipment in the car (radio, guns from the gun rack, etc.) for their own purposes.
Although various devices have been developed for protecting against the unauthorized use of vehicles including emergency and public works vehicles, these have proved to be of limited effectiveness in some situations particularly where the criminal or terrorist is highly motivated or otherwise determined to break in and drive off the vehicle.