AirTags arent designed to prevent theft, but theyve proven to be a really useful tool. Now, the Denver Police Department has announced it will give out hundreds of AirTags as part of its ongoing efforts to prevent car thefts. The Denver Police Department is teaming up with the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority (CATPA) to distribute 450 AirTag and Samsung SmartTag item trackers to residents, as spotted by Gizmodo. In an announcement this week, the Denver Police Department said: With the goal of preventing auto thefts in Denver and quickly locating stolen vehicles and suspects, the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority (CATPA) is partnering with the Denver Police Department (DPD) to provide a limited number of free Airtag or SmartTag Bluetooth location tracking devices to Denver residents who register for the DenverTrack auto theft prevention program during this promotional event.An AirTag in and of itself cant prevent theft. It can, however, serve as a deterrent. It can also help recover your car if it is stolen. Notably, it will be up to you to provide location data to the police should your car get stolen. The Denver Police Department is not given direct access to the location. Instead, you add the AirTag to your Apple Account, place it in your car, and track it via the Find My app. If your car gets stolen, you can share the location with the police to help find it. In the unfortunate event a vehicle is stolen, the vehicle owner is responsible for providing the location of their vehicle to responding officers, according to the Denver Police Department: Denver isnt the first city to take an AirTag approach to cracking down on car thefts: Denver residents interested in snagging a free AirTag can sign up on the citys website. Follow Chance:Threads,Bluesky,Instagram, andMastodon.Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel