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Representatives of various law enforcement agencies partnered with the University of Texas at Dallas today to provide a number of free services to local motorists aimed at reducing the incidence of car theft in the community.

One of the most useful services that the assembled groups – which included the Richardson Police Department, North Texas Auto Theft Task Force, as well as the university itself – provided to those who came to the event was VIN etching. This practice carefully scratches a car’s vehicle identification number into its glass parts, making it much more easy to identify and making the glass parts themselves impossible to re-sell.

Another service the groups offered was HEAT registration, the university announced. This practice enters a vehicle’s license number in a special law enforcement database which gives peace officers consent to stop the car, under certain conditions, in order to verify that the owner or another authorized driver is the one behind the wheel, and not a car thief. The car can only be stopped for this purpose if seen on the roads between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., or if it ever attempts to make a border crossing.

In addition to the safety measures used at the University of Texas event, there are many ways, both high- and low-tech, to ensure that a vehicle is as difficult to steal as possible, experts say. On one end of the spectrum, all manner of sophisticated electronic devices is available to track a stolen car. On the other, the simple practice of making sure that there’s nothing very attractive to thieves visible to passers-by can help prevent a car from being stolen in the first place.