There have been more than 300 plates reported stolen in the ACT so far this year, with many thieves using them to avoid police. This comes after 1310 number plates were stolen across Canberra last year.

On Saturday, ACT Policing installed tamper-proof screws on 452 vehicles as part of an outreach event at Kingsford Smith School in Holt.

Busy police officers fit free screws to an ever-growing queue of vehicles throughout the day.

The officer in charge of Belconnen Station, Inspector Brett Booth, said the screws were an easy way for Canberrans to protect their plates from being stolen and used during criminal offending.

"We go and put screws on which are difficult to get off - though not impossible, it's much more difficult," he said.

"[The criminals] will choose the next car, if they can get off [those] plates."

Car thieves are known to steal number plates and place them on stolen vehicles in an effort to avoid police detection. Stolen plates are also used to disguise the real identity of a vehicle when it is used in other crimes such as petrol drive-offs and burglaries.

Gina Hebblewhite, from Franklin, decided to swap out her number plate screws after multiple friends had theirs stolen.

"I park my car on the street, like a lot of people, and I think that it would be nice to know I don't have to check that my number plates are still there every morning," she said.

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Neighbourhood Watch ACT president Laurie Blackwell contacted Inspector Booth after an increase in number plate thefts over the past few months.

"We provide feedback on the sorts of issues that we're picking up around the community to [ACT Policing] so they can respond to these issues in a timely way," he said.

ACT Policing worked with Neighbourhood Watch and Kingsford Smith School to organise the event.

Free tamper-proof screws are also available at any ACT police station.

Stolen number plates can be reported to ACT Police by calling 131 444.

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