It seems counter intuitive for an air tag to notify a thief that he is being tracked. Can I disable the feature?

It seems counter intuitive for an air tag to notify a thief that he is being tracked by the air tag hidden in my luggage he just took. He can stop, find and dispose of the air tag, and carry on with my property. Can I disable the “you are being tracked” feature? I realize that there are problems with that idea too. Is the idea to just scare the thief into abandoning the stolen item for me find later on? Or is the air tag designed primarily for finding lost rather than stolen items?