Highlights
Car and truck theft is exploding because of videos and news reports as to how easy it is to steal vehicles. Vehicle theft is up 42 percent in the cities studied.
It’s time to return to the use of steering wheel locking devices, especially for the cars and trucks that are stolen the most.
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of directing award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of Criminology and Public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University. Former police officer. Aspiring drummer.
Author of ”Success With The Media: Everything You Need To Survive Reporters and Your Organization” available at Amazon and additional booksellers.
Quotes
All quotes are edited for brevity.
Article
I ran a statewide auto theft campaign when I was the director of public information for the Maryland Department of Public Safety. Auto theft was reduced considerably when we ran radio and television ads encouraging people to use steering locking devices.
Auto theft is currently exploding and may push property crime rates up for the first time in decades. Violent crime has increased for some years since 2015 via the National Crime Victimization Survey from The Bureau of Justice Statistics and the FBI (it may be receding via data from cities for 2023) but auto theft has been down in past years.
Why has it exploded? There are videos regarding types of vehicles showing people how easy it is to steal select cars. Keyless entry systems have also created problems. It’s always intrigued me that there seem to be mechanisms that communicate with the criminal class in America; it’s as if they have their own digital newsletter.
From The Hill (newspaper of Congress)
The most frequently stolen vehicles in 2022, according to the NICB, were:
- Chevrolet pickup (full size)
- Ford pickup (full size)
- Honda Civic
- Honda Accord
- Hyundai Sonata
- Hyundai Elantra
- Kia Optima
- Toyota Camry
- GMC pickup (full size)
- Honda CR-V
In 2022, reports of vehicle thefts rose 7% over the previous year, the NICB said.
“Approximately one motor vehicle is stolen every 32 seconds, which adds up to more than one million vehicles stolen last year,” said NICB President and CEO David J. Glawe.
From Jeff Asher And The Status of Auto Theft Based On City Data For 2023
“A 6 percent increase in property crime doesn’t sound like much, but property crime nationally fell 19 straight years between 2003 and 2021 and in 28 of the last 30 years — 2022 data is not yet available. Any increase in property crime would represent a reversal of the long-term trend.
It isn’t hard to pinpoint what is driving the increase in property crime: auto thefts. Auto thefts began rising in July 2022 and there is not a ton of evidence that these crimes have started to fall yet. Auto thefts in the sample are up an astounding 42 percent this year relative to last year with an increase occurring in 33 of the 42 available cities. Removing auto thefts from the property crime counts in the 42 city sample would change the YTD difference in property crimes from +6 percent to -2.6 percent.”
There are seven cities with percentage increases of over 100 percent with Baltimore in the lead with close to a 200 percent increase.