There has been a "startling" rise in U.S. car thefts, a new crime statistics report has found.
The 2023 Council on Criminal Justice crime report, released on January 25, found the average rate of motor vehicle theft in a sample of 34 American cities was 105 percent higher in 2023 than in 2019. There were also 29 percent more motor vehicle thefts in 2023 than in 2022.
Kia and Hyundai cars not fitted with new security measures are particularly vulnerable to theft, the report states.
Car thefts are going up while many other crime rates are going down, the Council on Criminal Justice report notes.
"Motor vehicle theft continues to stand out because of its startling upward trajectory, with rates well above pre-2020 levels and continuing to rise in 2023," it states.
"Much of this increase is likely the result of thefts of certain Kia and Hyundai models, which lack a key security feature making them vulnerable to theft. While motor vehicle theft rates were already on the rise before these vehicles became popular targets, the increases over the last two years dwarf the 2020 increase," the report adds.
National Public Radio's website states that more than eight million Hyundais and Kias from model years 2011 to 2022 can be hotwired with a USB cable and also lack an engine immobilizer, which is a common anti-theft feature that prevents the engine from starting unless the vehicle's key is nearby.
"Both manufacturers are offering affected customers free software upgrades they say will fix the problem, but cars affected by the vulnerability are still on the market, despite the fact that a growing list of major insurance companies say they won't cover them for the time being," the NPR article states.
The increase in car thefts has continued for the last four years, with car theft rates dropping before then, the Council on Criminal Justice report states.
"Before beginning to rise over the past four years, the rate of reported motor vehicle theft in the United States had fallen precipitously from its peak in 1991," it notes.
The motor vehicle theft rate in larger cities is now double the rate in smaller towns.
Since 2004, the majority of motor vehicle thefts have occurred at or near the victim's home.
There is also a drop in the rate of juvenile arrests for car thefts.
The juvenile arrest rate for motor vehicle theft "has decreased dramatically since the 1990s and is now similar to the adult rate," the report also notes.
The "clearance rate" or rate of solving car thefts, has dropped from 26 percent in 1964 to 9 percent in 2022.
In comparison, the 2022 clearance rate was 12 percent for larceny and 13 percent for burglary. The homicide clearance rate in 2022 was about 50 percent.
As with motor vehicle thefts, carjackings have increased from 2019 levels, though there was a reversal of that trend and a slight drop from 2022 to 2023.
Overall, the 2023 data shows that homicide and most other violent crimes declined in American cities in 2023, "but levels remain above those seen before the onset of the COVID pandemic and the widespread social justice protests of 2020."
The analysis found that the number of homicides in 2023 fell by 10 percent compared to 2022, representing 515 fewer murders in the 32 cities that made year-end homicide data available. "If that decrease holds once a larger number of jurisdictions report 2023 data to the FBI later this year, it would be among the biggest single-year homicide drops since at least 1960, the start of modern record keeping," the report notes.
A separate Council on Criminal Justice report released on December 19 shows that the homicide "clearance," or solve rate of 83.7 percent in 1964, has dropped steadily to 50 percent in 2022.
Less than half of murder cases will be solved for 2023 and subsequent years if the pattern continues.
The decline may be the result of better legal protections for the accused, a weakening relationship between the police and the public, more murders being committed by strangers and slower police response rates, the report suggests.
Update 1/25/24, 4:01 p.m. ET: This article was updated to provide a link to the Council on Criminal Justice 2023 crime report.
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