In the United States, the number of cars that were stolen is expected to exceed 1 million in 2022. This will break all previous records and leave law enforcement struggling to keep up.

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, more than 750,000 vehicles were stolen in the country during the first nine months. The NICB stated that this is the highest number stolen cars in the country during the first nine month of 2022 since 2008. It also represents a 24% increase on pre-pandemic levels.

The value of stolen vehicles in this year’s thefts is estimated to be $6.6 billion

According to police officers, the actual number of cars stolen is much greater than reported. Tom Weitzel, who retired recently as Riverside’s police chief, stated that auto theft charges are hard to prove without video or eyewitness evidence. Prosecutors can pursue lesser charges, such as criminal trespassing.

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“Courts, prosecutors don’t take auto thefts very seriously. He said that unless it’s a case of carjacking (which is a separate charge), it’s not considered violence and the victims are paid by the insurance companies. That really skews both the numbers from the prosecutors as well as the police who are downplaying it because they don’t know how to stick with it.”

Even if courts and cops are faking numbers, the numbers in major cities across America are alarming.

Denver car thefts are up 15% over the same time last year. They also jumped an astonishing 178% compared with 2019 and 80% compared with 2020.

New York City saw a 32% increase in car thefts, with 12,901 cars being stolen between Dec. 11 and December 11. This is compared to 9,757 during the same time last year.

According to Memphis police, 9,600 auto thefts were reported in the first 11 months 2022. That’s an average of 30 per day. This is also an increase of 100% compared to last year.

Memphis police are offering hundreds of free wheel locks to those who need them.

The number of motor vehicle thefts in Chicago has increased by about 100% over the first 50 weeks, with 19,784 cars being stolen, compared to 9,933 during the same time last year.

He now advises police departments. He claimed that hundreds of cars are being stolen each night in Cook County Illinois, which is where Chicago is located.

“This has never happened before. He said, “It’s an epidemic.”

Vehicle thefts have been declining every year since 1990. This trend continued into the 2010s. According to data from the NICB, however, car thefts have increased each month since June 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Police find it even more frustrating that auto thieves are becoming more violent. A Denver car theft suspect shot a police officer in his neck earlier this month during an arrest.

Police say that most car thieves are not stealing cars for parts as they were in earlier times. Instead, they use the cars to commit other crimes before abandoning them unharmed.

Betsy Brantner Smith spokeswoman for National Police Association. She said that the new technology is possible to defeat. She stated that the only way to stop the rise in car thefts is for soft-on crime prosecutors to pursue harsher penalties.

People will stop doing it if we prosecute like we used too, where someone spent 5-to-10 years in jail. This is a major crime problem. We don’t prosecute cases so people get punished. What does that mean for you?

Police said that the problem stemmed from police departments trying to do more with less resources and fewer officers. Many police departments have resigned cops from their automobile theft units and assigned them to more serious crimes.

Washington State Patrol announced this month that they will be removing their four officers from a multiagency taskforce that targets car thefts. They don’t have enough detectives for other cases. These four detectives have helped to recover 921 cars stolen for more than $13million and made 241 arrests.

“We have limited resources and significant responsibilities. We must make constant adjustments to how we use our resources to meet these responsibilities. Chris Loftus, spokesperson for Washington State Patrol, stated that responding to violent crimes is something that everyone agrees with.

The task force monitored King and Pierce counties in November, where there were an average of 80 car thefts per day.

Aurora police pulled officers from a state task force that investigates vehicle thefts. This was due to staff shortages. According to statistics from NICB, Colorado has the highest level of auto theft. According to the Colorado Metropolitan Auto Task Theft Task Force, auto thefts have increased 113% in Colorado over the past two year.

The high value of used cars is another factor that has contributed to the rise in auto theft. It has outpaced inflation. Pandemic-related buying sprees, supply-chain snarls and computer chip shortages all made it difficult to find new vehicles and increased their value. According to police, this has led to more intact vehicles being sold on black market. This is especially true for full-sized pickups as well as other cars.

The catalytic converter in a car can be a target for thieves. It can fetch as high as $250 for precious metals, such as platinum, palladium, and rhodium.

The theft of catalytic converters was so common in Philadelphia, the city council passed a bill this month to stop the problem. The bill bans the sale and transfer of partial catalytic convertors. It also imposes a 90 day jail sentence on those who are convicted.

Too many police officers leave their cars exposed, making it a tempting target for thieves. Some drivers leave their key fob in their car while others leave it behind and take it with them. Others have left their keys in their cup holders or visors.

Auto thieves are becoming more sophisticated and using technology to reprogram keyless vehicles so that they can be opened with minimal damage.

According to Mr. Weitzel, the keyless technology makes it harder to catch thieves.

He said that police on patrol are trained in identifying a stolen vehicle by looking for damage such as a broken window. However, if the damage is not obvious, they won’t notice it.”

Manufacturers are now using biometric readers to scan the owner’s fingerprints or iris to open the car. However, this technology is not yet common.