Chicago car thefts surged in 2023, but numbers ticked down through the year
CHICAGO (CBS) -- For months, the CBS 2 Investigators have been looking at data on auto thefts, and probing into why recovering stolen vehicles has become so difficult.
Lately now, there has been a drop in auto theft cases. CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey has been digging into that new trend and asking why.
Back in October, we introduced you to the Illinois Statewide Auto Theft Task Force (ISATT), which includes Chicago Police officers and members of other various other law enforcement agencies on its team.
"The demand for vehicles is up," Illinois Secretary of State Police Lt. Adam Broshous, the director of the task force, said in October. "So when the demand goes up, then you're going to see a spike in the thefts."
The team tracks down stolen cars when it seems like they have disappeared into thin air. Broshous said said in October that if a car isn't found in two or three days, it's likely already in pieces – or will be found with a lot of damage.
At the time, the car theft problem in Chicago was on track to break records.
According to Chicago Police Department data analyzed by the CBS 2 Investigators, the CPD received a total of 28,629 auto theft reports through midnight this Christmas Eve. That made 2023 the worst year for auto thefts in Chicago since 2001.
But we noticed something else. While 2023 was a terrible year for car theft, the number of cars stolen every month is ticking down. There were 1,658 cars stolen in December 2023, but that figure was 2,718 in December 2022.
Over the last year, local law enforcement has been working with vehicle manufacturers to register cars with the "Tracked Vehicle Program," which could help track down a stolen car if it is later used in a carjacking or certain other types of felonies.
Police have also helped distribute steering-wheel locking devices – popularly known by the brand name The Club.
Could those solutions be working?
"No one's going to take a victory lap," said Roe Conn the Cook County Sheriff's Department's Director of Data Driven Strategies. "I mean, this is a very, very serious problem that we have."
Conn, a former radio host who pivoted to law enforcement said it is difficult for authorities to say anything is "working" in particular.
But his office looks at conditions in the marketplace, as well as adjustments that Kia and Hyundai - which at last check accounted for about half of all stolen motor vehicles in Chicago last year - have made in recent months.
"How they were dealing with retrofitting some of the vehicles that have been targeted here - that may have had an impact," said Conn, "and obviously, Chicago Police Departments and our office and State Police are working really hard on this issue, and we're hoping that we're starting to have some effect on it. But it's