Kent and the cities of Oakland, Portland, Tacoma, Salt Lake City, Cleveland and Baltimore each rank among the top 20 in the nation for the most car thefts.
Kent ranks ninth with 4.98 cars stolen for every 1,000 residents, according to a recent study released last month by ASecureLife.com using FBI data from annual reports. Oakland topped the rankings with 7.08 thefts per 1,000. The national average is two cars stolen per 1,000 people.
“Unfortunately we have known for some time that this region of the country has experienced a significant increase in vehicle thefts in the past few years,” Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla said in an email about the ranking. “It was a particularly bad year in 2017 and if you take a look at crime data in the region, you will see that almost all jurisdictions saw very high vehicle theft rates. Kent is part of that overall trend.”
People can take steps to help prevent vehicle theft, including rolling up your windows, locking the doors and parking in busy, well-lit places, according to ASecureLife, a security tip website that started in 2008. But the company points out where you live can significantly change a person’s risk for car theft.
The study looked at the most recent FBI data from 2016 and 2015 for 236 metropolitan cities throughout the country with a population of at least 100,000 to determine which had the highest rates of stolen cars.
Seventy-five percent of the top 20 cities are in the Western States, including three of the top five in Northern California. The most commonly stolen cars are older models of the Honda Civic and Honda Accord.
Padilla said there are many reasons for Kent’s high rate of vehicle thefts.
“One of the main driving factors is the opioid epidemic,” he said. “Addicts desperate to pay for their illicit narcotics often turn to criminal activity to do so. Another factor is our homeless population. It is not uncommon for our officers to come across stolen vehicles being used by homeless as a means of shelter.”
Car thieves also know the penalties aren’t very stiff in King County.
“One of the more frustrating factors is that the penalties for vehicle theft in King County are extremely low,” Padilla said. “In the last two years our arrests of vehicle thieves has been some of the highest we have seen in our history, yet criminals arrested and charged with multiple arrests are released within a matter of days. There is very little deterrent in terms of penalties.”
Another reason for Kent’s ranking is that the city has a higher percentage of multi-family dwellings versus single family homes.
“Criminals are inherently lazy and for them, going into a large apartment or condominium complexes provides them easy access and many more targets per square block,” Padilla said. “It’s a warped version of supply and demand.”
Other facts found in the study included Halloween as the most common holiday for car theft in 2o16; an average cost of $7,680 per car theft in 2016; and one of eight stolen vehicles in 2015 had the keys left inside.
Kent Police formed a vehicle theft task force in 2017 and 2016 to focus on the issue and conduct emphasis patrols with the Washington Auto Theft Prevention Task Force.
Padilla, who has campaigned for more officers on the Kent force, said a larger staff could make a bigger dent in vehicle theft.
“We are doing all we can with the resources we have available,” he said. “It’s important to note that if you look around the region and you compare vehicle theft rates, what you will find is that almost all the jurisdictions that have lower auto theft rates are jurisdictions that have more officers per capita than Kent currently does.”
Padilla said the hard work of officers, however, does appear to be paying off.
“If our current rate of thefts this year holds, we will come in with about a 20 percent reduction from 2017,” he said. “That’s still a higher amount than we want to see, but a significant improvement nonetheless.”
Rank – City – Population – Cars stolen per 1,000 people
1 Oakland, CA : 424,998 – 7.08
2 Springfield, MO: 168,307 – 5.85
3 Hayward, CA: 161,122 – 5.72
4 Richmond, CA: 110,868 – 5.66
5 Portland, OR: 642,129 – 5.57
6 Tacoma, WA: 209,914 – 5.13
7 San Bernardino, CA: 217,303 – 5.12
8 Gresham, OR: 111,491 – 5.11
9 Kent, WA: 128,604 – 4.98
10 Independence, MO: 117,335 – 4.86
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