NYC car thefts surge as violent crimes decrease, NYPD statistics show

Car thefts in New York City continued to increase at a markedly higher rate in August, a trend that is counter to the downward trend for other major crime categories, the latest NYPD data shows.

The auto crime increase, which amounted to 24.3% in August compared with the same period in 2022, prompted police and city officials to announce new measures on Wednesday to try and stem the auto theft trend, which has been on a steady increase since March 2020.

“It is clearly grand larceny auto that is putting a blemish on our success,” Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged at a news conference.

Particularly hard hit areas are in the Bronx and northeast Queens, the latter of which police officials said has been impacted by suspected thieves coming in from Long Island.

At the news conference in north Queens, NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said going forward, each police precinct will have one patrol car with two license plate readers dedicated to auto crimes. Auto dealership officials also are planning public education initiatives to help consumers combat the loss of vehicles, officials said.

The jump in auto thefts, which overall for 2023 are up 19%, is in marked contrast to the success the city has had in reducing other categories of violent crime such as homicide, grand larceny, robbery, rape and burglary, as well as shootings — all of which declined in August compared to the same period a year ago.

The August crime decreases led to a year-to-date drop of 1.5% compared to 2022. Murders for the year so far are down nearly 10%, robbery nearly 6%, burglaries down almost 11% and grand larceny dropped 2.3%, statistics showed. Shootings have also fallen nearly 24% for the year, according to police data. Felonious assaults were static for the month with a small 0.3% increase, statistics showed.

But the persistent increase in auto theft, driven according to police by a problem with security and ignition devices on Kai and Hyundai models, has tempered the overall crime decreases and have prompted the latest enforcement efforts. 

In recent weeks police officials have noted that car thefts have been connected to gangs in New Jersey who plague areas of Staten Island and Brooklyn while suspected Long Island thieves have become a problem in areas of Queens near the border with Nassau.

While the majority of car thefts have been attributed to young people under 25 taking vehicles for joy rides, criminal gangs will use the autos to commit crimes, according to police.

Auto theft increases have also been a problem on Long Island in recent years. The Nassau County Police Department reported a nearly 72.5% increase in auto thefts for the year 2022 compared with 2021. Comparable data was not available for Suffolk County.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.com

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.