Car theft slows to lowest in 20 years

Reported vehicle theft has fallen to a 20-year low even as the number of vehicles on the road has doubled, as manufacturers install sophisticated anti-theft technology in cars and police target organized car-theft rings.

The FBI estimates 956,846 motor vehicles were stolen in 2008 – 315 cars for every 100,000 people. That’s less than half the rate in 1991, when a high of 1.66 million vehicles were stolen – 659 for every 100,000 people. Data for 2009 are not yet available.

There are more than 245 million vehicles on the road today, up from 122 million in 1989, says Charles Territo, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade organization.

“It’s a much tougher job to be a car thief today,” says Russ Rader, spokesman for Highway Loss Data Institute, a research group funded by auto insurers that analyzes data from insurance claims. “The technology in new vehicles makes it much harder to make off with a car.”

Car manufacturers now routinely build an ignition immobilizer – an electronic device that blocks the engine from starting – into vehicles, Territo says. The technology makes it hard to start a car without the owner’s key. Many cars also include other theft-prevention technologies, such as alarm systems and GPS tracking devices that help locate a stolen vehicle.

The GPS technology “didn’t exist 20 years ago,” Territo says.

In 1989, fewer than 5% of new cars had an ignition immobilizer as part of the standard package, the Highway Loss Data Institute research shows. Now 86% of new cars are built with the device.

State law enforcement officials also have cracked down on car thieves during the past 20 years.

Arizona legislators in 1992 created a task force to tackle its alarming car-theft problem, says Brian Salata, the group’s executive director. Members work with police and prosecutors to uncover organized car-theft rings. “Our idea was to take out the large trafficking organizations,” he says. Car thefts in the state have declined for six straight years, including a 25% drop from 2007 to 2008.

The chances of having a car on the road stolen are about a third less than 20 years ago. Yet insurance rates have not changed because cars cost more, says Steve Weisbart, senior vice president for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry group. – Freep

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