Modesto-area auto thefts are way down. How to guard against becoming a victim

Vehicle thefts are down for the third straight year in Stanislaus County as the region continues to stay out of the top 10 metro areas struck by the crime.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau has released its report on 2022 auto thefts in metropolitan areas throughout the United States.

The bureau ranked the Modesto Metropolitan Statistical Area — which encompasses Stanislaus County and its nine cities — No. 54 out of the nation’s 390 metro areas with at least 50,000 residents. The rankings are based on thefts per 100,000 residents.

The Modesto metro area was ranked No. 29 in 2021 and No. 18 in 2020. This comes after being ranked among the top 10 — including several times as No. 1 or No. 2 — since at least 2002, according to a previous Bee story.

The Modesto metro area had 391 vehicle thefts per 100,000 residents in 2022 to land in 54th on the insurance bureau’s list. About a third of the 2,158 vehicles stolen throughout Stanislaus County were taken in Modesto.

So, what has happened?

“Crime trends fluctuate and we don’t always know what is driving that, but we believe we’ve impacted the decrease (in auto thefts) with our intelligence-led policing,” Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Bear said.

Bear said that since 2019, the department’s leadership, crime analysts and other staff have met every other week to analyze crime trends in the city and come up with strategies to combat them. She said the analysts play a big role because they provide a deep dive into the statistics.

Where and how vehicles are taken

For instance, she said, not only can analysts identify hot spots for auto thefts but also the trends in how vehicles are being stolen. Are cars being stolen because it’s cold in the morning and people are letting their cars warm up while they go inside for a cup of coffee, or are thieves smashing car windows and then punching the ignitions?

The analysts also keep track of when high-offender auto thieves have been released from custody.

The department already had been looking at crime stats and coming up with strategies to address them, Bear said, and that has become more in-depth since 2019 with the regular meetings and the addition of analysts.

Bear said that while the department once might have had a couple of crime analysts, it now has seven and is in the process of adding its eighth.

Officer Tom Olsen with the CHP’s Modesto area office said he believes law enforcement and the public got tired of the area’s reputation for car thefts. That, along with public education, helped shift behavior to reduce vehicle thefts, he said.

Bear agreed that education campaigns have made a difference. She said Modesto police use social media to promote preventive measures, including parking your car in a garage or, if that is not possible, in a well-lighted area.

Olsen advises car owners to follow the “9 p.m. routine” of checking that their car is locked with no valuables in plain sight and making sure the doors to their home are secure and they know where their keys are. He also suggested installing security cameras to deter car thieves.

Now that the weather is getting colder, Olsen advised drivers not to warm their cars up in the mornings and then go back into their homes.

He also said the Stanislaus County Auto Theft Task Force gives away the steering wheel lock known as the Club to owners of frequently stolen vehicle models. Owners can call the CHP’s Modesto office at 209-545-7440 to find out whether a vehicle qualifies.

Bear said that based on the results of the department’s biweekly meetings, patrol officers and community service officers will give steering wheel locks to owners who live in areas that are being targeted by car thieves or who drive vehicles that are at high risk of theft.

Olsen said it also helps that the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office has made prosecuting car thieves a priority.

Stolen cars stripped for parts

It also matters that over roughly the last five years, law enforcement agencies in Stanislaus County have gotten much better at sharing what’s happening in their jurisdictions, Olsen said.

“The (auto theft) trend doesn’t stay in one city,” he said. “It permeates the county. ... It’s literally the same criminals. ... We’ve gotten so much better as a county working together as one team.”

Olsen said the majority of stolen vehicles in Stanislaus County are recovered within 48 hours, but they often have been stripped of parts that thieves resell.

The insurance bureau, which describes itself on its website as “the insurance industry’s not-for-profit association dedicated to preventing and combating insurance crime,” ranked California as the sixth worst among states and the District of Columbia for vehicle thefts in 2022, with a rate of 462 vehicles per 100,000 residents.

The bureau reported the top metro area for vehicle thefts was Pueblo, Colo., with 1,086 thefts per 100,000 residents. The Bakersfield metro area was No. 2 with 1,072 thefts per 100,000 residents.

The San Francisco-Berkeley-Oakland metro area was No. 8, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area was No. 21, the Fresno metro area was No. 22, the Sacramento metro area was No. 41 and the Stockton metro area was No. 43.