Here’s some great news: reports of both violent crime and property crime declined dramatically during the first quarter of 2024. Property crime specifically was down 15.1% as compared to the first quarter of 2023. Burglaries were down 16.7% while motor vehicle theft was down 17.3%.
The FBI database shows 772,943 vehicle thefts in 2017. That number fell to 751,904 in 2018 and dropped again to 724,872 in 2019. So far so good. But then during the pandemic, many types of crime shot up. In 2020, there were 810,400 reported vehicle thefts. That number climbed a bit more, landing at 849,741for 2021. Then there was a steeper climb to 942,174 in 2022.
