CLAYTON — The number of stolen Kias and Hyundais is finally decreasing in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County after an explosion of car thefts here and nationwide last year, county police said on Thursday.
Policing efforts, car updates and other prevention strategies have helped stem the tide, ºüÀêÊÓƵ County auto theft Detective Michael Nickolaus said at a meeting of the county Crime Commission.
“We’re still seeing it to an extent in our region,†Nickolaus said. “But we have seen sharp decreases in these types of thefts.â€
Rates of stolen Kias and Hyundais exploded in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region last year — a trend seen nationally after a video went viral that showed how to break into and drive off in many 2011-21 models using just a screwdriver and a USB charging cable.
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Hundreds of the South Korean-made vehicles were stolen monthly in ºüÀêÊÓƵ and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
But thefts started decreasing in spring this year and went down more over the summer, police said. In 2022, more than half of total vehicles stolen in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County were Kias or Hyundais: County police reported 1,621 Kias and Hyundais stolen, almost 60% of the 2,775 total cars reported stolen that year.
This year, they still account for about half of all stolen vehicles, Nickolaus said, but police are starting to see significant declines: Through October, there have been a total of 1,036 Kias and Hyundais reported stolen to ºüÀêÊÓƵ County police this year. In 2021, that number through October was 100.
A few factors contributed to the decrease, police said.
Kia and Hyundai offered security feature upgrades. Police and other organizations handed out free steering wheel locks and showed people how to use them. Insurance agencies stopped issuing new policies for those types of cars, so there were less on the road. Police also upped cooperation with nearby agencies to arrest suspects. Prosecution followed, and the courts started catching up on cases, showing the consequences for stealing a car.
The downward trend in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County follows decreases in other cities, including Milwaukee, where it started, and Memphis, Tennessee, Nickolaus said.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Executive Sam Page said he hopes theft rates continue to decrease.
“We’re hopeful that we’ll see the trend that has happened in the rest of the country,†Page said.
But another step could be taken to deter particularly young people from stealing cars, said Pat Kelly, executive director of the Municipal League of Metropolitan ºüÀêÊÓƵ. The county could decide to hold kids suspected of stealing cars in the juvenile detention center instead of releasing them.
A scoring system determined by the Missouri Supreme Court guides juvenile detention centers in deciding whether to book a kid or not, said Kelly, whose organization advocates on behalf of municipalities, including their police chiefs.
Past offenses count for points. For instance, if a kid has committed a felony, they would have at least 12 points on their record. ºüÀêÊÓƵ County requires 15 points for a child to be booked into the detention center, Kelly said.
But the county was only counting the most serious of offenses, even if there were other offenses on the books, he said. A kid could have a felony on their record, steal a car and still be released.
Kelly said the legislature passed a bill this year that included a rule requiring counties to count all offenses, not just the most serious. That would send more kids to detention. Gov. Mike Parson vetoed the bill for other reasons, but the legislature is likely to consider another bill that includes the rule in the session that begins in January, Kelly said.
“The reason we feel they should use everything they can in order to hold these individuals over, and not because we want the key to be thrown away,†Kelly said. “But one, is to make sure there’s a record they had some other issues. The other thing is that if they’re not held over, then they’re not able to get the services they need in order to maybe turn in a direction away from, basically, the life of crime they’re starting at such a young age.â€