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Car thefts, burglaries still on the rise

Property crime in New Jersey has stayed flat

By: Lucus Frau
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Combating vehicle crime remains challenge for New Jersey law enforcement. It's a crime that has afflicted everyday residents of the Garden state, along with notable cases of an assemblyman and a reality TV star.
..... "My wife and mother in law are incredibly shaken. any semblance of safety they have is now gone."
..... That is a message from Assemblyman Paul Kroitra's Facebook page, where he described how burglars broke into his mother-in-law's home in Hazlet and stole his car.
..... Safety is on everyone's mind throughout the country and New Jersey. Crime is reported on a daily basis, but are we currently seeing more offenses in the state?
..... In terms of property crime, the data from state police and the FBI shows as a whole that property crime in New Jersey has stayed flat but motor vehicle thefts are on the rise.
..... Property crime fluctuated over the course of several years in New Jersey. There were about 5,000 fewer such offenses in 2023 than in 2016, but property crime increased by 7% form 2022 to 2023, FBI data showed.
..... Although property crime as a whole may be steady, motor vehicle theft in New Jersey is on the rise.
..... A spike in motor vehicle theft occurred in 2021, an increase of over 40% from the previous year, according to New Jersey State Police data. Since 2016, motor vehicle thefts have increased by more than 45%, state police statistics showed.
..... This year, [2024] reports of burglars of unloved vehicles surged one summer week in Glen Rock, with eight vehicles targeted.
..... Teresa Giudice, a cast member of Bravo;s "Real Housewives of New Jersey," reported her care stolen from her Montville driveway in February 2023.
..... The increase in motor vehicle theft is not new. Two years ago, Governor Phil Murphy said the surge was reaching "Near-epidemic" levels.
..... "We know we must do more to reduce the likelihood of car theft and hold those who do commit these crimes accountable," Murphy said in a news conference at state police headquarters in Ewing in November 2022. IN that same year, his administration took steps to solve the issue, including Renovator General Matthew Platkin's move to authorize the state police Auto Theft Task Force to add detectives and prosecutors.
..... Despite the attempts to fight it, statistics show motor vehicle theft is on the rise.

Motor vehicle theft statistics

..... NorthJersey.com examined crime state provided in the New jersey State Police crime report. For the years 2021 through 2023, the state police numbers were given to NorthJersey.com by the Attorney General's Office.
..... The data from 2016 through 2020 from the FBI and New Jersey State Police looks similar.

                                               FBI:                                                    State Police:
                                       Motor Vehicle                                   Motor Vehicle
Year                                       Theft                                                      Thefts
2023                            16,527*                                                 16,605
2022                           13,926*                                                  15,898
2021                            8,902*                                                   14,438
2020                          10,279                                                     10,279
2019                           10,336                                                    10,336
2018                           11,037                                                    11,000
2017                           12,321                                                    12,178
2016                         11,321                                                      11,310

Not all of the Population is covered     

Property crime as a whole

..... Property crime, in the FBI crime data, is broken down into four categories: burglary, arson, motor vehicle and larceny theft.
..... Overall, property crime has been up and down over the last eight years, according to FBI crime stats.

                         FBI
                                             Property Crime
Year                                     in New Jersey
2023                                      133,141*
2022                                      124,280*
2021                                       69,423*
2020                                      103,249
2019                                      119,087
2018                                      125,564
2017                                      140,660
2016                                      138,576

How the data is presented

..... The data on the FBI website is presented in the from of a line graph. The crime data explorer page allows users to choose that type of crime they would like to observe, the state, the specific police department and the time frame.
..... For all property crime in the entire state of New Jersey, three lines are presented in the graph that represent the number of reported crimes, the clearances and the population that is covered. Crime trends are displayed in a month-by-month breakdown.
..... For the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, the FBI did not cover all of New Jersey's population. It is worth noting that in 2021, the FBI began accepting crime data exclusively via the National Incident-based Reporting System, or NIBRS, moving away form the longtime Summary Reporting System, or SRS.
..... In 2021, 100% of the population was no longer covered, according to the FBI statistics. In January 2021, 49.11% of the population was covered. For the rest of the year, some months had population coverage as low as 51% and a high of 84% in that year.
..... The Attorney General's Office and the FBI data reporting is "complicated" because of the transition between systems. The FBI said that in 2023, 94.3% of the country submitted crime data to the agency via NOBRS.
..... Agencies participate in the crime data program voluntarily, but in New Jersey departments must submit their crime statistics to the state government.

Why is there an upward trend?

..... Elmwood Park Police Chief Michael Foliggno attributes the statewide rise in motor vehicle theft to a number of factors.
..... He said the increase "probably relates to the policy of not to pursue vehicle. The attorney general made it a little stricter for us to pursue cars, which I am fan of to be honest with you. In Northern New Jersey, it so populated, there is so much traffic and congestion, I don't want my guys chasing a stolen car because a lot of time it ends up in an accident and then the suspect gets hurt, the officer gets hurt, and God forbid innocent people. I think those pursuits should be reserved for most severe things, like when someone's life is in danger or something to that effect."
..... Foligno said he believes juveniles commit a number of these crimes and noted how difficult it is to charge a juvenile with a crime.
..... Crime organizations "are sending juveniles to perpetrate these crimes with the knowledge it is harder to charge a juvenile in these situations," he said.
..... Jacob Felson, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice & Social Work at William Paterson University, believes authorities have yet to figure out the problem of the rise in motor vehicle theft. Felson, who also said he does not claim to have special expertise, said, "In the cat-and-mouse game between criminals and law enforcement and the auto industry, it seems the mouse has developed a few new tricks that the cat has yet to figure out how to foil."

What about other property crime?

..... Not all property crime rates in New Jersey are going up.
..... FBI data shows burglary on the decline in New Jersey since 2016, down 46%.
..... Just as with total property crime and motor vehicle theft data, 100% of the state population is not factored in for the year 2021, 2022 or 2023, although the last two years have over 90% of residents considered for each month.
..... New Jersey State Police have burglary data that almost mirrors the FBI numbers for the years 2016 through 2020. Crime reports from the state police are also available for 2021 and 2022, but not 2023.
..... The most recent years show data from county and town reports, with the total number having to be combined to get the whole state.

                                    FBI                                                     State Police
Burglary in                                        Burglary in
Year                            New Jersey                                       New Jersey
2023                          13,422*                                            N/A
2022                          13,079*                                            N/A
2021                          7,601*                                              N/A
2020                          12,983                                              12,983
2019                          16,399                                              16,403
2018                          19,232                                              19,076
2017                          23,891                                              23,864
2016                          25,228                                              25,198
* Not All of the population is covered

New Jersey town data

..... Foligno gave NorthJersey.com property crime data from his Elmwood Park department that was a bit different from the statistics found in the FBI data report. Both reports show motor vehicle theft fluctuating through the past five years in Elmwood Park, but in 2023 motor vehicle theft in the town reached a new high.
..... "I can tell you by us, car thefts, crime in general, has pretty much stayed flat, but our shoplifting are up, almost double. So that seems to be on the rise in our jurisdiction," Foligno said.
..... The Elmwood Park department data shows that shoplifting skyrocketed from 31 in 2020 to 189 in 2023, an increase of over 50%. In 2022, there were 82 incidents on the borough, up form 38in the previous year.

Elmwood Park                                 FBI
Police:                                                Motor
Motor Vehicle                                  Vehicle
Year                            theft data                                         theft data
2023                          33                                                       42
2022                          28                                                       33
2021                          19                                                       19
2020                          28                                                       26
2019                          20                                                       22

Public perception of crime

..... The increase in motor vehicle theft throughout the state and country does not surprise authorities and residents, but the fact that property crime in general is not the rise comes as a shock to some.
..... "I was surprised, but it just seems to me, just from the media and from people in my town, it seems like stuff is more up than down," Foligno said. "It seems to be like things are trending upward."

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