Illinois Vehicle Auto Insurance releases study using Chicago Police Department data to find out which of Chicago’s 77 communities are the largest target areas for vehicle theft.
For instance, a majority of Chicago’s motor vehicle thefts were most heavily concentrated in western and south-western neighborhoods such as Humboldt Park, Lawndale, Englewood, and South Shore. Austin was by far Chicago’s vehicle theft capital with a total of over eight-hundred vehicle thefts, nearly as much as the adjacent neighborhoods of West Town and Humboldt Park combined.
The overwhelming majority of vehicles stolen were parked on a public street, while the second and third most frequent incidents of vehicle theft occur in non-residential parking lots and residential driveways. and roughly twelve percent of Chicago households do not own any type of vehicle. 2016 saw a drastic increase (139%) for auto thefts in Ashburn, which is directly adjacent to the aforementioned southwestern communities.
2016 saw a thirteen percent increase in the number of reported auto thefts in Chicago when compared to 2015, but compared against 2007 overall motor vehicle thefts in Chicago have decreased by thirty-nine percent.The largest contributing factors to this decline, which is mirrored on a national level, are significant improvements in vehicle anti-theft technologies. Technologies such as ignitions that require activation by smart keys and alarm systems capable of disabling a vehicle make vehicle theft infinitely more difficult for would be thieves. Despite the numbers provided by the Chicago Police Department, the overall Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area ranks 129th in motor vehicle thefts per capita per NICB’s 2015 reporting.
For more in-depth details, visit the study at: http://www.illinoisvehicle.com/about-us/blog/2016-chicago-auto-thefts/
Illinois Vehicle is an auto insurer based in Downers Grove that has been providing communities and customers with comprehensive insurance options for over 40 years.