Colorado law cracking down on car theft credited for sharp decline

Colorado public safety officials squarely — though not solely — credited lawmakers' decision to tie the penalty for stealing a car to behavior instead of the car's value for turning the tide in the fight against vehicle thieves.

State data showed a sharp reduction in car theft in the first four months of 2024, and the new law — along with funding for the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority, renewed focus by local governments and public vigilance — has been key in curbing vehicle theft by nearly half since 2022, officials said.

"It wasn't one thing that changed, but collectively everything," said Cale Gould of the auto theft authority, a unit within the Colorado State Patrol. 

The state reported 8,109 car thefts or roughly 67 cars stolen per day from January to April. During the same time last year, 11,643 were reported stolen.

In 2022, the figure was even higher at 14,698.

Last year, critics of the legislation argued that charging thieves with harsher offenses would not deter theft if the criminals are not getting arrested in the first place. Sen. Julie Gonzales and Sen. Robert Rodriguez, for example, raised concerns about the proposal's effectiveness in curbing crime and pointed to an estimated $12 million in additional cost over five years, the result of increasing prison sentences of auto thieves.

Tristan Gorman of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar also argued a more effective approach to deterrence is if people "thought they were going to be arrested and prosecuted for it.”

Supporters insisted that the changes would make a difference, and the status quo "simply doesn’t make sense.” 

“Auto theft on any level is a serious crime, and it warrants serious consequences, regardless of the direct monetary impact,” Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, D-Arvada, one of the bill's sponsors, then said as the bill was moving through the legislative process. 

In his state address that year, Gov. Jared Polis had challenged legislators to pass tougher penalties on car theft, a plea that came less than two years after signing legislation that actually lowered the penalty for some car theft offenses. In 2021, the governor had approved legislation that overhauled Colorado's misdemeanor laws, whose provisions included making it a Class 1 misdemeanor to steal a car if its value was less than $2,000.

Gould said removing the dollar value tied to criminal charges and adding "aggravators" — enhanced penalties for using a stolen vehicle to commit other crimes, eluding law enforcement or disguising a car to avoid detection — are crucial factors in the law.

Prior to the 2023 law, the severity of criminal offenses for auto thefts depended on the value of the stolen vehicle — ranging from a Class 1 misdemeanor for a car worth $2,000 or less to a Class 3 felony for a car worth $100,000 or more.

In addition to removing that value-based approach, the new law also stiffened the penalties for repeat offenders: A person who had two prior convictions now faces a first degree motor vehicle theft, a Class 3 felony, while a person who steals a car that is altered or damaged faces a Class 4 felony.

In an earlier interview, District Attorney Brian Mason of the 17th Judicial District had blamed "discriminatory" laws that “emboldened” criminals. The previous law that tied the penalty to the value of the car meant individuals who increasingly stole lower-value vehicles did not face additional penalties or charges, so long as they kept targeting those cars.

“That alone fueled the significant increase in car thefts,” Mason said. “(Car thieves) were essentially given a slap on the wrist solely based on a car’s value.”

With only misdemeanor charges being levied for theft of cheaper-valued cars, it changed why vehicles were being stolen in the first place, according to the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority.

“The arbitrary value (of a car) may not seem like a big deal, but I found it really is,” Zenzinger, who authored the new bill, also said in a previous interview. “The lesser valued cars are easier to steal, have less security and technology and belong to lower to middle-income families. Then, I found that district attorneys had no way to compound the crime, meaning a person could steal a car 50 times and be charged with a misdemeanor as if it was the first time.”

Lawmakers allocated more funding, local governments renewed focus 

It wasn't just the penalties imposed by the new law. Gould noted the financial aid that came via Senate Bill 23-257, which allocated $5 million to the Auto Theft Prevention Cash Fund to provide money for programs related to supporting victims, as well as technology enhancements.

"These two legislative pieces were significant, but we do not credit them solely for changing the tides of auto theft," Gould said.

Officials also pointed to the "reprioritization" of auto theft by local law enforcement agencies and more vigilance on the part of the public as reasons for the decline in car theft. 

Gould clarified that it's not that local agencies stopped caring about car thefts.

"But coming out of the pandemic, many agencies across the U.S. faced critical staffing levels that forced agencies to take members off of specialized units, such as auto theft investigations, and return them to answering urgent 911 calls," he said.

Since then, law enforcement agencies across Colorado and the country have begun to "normalize" their staffing levels, and car theft also started to receive "intense focus from an enforcement perspective."

From 2011 to 2020, rates of auto theft had increased by 144% in Colorado — the fastest spike in the country, reaching 524.3 thefts per every 100,000 people, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. That was more than double the national rate of 256. Since 2020, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation estimated that auto thefts rose by 46% as of 2022.

Indeed, about 40,000 vehicles were stolen in Colorado in 2022 but only around 3,900 arrests were made, representing less than 10% of stolen vehicles resulting in an arrest, according to data from the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority. Of those arrests, about 80% were already charged as felonies.

In Douglas County, Sheriff Darren Weekly noted that auto thefts are down 27% in his jurisdiction, noting that it’s not just the laws that had been passed but also the regional approach that Denver metro departments are embracing to fight the battle.

“It is really a combination of things that I think are changing the tide,” Weekly said. “The general public is much more educated, and local law enforcement is really cracking down. My stance is, and always has been, we need to penalize criminal conduct.”

Public awareness has been growing

Public safety officials also credited heighted awareness on the part of the public.  

As the crime increased, the public, Gould said, began to take a keen interest in auto theft, "specifically how to not have their car stolen."

"The importance of this can not be understated. It was aided by media coverage, from small local to national news syndicates, that generally raised public awareness of auto theft's prevalence," Gould said. "So, this creates a reaction in the public to take extra steps to secure their vehicle. And again, this is crucial to combatting auto theft."

He added: "We have a firm idea as to what is causing the reduction. It's not one thing, but everything working in harmony to reduce and remove incidents of this crime across Colorado."

When new laws become official, it takes time for them to trickle through the state system. Law enforcement and district attorneys may have more power, but Adams County Sheriff Adam Sherman said the true test of the law's effectiveness ultimately lies with the courts.

Back in March, Sherman said he was holding judgment on whether the laws are as effective as advertised.

Sherman said judges have oftentimes viewed car theft as a material crime without considering the true impact on victims, especially low-income families who rely on a car for work, to get to childcare, and to survive.

He said the work that law enforcement, CATPA, lawmakers, and district attorneys have put into crafting policy would be pointless if the state’s judges do not start imposing stiffer sentencing.

Sherman estimated it would take another six months to a year to get true data and determine if the laws are, indeed, working. 

Reporter Kyla Pearce contributed to this article.