A screenshot of the ValleyCom 911 dispatch log, showing steady Renton Police dispatches for stolen cars this morning

Renton cars are being stolen at record rates in Renton. Our Valley Comm dispatch center shows twenty-one vehicles stolen in the past 24 hours.  Many of these cars will be found extensively damaged and abandoned within days, having been used in commission of other crimes. Just one year ago I shared that Renton car thefts had increased 70% from the year prior, reaching 5 per day.  Today’s rate is a 420% increase over that high March 2023 average.

If this rate of vehicle theft were to continue, Renton would see 7665 vehicles stolen in the next year, representing about 10 percent of all our vehicles and $100-150 million dollars in vehicle damages. (This amount of money is approximately three times Renton’s entire annual police budget).  While the victims of the car theft suffer the most in these thefts, all Renton motorists will pay for this damage through higher insurance rates.

Many of these cars will be driven through the doors of local businesses, used in other burglaries and crimes, and driven recklessly through our city.  In most cases, Renton Police have been forbidden to stop them.  Unless officers see certain violent crimes being committed (and burglaries and reckless driving don’t count), the officers can’t pursue these vehicles under the 2021 Washington Police pursuit law.

There are some state legislators that somehow believe that having 21 cars stolen in Renton every night– driven recklessly through our city and crashed into our buildings– has made us safer because we are not put at risk by police chases any more.

As a scientist and engineer, I assure you these legislators are absolutely wrong about this.  Since passing the law in 2021, Washington’s highway fatalities have been skyrocketing to the highest levels in decades, not dropping as these legislators over-simplistically predicted.  Hundreds of additional state residents are being killed annually on our highways since the time the police were banned from pursuing stolen cars.  While other states are getting safer, Washington is getting far more dangerous.

While our fatalities skyrocket, we watch powerlessly as unlicensed juveniles increasingly race stolen cars for fun, and criminals drive any speed they like.  While the limitations on police chases have saved approximately three lives per year in Washington, this small gain is not nearly worth the hundreds of lives lost statewide, and the billions in statewide crime and damages.  Tragically for our next generation, these policies are also teaching some of our youth that crime pays more than going to school and learning job skills, curtailing their opportunities to build the fulfilling, healthy lives we all want for them.

Our State Legislators are reviewing the police pursuit legislation this coming week, and Renton residents are encouraged to let them know how you feel about letting our cars get stolen with impunity.  Also, tell them you want to be safe driving on our roads again, and you are getting tired of seeing the fronts of your favorite business covered in plywood.

You can email your legislators at the following addresses:

Senator Bob Hasegawa, Bob.Hasegawa@leg.wa.gov

Representative Steve Bergquist, Steve.Bergquist@leg.wa.gov

Representative David Hackney, David.Hackney@leg.wa.gov

These vehicle thefts all happened within minutes of each other. Valley Comm continuously updates the previous 24-hours of calls on it’s website, in this format.  It’s not possible for readers to sort by call type, so I’ve extracted 24 hours of vehicle theft data in the table below.

Below is the extract of auto-theft calls to 911 in the past 24 hours, including the partial address where each vehicle theft was reported.  (Note that there may be others: if a victim filed an online reporting instead of calling 911 to report their car stolen, it would not appear on this list.)

For more information on this topic, including links to additional source data, click here.