Over 11,500 vehicles were stolen across the Milwaukee area in 2021. The trend doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

Jordan Morales awoke at 2 a.m. on a recent night to the sound of tires squealing down the street near his Milwaukee home. 

He walked outside to check it out and saw a Kia crash into a light pole in front of his home, knocking the pole down.

After Morales called 9-1-1, two kids got out of the vehicle and quickly got into another Kia. They returned about five minutes later, and Morales and his neighbors watched as the thieves tried to get into the stolen vehicle to drive off again. 

They were unsuccessful. 

"It was just amazing to me how casual it was," said Morales, who leads the Reckless Driving Workgroup for BUILD Health Sherman Park in Milwaukee.

"That gives you a sense of hopelessness when you see that," he added.

It was a tumultuous year for vehicle owners across the area as vehicle thefts in Milwaukee and its surrounding suburbs hit record numbers in 2021. 

The trend doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon — in the first two weeks of 2022, 308 vehicles have been stolen in Milwaukee.

And on Thursday, an off-duty Milwaukee Police Department detective was shot after he tried to intervene in an attempted carjacking in the Third Ward. 

A rising trend 

A survey of several Milwaukee area police departments revealed just how sharp the increase was in 2021. 

Many of the larger municipalities saw an increase of more than 75% in reported vehicle thefts from 2020 to 2021. 

Meanwhile, data from the Milwaukee Police Department showed an increase of 132% in vehicle thefts from 2020 to 2021. In 2020, 4,509 vehicles were reported stolen in Milwaukee. In 2021, that number rose to 10,472. 

Newer Kia and Hyundai models have been thieves' main targets, as some have found ways to steal the vehicles without triggering alarms. In the first half of 2021, 66% of the cars stolen in Milwaukee were Hyundais or Kias. 

The drastic increase led local municipalities and police departments to try new tactics to curb the rise. 

Police in Wauwatosa — where there was a 168% increase in vehicle thefts from 2020 to 2021 — held two steering wheel lock giveaways in 2021. 

Thieves in Wauwatosa stole vehicles from private driveways, apartment building complexes, parking lots and more. Mayfair mall also saw an increase in vehicle thefts during the holiday shopping season. 

Of the 228 vehicles stolen in Wauwatosa between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, 2021, 213 of them were recovered, according to Wauwatosa police public information officer Abby Pavlik. 

Even so, many of the recovered vehicles had extensive damage, either to the exterior or interior of the vehicle. 

In West Allis, 326 vehicle thefts were reported from Jan. 1, 2021, to Dec. 1, 2021 — up from 174 throughout all of 2020. 

The village of Brown Deer saw one of the larger percentage increases in the Milwaukee area — an increase of 230% from 2020 to 2021. In 2020, 33 vehicles were stolen there. In 2021, that number rose to 109 through the first 11 months of the year. 

Greenfield saw a 93% increase, as 172 vehicles were reported stolen there in 2021. 

 And Glendale saw a 65% increase, as thieves stole 109 vehicles there. 

The trend garnered headlines locally and nationally. 

An attempted auto theft in Wauwatosa led to a fatal hit-and-run, leaving a 47-year-old woman dead. 

In Glendale, four Milwaukee teens in a stolen car led police officers on a high-speed chase across the Glen Hills Middle School lawn. 

A Waukesha teacher even caught teens on video stealing his 2018 Kia Sportage right in front of him.

The Milwaukee area has seen an increase in attempted vehicle thefts and thefts of items from unattended vehicles as well. 

Catalytic converters are also a hot ticket item for thieves. It's a trend being seen nationwide, as the emissions-control devices are easy to unbolt or cut out, and they contain metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium that are valued on the black market or by scrap dealers.

What are local departments doing?

The rapid increase in thefts is taxing many law enforcement agencies. 

Wauwatosa Police Sgt. Cory Wex said the department is aware of the increase and is using a "data-based approach" to buck the trend. 

That includes deploying more officers to areas of frequent thefts, as well as to areas with a "high probability" of vehicle thefts. 

"Our patrol strategies include presence multipliers (additional patrols, marked squads) and gathering information and intelligence from our citizens, community partners and partner agencies as deterrents," Wex wrote in an email.

He added that part of the approach includes sharing information with other law enforcement agencies as well as working with security officers from Mayfair mall, area businesses and community groups. 

West Allis Police Chief Chris Marks said the department noticed the trend earlier in the year. 

"Based on this increase, earlier (in 2021) the West Allis Police Department disseminated information via social media, press releases and door-to-door flyer distribution in specific areas of the City in which vehicles were being stolen at a higher rate," Marks said. 

Marks said that Kia and Hyundai also provided steering wheel locks to the department in September to hand out to vehicle owners. 

Brown Deer Police Lt. Amy Koeppel said it was important to ensure that officers were aware of the increase. The department also gave away free steering wheel locks in 2021.

Police in Brown Deer are partnering with Flock Safety, a public safety operating system used in more than 1,000 U.S. cities. The cameras capture visual evidence and use machine learning to assist law enforcement.  

During a 45-day pilot program in Germantown, Flock Security cameras helped Germantown police recover three stolen vehicles and arrest four suspects.

But the thefts of Kias and Hyundais are so bad in Milwaukee, city officials there are considering suing the two companies because of the huge increase. 

Milwaukee Police Department Sgt. Efrain Cornejo said the department in 2020 recognized that thieves were disproportionately targeting Kia and Hyundai vehicles that were not equipped with engine immobilizers.

"MPD immediately made several public announcements informing our community of this trend and provided information on preventative measures," Cornejo said. 

"MPD continues to ask the members of the public to invest in preventative measures like steering wheel locks, kill switches or steel steering column collars to add an extra layer of protection," he added.

Joyriding, transportation or money? 

But why might someone steal a vehicle?

There are usually three main reasons, said Ted Lentz, an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The first, and most common, is joyriding.

"That tends to be often a dominant motivation for that type of offense, just stealing a car to have some fun, drive it around a little bit and ditch it," Lentz said.

Another reason is simply needing transportation but not having it, he said. 

The third is a need for money. Taking a vehicle and having a market available to convert that stolen vehicle to cash can be motivation for a vehicle theft, Lentz said. 

But there might be another contributing factor.

When it comes to possible explanations for the increase, Lentz said one possible reason — at least for juvenile offenders — could be pandemic-related.

Lentz said the pandemic altered predictable school schedules and created an education environment that had less supervision and likely more freedom.

"Those changes in our routine activity patterns can have implications for crime, offending, and in this case, you just may have more juveniles out there running around without having to be in school," he said, which creates a "larger pool" of people who are willing to engage in the offense.

Vehicle thefts and reckless driving are related, says local expert 

Reckless driving has plagued Milwaukee in recent months. 

And Jordan Morales thinks the increase in vehicle thefts and the increase in reckless driving across the area are related. 

“The people who have stolen the cars are already engaging in criminal behavior, and the cars don’t belong to them. It doesn't matter to them because it doesn't belong to them," Morales said. 

The license plate and vehicle aren't theirs, which could lead the drivers to be more brazen on the street, Morales added.

“The worst of the worst of the reckless driving is occurring by the stolen cars," he said. 

Morales also thinks the risk to those who steal vehicles isn't that high, given the sheer increase of cases that police have had to deal with in recent months. 

Is there an end in sight? 

In 2022, all new Kia models will come with standard engine immobilizers. Meanwhile, all new Hyundai models already come with immobilizers, according to Car and Driver. 

But for now, Morales said there are some "common sense" solutions to the problem.

One of those is increasing the penalty and risk associated with the crime. 

“There's no significant risk, and there has to be,” Morales said.

Depending on the value of the stolen vehicle, offenders in Wisconsin could see up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $25,000. 

But it's not entirely clear how many offenders are arrested, charged or even sentenced for the crime. 

Area municipal and Milwaukee County judges contacted for this story were unavailable for interviews before this story was published.

The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for an interview. 

Morales suggested police could use a bait car program to deter thieves from attempting the thefts in the first place. 

Another option could be to increase the penalty for offenders, said Lentz, the UWM professor. 

While it doesn't pertain specifically to stolen vehicles, West Allis has decided to take such an approach with its reckless driving problem, giving police there the option to fine offenders up to $10,000. 

But Lentz said there's not a lot of evidence to support that increasing the punishment is effective at deterring would-be offenders.

For one, people often don't realize there's an increase in harshness, he said.  

"That's an issue, obviously," he said. "It's hard to deter people if they don't know that something has changed."

There is some evidence to suggest that increasing the certainty of punishment if one gets caught can be effective, Lentz said. But that comes with its own set of challenges.

"That's like telling law enforcement, 'hey, do better, or, investigate these crimes better,'" he said. "Sometimes there are just constraints that you can't really increase the certainty of apprehension."

How to keep your car safe

Police suggested some general guidelines for how to keep your car safe. They include: 

• Always take your keys with you.  
• Never leave your vehicle running unattended.  
• Close and lock all windows and doors when you park your vehicle.  
• Never leave valuables in your vehicle, especially if they can be seen from outside the vehicle.  
• Park in well-lit areas or areas with video monitoring if possible.  
• If you are able, install an anti-theft system or device such as a horn alarm, steering wheel lock, immobilizing-type device or vehicle recovery system. 

Evan Casey can be reached at 414-403-4391 or evan.casey@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @ecaseymedia. 

Contact Bob Dohr at 262-361-9140 or bob.dohr@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BobDohr1.