DENVER — A new Colorado state law going into effect on Saturday aims to reduce auto thefts by making the consequences more serious.
Before July 1, some car thefts were just misdemeanor crimes.
"They get released on [personal recognizance] bonds. They don't get held for lengthy periods of time in jail after [authorities] make an arrest," said Commander John Pickard with the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority, Metropolitan Auto Theft Task Force (C-MATT). "It was fairly evident that it needed to be a more serious consequence for stealing cars."
Now, stealing a car is a guaranteed felony. With the new law taking effect July 1, the severity of the crime is no longer determined by how much the car was worth.
"A $2,000 shoplift isn't quite the same as someone losing their $2,000 car which is maybe their only means of getting around or their livelihood," said Pickard.
He said new changes to the law will help authorities prosecute more cases.
Before the law change, Pickard said authorities essentially had to get a confession to show someone knowingly had a stolen vehicle.
Now, prosecutors only have to prove the accused "reasonably should have known" the car was stolen.
"We can actually collect evidence much easier to demonstrate they should've known the vehicle was stolen," he said. "You should've known this item was stolen because you scratched the serial number off of it, you replaced the license plate."
Pickard says there's been a 20-25% reduction in auto thefts so far in 2023 compared to last year.
"My thinking is you can only go so high and at some point you have to come down," he said.
Pickard said he can't say definitively what is causing the downward trend but credits awareness, making key arrests and holding suspects accountable.
"We have to make it riskier for the suspects," he said. "They need to know that we are going to catch them."
And, he said when they do catch them, new changes to the law will help ensure the penalty fits the crime.
"They know they're going to be held responsible," he said. "They are going to spend some time in jail and to me that's huge."
Pickard said it's important to be proactive as well. A couple tips include using a club to secure the steering wheel, always locking your car not leaving valuables inside.
He said owners of Kia's or Hyundai's should be especially careful of this because those two kinds of cars make up 26% of all auto thefts due to some of their older models lacking engine immobilizers.
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