Auto theft declined 17.4 per cent in Ontario final yr following years of historic highs, in line with Équité Affiliation, a nationwide authority on insurance coverage crime and fraud prevention.
The group’s 2024 auto theft pattern report attributes the year-over-year lower to business stakeholders and legislation enforcement who’re working to fight theft nationwide.
Nationwide decline
Throughout Canada, the auto theft charge declined 18.6 per cent year-over-year in 2024.
Greater than 57,000 non-public passenger autos have been stolen throughout Canada final yr, a determine Équité referred to as “unreasonably excessive.” The group famous auto theft continues to pose an ongoing security menace to all Canadians.
Influence on insurance coverage
A 2024 Metroland sequence, Pushed to Steal, by Tim Kelly, Chris Corridor, David Lea, Graeme Frisque and Andrew Palamarchuk, analyzed the impression of auto theft on insurance coverage charges and examined how automakers are making autos extra theft resistant.
The Insurance coverage Bureau of Canada mentioned 2023 was a document yr for auto thefts with $1.5 billion in claims paid.
A 2023 Metroland investigation, Stolen, Shipped and Bought, discovered auto theft almost doubled in some Larger Toronto Space communities in 2022.
In Toronto general, the numbers rose 98 per cent, from 4,770 in 2018 to 9,439 in 2022.
Peel Area’s theft charge elevated 45 per cent in only one yr, from 3,747 to five,415 between 2021 and 2022.
At one level in Toronto in 2023, 32 automobiles, on common, have been stolen every day.
Quebec sees greatest drop
Quebec noticed the most important decline in auto thefts final yr, with a drop of 32.4 per cent. Western Canada’s theft charge dropped 12.7 per cent.
The nationwide restoration charge for stolen autos is 59.3 per cent, with 40 per cent of stolen autos nonetheless unrecovered.
Milestone yr
“2024 was a milestone year in the fight against auto theft in Canada,” mentioned Équité Affiliation president and CEO Terri O’Brien in a information launch. “Équité’s team of experts collaborated with provincial and federal governments, Canadian Border Services Agency, and law enforcement agencies at all levels to continue the downward trend. Momentum is on our side to disrupt criminal networks from profiting off insurance fraud, as we work on behalf of our industry members to prevent vehicle theft in Canada.”
A drop in auto theft is sweet information for Canada’s insurance coverage business, which not too long ago endured one in every of its one years for claims.
Bryan Gast, vice-president of investigative providers at Équité Affiliation, mentioned auto theft and insurance coverage crimes typically fund organized crime networks.
“Our investigative groups work carefully with nationwide and worldwide legislation enforcement businesses, allow business collaboration and supply cutting-edge intelligence to fight insurance coverage crime. Nevertheless, the one most impactful step we are able to take to forestall the continued funding of organized crime networks, together with drug trafficking, stays making the autos more durable to steal within the first place,” Gast added.
Listed below are some ideas from Peel Police to guard your automobile from theft.
Don’t preserve valuables in autos.Preserve autos locked inside a storage, if attainable.Retailer automobile keys in a radio-frequency identification blocking system to forestall a relay assault.If parking in a storage isn’t attainable and there are two autos on the house, park one automobile immediately behind the extra fascinating one.Preserve your property well-lit and put money into safety cameras.Use theft prevention gadgets comparable to a steering wheel lock, an computerized engine shut-off, monitoring gadgets and on-board information port locks (to forestall thieves from cloning keys).Contemplate putting in retractable driveway bollards.
-With information from Jeremy Grimaldi and Andrew Palamarchuk
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