Major cities across the US have seen an ‘unprecedented’ surge in auto thefts and carjackings in recent years, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has warned.

Testifying before a US Senate Committee on the issue of car thefts, NICB president and CEO David Glawe spoke not only of the rise in auto theft cases, but also discussed the apparent connection between car stealing and other serious violent crimes.

According to the NICB, car thefts nationwide increased by 16.5% in 2021 compared to 2019, and nearly 29% compared to 2017. State-wise, certain jurisdictions such as Colorado and Wisconsin posted 79% and 74% more auto theft incidents in 2021 than in 2019, respectively.

When the national auto theft data was broken down by municipality, the results were even more eye-opening; NICB found that many large cities have experienced triple-digit increases in carjackings over the past two years.