Car theft a growing crime in Santa Fe
Police report more recoveries, too
The number of auto thefts in the City Different grew at high speed over the past three years.
On the bright side, the Santa Fe police say they’re recovering a lot of the stolen cars, often after they’ve been used in the commission of other crimes.
There were 223 cars stolen in Santa Fe in 2016, according to data provided by the Santa Fe Police Department, nearly double the 117 cars that were stolen just two years before, 2014. There were 170 auto thefts in 2015.
But last year’s high number of auto heists was not off the charts when the rate over the past decade is taken into account.
Police Chief Patrick Gallagher said an average of 198 cars were stolen annually in Santa Fe over the past 10 years, suggesting that 2015’s total of just 117 was something of a low ebb.
And he said that, of the cars stolen in 2016, 80 percent have been recovered by police. That’s unusual, he said, because stolen cars are typically taken to chop shops and stripped down for their parts.
“A lot of times, your car is stolen and never seen again,” Gallagher said.
The chief said the upward trend in auto heists over the past couple of years can be attributed to criminals “adapting.”
Drug dealers, for example, will use a stolen car to go about their illegal business because they know that police may be tracking the car they normally drive. Then they’ll ditch the stolen car somewhere. But while police are recovering more cars, the suspects are still getting away. “We’ve recovered more cars than we’ve made arrests,” Gallagher said.
The high numbers in 2016 also can be attributed to an auto theft ring that police
busted last spring, which Gallagher said was responsible for an 80 percent increase in stolen cars in a short time span.
Eighty-eight cars were stolen in the first four months of 2016. But then police arrested Reyes Garcia and Jeremy Chavez in April, and said they were connected to several stolen vehicle cases and responsible for four high-speed pursuits around the city, one of which seriously injured a woman.
Gallagher said he doesn’t have evidence to support the claim that stolen cars have a higher probability of being involved in collisions — a claim made in a recent lawsuit connected to Chavez.
Arlena Jackson, the 78-year-old woman who was hit by a stolen car Chavez was driving at the intersection of Agua Fria Street and Lopez Lane April 7, is suing city government and the police department because she claims that officers didn’t have probable cause to initiate the chase and that they didn’t know the Tacoma driven by Chavez had recently been stolen off the lot at Toyota of Santa Fe.
In the collision, Jackson suffered a fractured sternum, eight fractured ribs, a fractured pelvic bone, a fractured sacrum, multiple fractures in her left foot and bleeding in her lungs.
She is also suing Toyota of Santa Fe for allegedly not doing enough to secure the cars in its lot and because of what the suit calls the “wellknown fact” that stolen cars are more likely to be involved in accidents.
Anyone driving a ’90s-model Honda sedan may need to take extra precautions to protect their car. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the most stolen car in New Mexico in 2015 — the last year for which the bureau has data —was a 1998 Honda Civic. That was followed by the 2006 full-size Ford pickup and the 1994 Honda Accord.
Gallagher said ’90s Hondas are typically easier to steal and their parts are in high demand as the Japanese maker’s older models keep going.
“Go to YouTube and search for how to hot wire a Honda Accord,” he said. “You can do it pretty easily.” Newer cars typically aren’t targeted because they’re hard to steal and their parts aren’t in as high demand because the models aren’t that old, he said.
Gallagher said the department intends to try some new tactics to combat car burglars.
An SFPD policy for a new “bait car” program has just been finalized and he said he hopes it will be used soon. The bait car, left for thieves to take, can be remotely disabled when it’s stolen, but Gallagher said officers will do that only when it’s safe to do so.
Seventeen cars were stolen in Santa Fe in January, SFPD spokesman Greg Gurule said.
There are a couple of bills circulating in the Legislature that are aimed at car theft crimes.
House Bill 328, introduced by Rep. Bill Rehm, R-Albuquerque, would make it easier for prosecutors to charge someone with murder if they recklessly crash into someone with a stolen vehicle and kill them. This comes after a mother and her 14-year-old daughter were killed by suspected car thieves in a collision in Albuquerque last month.
Senate Bill 139, introduced by Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, would require auto recyclers to report any vehicle purchases to the Taxation and Revenue Department within 48 hours of the close of the business day when the car was purchased.
The recycler would have to report the name, address and contact information of the purchaser and seller, the make, model, year and current odometer reading of the car, as well as a statement of whether the car will be disposed of or sold. The bill would also require the Taxation and Revenue Department to establish and maintain an electronic system that would allow auto recyclers to verify if the car has been reported stolen.