MILWAUKEE — New data from the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) and Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) is giving a closer look at how often people are arrested for the crimes they commit. While some crimes are showing high arrest rates, others, like car thefts, tell a different story.
New numbers show that car thefts have gone down this year compared to this time in 2021 and 2022, but less than 10% of cases ended with a person arrested or charged for the crime.
Post after post on the Stolen Cars MKE Facebook page shows just how bad car thefts are in Milwaukee.
Desiree is one of nearly 4,000 members on the page who’s experienced the loss. She describes losing her car as 'destabilizing.'
In a phone interview, she told TMJ4 her car was stolen hours after she parked it.
“I just immediately went to the police station afterward and went to the houses around where my car was stolen and just asked around if they had anything on camera,” she said.
Her 2000 Honda Civic was missing for three weeks. When her car was found, it was taken apart and nonfunctional.
Like countless others, Desiree never found out who stole her car.
“[Investigators] did ask me if I wanted them to take fingerprints, but they actually couldn't because the day that they found it, it was raining. So they couldn't collect fingerprints on the outside when they found it,” she recalled.
MPD data shows that only 6% of car thieves are arrested. That's the lowest clearance rate of any crime committed in Milwaukee.
In 2022, only 525 out of nearly 8,743 cases were solved.
So far this year, there have been 3,241 thefts and the low clearance rate seems to be heading in the same direction.
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