Colorado car thefts could all be felonies under new proposal
All car thefts – regardless of the value of the vehicle – could soon become a crime if proposals are put forward by policymakers.
Legislatures and the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, at the request of Gov. Jared Polis, have sought appropriate sentencing for those convicted of motor vehicle theft. The state has recently shot to the top of some lists for the most car thefts per capita, prompting policymakers to look for ways to shut down the crime.
Between 2019 and 2021, car thefts in Colorado increased by 86%, according to the commission.
In September, Polis asked the commission to look into the theft car conviction, specifically how the seriousness of the crime was related to the value of the vehicle. As the law now states, stealing a vehicle worth less than $2,000 is treated as a misdemeanor. It is a crime to steal more valuable cars and the severity of the crime increases with the value of the car.
A task force within the Commission last week gave tentative approval to a recommendation to make motor vehicle theft a crime. One task force member, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, called it “a matter of fundamental fairness.” A working person whose only car is stolen should be treated no worse than a multi-car person who has an expensive car stolen.
The recommendation would also create a new offense for unauthorized use of vehicles for cars that are taken but returned or recovered by law enforcement within 24 hours and undamaged or used for other crimes.
Colorado lawmakers are preparing to introduce the accompanying bill later this month. Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat, is a supporter of the bipartisan bill. She called it a stock issue. When a poorer person’s car is stolen, the impact is more likely to be devastating and they are less likely to be able to absorb the financial damage of losing their transportation. Add that less valuable cars are probably easier to steal, and it’s like setting a target on the people who were hurt the most by the thefts, and with lesser consequences for the perpetrators.
Zenzinger shared when she was a single mother raising young children and how devastating it would have been if her car had been stolen.
“That would have been a crisis,” she says.
Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican who is co-sponsoring the bill in the House of Representatives, also said it was an equity issue. Most Coloradans do not have auto theft insurance and many would have difficulty replacing a stolen car.
Most auto thefts occur along the Front Range — Denver, Aurora, Westminster and Pueblo accounted for 53% of stolen cars in the first quarter of 2022, according to the commission — but it’s also being felt in his Western Slope neighborhood, he said.
“We create victims by not treating crime harshly,” Soper said.
There aren’t many auto thefts that qualify as misdemeanors, Attorney General Phil Weiser said, but he still supports all of them being escalated to felonies. He said other ideas to combat auto theft are also being discussed.
“I’m open to any discussion that can better help law enforcement hold auto thieves accountable,” said Weiser.
Dougherty, the Boulder County District Attorney on the commission, acknowledged that conviction is not the sole factor in auto theft. Some counties, including his, have seen a drop in auto theft from pandemic-era highs.
State Senator Julie Gonzales, a Democrat from Denver, sits on the Criminal Justice Commission. The task force overwhelmingly approved the recommendation, but abstained. As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she will hear the bill when it is officially introduced.
Her own car has scratches from an attempted break-in and her husband’s catalytic converter has been stolen.
“I’ve heard (about auto thefts) from my friends, my family members, my neighbors,” Gonzales said. “But what will make me curious about any bill that makes it to the Judiciary Committee is will it change the minds of anyone who wants to steal a car?”
But she also understands when people argue that all car thefts should be treated equally.
“Would stealing an engagement ring matter more or less if it was a real diamond or zirconium?” she asked.
Her thoughts and goals as a legislator focus on what can be done to address the underlying issues that lead to a person stealing a car in the first place. Few car thefts actually result in an arrest — the Common Sense Institute put the nationwide arrest rate at less than 10% in 2022 — and Gonzales wondered if higher penalties would affect that.
Members of the task force that looks at crime rates also fear over-punishment, although they voted in favor of the recommendation. Task force member Andrew Matson, who works with prisoner and family support for the nonprofit Colorado-CURE, said he knows people who are serving decades of prison sentences for nonviolent crimes.
The bill also comes after an election in which Republicans hammered Democrats as soft on crime, though voters ultimately reelected all top Democrats and gave the party a larger majority in the General Assembly.
Zenzinger said she couldn’t comment on whether these efforts speak in favor of broader crime-fighting efforts or the state’s sentencing philosophy. But something needs to be done to curb car theft, particularly for people who are most vulnerable to losing their car and the devastation it would cost, she said.
“I have no idea whether or not this is a repositioning (in terms of the state’s approach to criminal justice),” she said. “All I know is that almost every day I get emails from my constituents about auto theft, catalytic converter theft and things like that. They’re concerned, they want us to do something, and I think that’s actually going to set in motion an attempt to break this horrible position that we’re in as first in the country for auto theft.”
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