Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The City of Buffalo has seen a major decrease in vehicle thefts within the past year.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia says vehicle thefts, especially of Kias and Hyundais, are down by over 37% since the start of the year. He believes there are a multitude of reasons that contribute to the sharp decline.
"We have an auto theft grant from New York State that we have had for several decades. We retooled, re tasked how that grant is utilizing what we do with it. We've done a lot more detective work in proactively recovering cars, getting cars out of circulation, a very data driven approach. We use the same grid system we use for violent crime that we also use to track stolen cars, not only where they're stolen from, but where they're being dumped, where we're recovering them from. The quicker we get them out of circulation, the better we're doing, I think, a much better job at tracking who are our top offenders are, if you will, who's out there stealing cars," detailed Gramaglia in an interview with WBEN.
Gramaglia says most of the thieves are juveniles, and would rather target vehicles that are unlocked.
"Primarily, we are talking about juveniles, adolescent offenders, the younger people, but they're going around and they're looking. We see the videos, they're checking door handles. They want to accomplish their goal with as little fanfare as possible. If they're smashing a window in a driveway, that's going to immediately draw the attention of someone in the house or someone around, and they don't want to draw that attention while they're at least stealing the vehicle," Gramaglia noted.
There are multiple ways for people to protect a vehicle from getting stolen, but making sure it's locked is the first step any person should take.
"Do not leave your key, your key fob, in the car. Don't leave it in there. They're going to look around for a car that the door is unlocked because they don't want to draw attention to themselves in the middle of the night if they're going through neighborhoods, and first thing they'll do is put their foot on the brake and push the start button, and if you leave the key fob in the car, then they just took your car with complete ease. So don't leave your keys or your key fob in the car. If you have two cars, park that one in front and then block it in with your second car," Gramaglia said.