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The new statistics from the National Insurance Crime Bureau demonstrate that Bakersfield is prone to car thefts. The city is the third in the nation when it comes to the number of stolen cars per capita.

In 2015 6,000 cars were stolen in Bakersfield and that is approximately 680 thefts per 100,000 people. It is the third highest in the country per capita. However, the report shows the improvement comparing to the previous years. In 2013, Bakersfield was the worst in the US for car thefts per capita with 725 thefts per 100,000 residents. In 2014, the city ranked the second with 595 per 100,000.

Bakersfield always tends to rank highly on these lists. It’s hard to say exactly why that is, but know that Kern County officials are aware of the problem. This is a complex problem that doesn’t have a silver bullet solution from lawmakers. However, they’ll do their best to prevent more vehicle thefts in our fair city.

Where else are car thefts common?

In 2015, Modesto became the worst city for auto thefts with 756 per 100,000 followed by Albuquerque, NM with 733 per 100,000. After those two sits our fair city of Bakersfield.

As for the most total car thefts in the nation, Los Angeles became number one with over 57,000 thefts per 100,000 residents.

Generally, cities in the western states seem to be more prone to high theft numbers. Most of the top ten cities were California cities, with Albuquerque being an exception. Both the Denver and Pueblo, CO, metro areas also rank highly on this list. State-wise, Colorado, California, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington are all in the top ten. Are robbers targeting states with more wide open space to hide a car in? Or are there simply more criminals of this type in the western U.S.? I guess we may never know.