AN epidemic of car theft has the city of Milwaukee tightly in its grasp, but instead of targeting the criminals in these cases, the city has set its sights on the car manufacturers themselves.
This past Tuesday, the Milwaukee Common Council cast a vote to approve a new resolution to pull in outside counsel to go into a lawsuit targeting Hyundai and Kia. The city is slated to take part in a multi-district lawsuit being slammed against the two automakers, making the claim that their vehicles are far too easy to steal. Milwaukee officials called the city “ground zero” for this plague of car thefts.
“It is my hope that not only do we curb the thefts but that the City of Milwaukee recovers some of the damages for police, fire, [Department of Public Works] and any other costs that we’ve had to incur as a result of the negligence of Kia and Hyundai,” Milele Coggs, the Milwaukee alderwoman, stated as part of a press conference this past Wednesday morning.
Tearman Spencer, the Milwaukee City Attorney, explained that the city fully intended to be the very first city to go after automakers but would still go through with its case despite the fact that a number of other cities have already chosen to file their suits. “In my estimation, all the [car theft] problems have emanated out of Milwaukee,” stated Spencer. “This is ground zero, the epicenter of the cause of the problems that we’ve been experiencing throughout the country.”
as expressed by crime data made public by the Milwaukee Police Department, there were a total of 10, 487 motor vehicle thefts throughout 2021, and 8,097 more in 2022. A report released by the National Insurance Crime Bureau, and subsequently cited by the Common Council in a statement, discovered that Milwaukee sported the 8th highest rate of theft for motor vehicles of any city in the nation for 2021, and the highest rate of increase from 2020-2021 of any city. In 2023 to date, there have already been a staggering 1,323 vehicle thefts.
As reported by CNN, the problem has gotten so bad that the major auto insurers Progressive and State Farm have fully refused to cover Hyundai or Kia models within certain cities, including St. Louis and Denver, all due to the extremely high theft rates. Both Hyundai and Kia have previously stated that their cars are in compliance with standards issued by the federal government; they also announced software updates expected to stop thieves by needing the key to be slotted into the ignition socket prior to the car turning on.
