Auto Theft Stats EP v. Other U.S. Metros (Houston: insurance, violent crime)

[EnjoyEP]

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), in its annual "Hot Spot" list ranking U.S. cities by rate of auto thefts, puts El Paso at a not-great but not-terrible No. 51 in the nation for 2006 - I received this info from a news release from Allstate and NICB's Web site.

In compiling its annual "Hot Spot" list, NICB reviews data from the National Crime Information Center for each of the nation's 361 Metropolitan Statistical Areas and measures the number of vehicle thefts per 100,000 citizens (according to 2005 Census population estimates), according to the NICB.

***The nice thing thus about this list is that it doesn't penalize the size of a metro area (for example, at 9-million people, Chicago metro would have more auto thefts than many places just due to more people and autos, however, this list involves a ratio, and thus smaller cities with high percentages of auto thefts are given equal weight).

The nation's No. 1 stolen-car spot in 2006 is the Las Vegas, Nev. SMA.

My current hometown of Albuquerque and a regional city with EP had 7,044 car thefts in 2006, which were enough to rank the city at No. 13, behind
1) Las Vegas;
2) Stockton, Calif.;
3) Visalia/Porterville, Calif.;
4) Phoenix/Mesa/Scottsdale, Ariz.;
5) Modesto, Calif.;
6) Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue, Wash.;
7) Sacramento/Arden-Arcade/Roseville, Calif.;
8) Fresno, Calif.;
9) Yakima, Wash.;
10) Tucson, Ariz.;
11) San Diego/Carlsbad/San Marco, Calif.;
12) San Francisco/Oakland/Fremont, Calif.;
13) Albuquerque, NM MSA

The western United States has the highest rate of auto thefts, with all of the Top 10 from the west, and five of the Top 10 located in California.

At #51, while El Paso certainly has a relative higher rate of auto thefts (out of 361 markets, EP does sit in the Top 25%), EP actually is faring quite well compared to regional counterparts such as Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson, the major Southern CA cities, Denver, etc.

Actually, El Paso is "better" (although again in the Top 25% in the U.S. and in the state of Texas) for auto theft percentages/rates (although still near the top) than some other cities in Texas, ranking below three other Texas metro areas for auto thefts. Here is how the top 5 of Texas rank:

-#21 Laredo Metro
-#31 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown
-#47 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
-#51 El Paso Metro
-#78 Amarillo Metro

Other samplings of cities' areas and their respective ratings on the list as a comparison point to El Paso:

-#27 Kansas City, MO metro
-#32 Denver, CO metro
-#36 Milwaukee, WI metro
-#40 Jackson MS metro
-#41 Memphis, TN metro
-#48 Orlando, FL metro
-#51 El Paso, TX metro
-#52 St. Louis, MO metro
-#59 Gulfport-Biloxi, MS metro
-#74 Chicago, IL metro
-#127 Twin Cities, MN metro

This listing shows me two things relative to a common theme in the El Paso forum of, "violent crime and crime in general is very low in El Paso except for auto thefts, which are a problem."

I would say that:

a) Yes, clearly at no. 51 in the nation out of 361 places, El Paso does have a problem with auto theft. It is an ongoing issue in El Paso that folks need to be readily aware of in the area (most people who reside there assuredly are).

b) The good news: El Paso, despite the big border city stigma, is actually faring quite well in comparison to other regional cities such as Albuquerque, Denver, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Houston, and Southern California. Heck in comparison to other cities that seem to be highly enjoyed by many in the U.S. - Kansas City, Denver, Memphis, Orlando, St. Louis, Gulfport-Biloxi, etc., El Paso is doing about the same if not in many cases quite a bit better.

I guess this news does not minimize the problem of auto theft in EP...surely it exists and is a significant issue that EP likely will always need to contend with due to geography. However, sometimes folks act like El Paso is an auto theft wasteland of sorts and that EP would be by far and away the worst place for auto thefts in the nation, and the stats just don't bear that out thankfully.

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To access this entire listing, click on this link; then, click on the "Hot Spots" box at the lower left-hand portion of the page with a map in the background (showing much of the Southwest U.S.)...you'll get the top 10 list, but then you can click on "Show All States" and it will show any / all cities' rankings -

https://www.nicb.org/cps/rde/xchg/nicb/hs.xsl/index.htm (broken link)