file photo
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, in September , a suspect entered Governor Phil Murphy’s exclusive waterfront Middletown neighborhood looking to steal a car. The governor’s neighbor’s home was targeted by at least two would-be car thieves who tried to break into their Garage. Another neighbor scared the thieves off and the perpetrators fled the scene in a white BMW SUV.
Governor Phil Murphy implied on several occasions that Republicans are playing the “crime card” and apparently that’s racist.
On November 12th Governor Murphy seemed to change his tune and announced support for a series of legislative measures to combat auto theft. The Governor proposed:
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- Establishing a persistent auto theft offender statute, which would give state and local prosecutors the option to seek more serious criminal consequences for those who have been repeatedly found guilty of stealing cars.
- Making possession and distribution of certain auto theft tools a crime.
- Imposing criminal penalties for the failure to comply with certain guidelines in the sale and purchase of catalytic converters.
- Investing in enhanced pretrial services, which will reduce the risk from individuals who are awaiting trial. This will include:
- Pretrial monitoring by law enforcement.
- Expansion of the use of house arrest paired with location monitoring.
- Providing additional resources related to substance abuse, mental health, and housing insecurity.
The Governor also announced that the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) will start working to add a check box to vehicle registration paperwork allowing residents to “opt in” to a program that automatically permits law enforcement to track participating registered vehicles if a vehicle is ever stolen. Additionally, MVC will focus on messaging the importance to new drivers of safely handling key fobs by not leaving them inside the car or stored in their home too close to the car.
file photo by Boyd Loving
“Auto theft not only victimizes the owner of the vehicle, but it can also victimize the whole community. Stolen vehicles are often used in the commission of crimes and can be found driving recklessly on our roadways creating a dangerous environment for everyone,” said Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police. “The support Governor Murphy has provided with the additional resources have proven to be pivotal in our effort to combat this national issue. Those resources added with the new legislative and administrative steps shows this state’s commitment to supporting not only law enforcement but it’s commitment to the safety of all New Jersey residents.”
Earlier this year, Governor Murphy announced a $10 million investment in automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technology to reduce violent crime and auto theft in New Jersey through the federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) State Fiscal Recovery Fund.
In addition, Attorney General Platkin announced in March that additional resources would be allocated to grow the Auto Theft Task Force (ATTF). Since then, both the New Jersey State Police (NJSP) and the Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ) have added additional detectives and prosecutors to the ATTF. $125,000 in federal Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) funds were also immediately provided to bolster the resources and capabilities of the ATTF, including law enforcement personnel and equipment purchases.
Attorney General Platkin has also revised the police pursuit policy to explicitly permit the pursuit of stolen cars, among other efforts.
to seek more serious criminal consequences for those who …………………aren’t doing anything wrong but who we don’t like because of their political beliefs or property ownership which they have not abused………………………………
The car theft narrative is completely overblown. These “news” stories do not provide the proper context needed to understand the issue at hand. They use year over year percent change when it suits the narrative for car thefts and crime in general just to scare the public into clicks.
Here is the needed context to understand this particular issue using NJ car theft rates per 100k population every 5 years since 1985:
1985 664
1990 939
1995 631
2000 405
2005 318
2010 176
2015 132
2021 162
I for one never sweated it too much as a NJ car owner in 1995, I sure as heck am not going by to be fooled into worrying in 2022 with a car theft rate roughly 4 times less.
Also, in case you are wondering, the national average in 2021 was over 200 per 100k population so we are better off in NJ (as is typically the case).
where did these numbers come from???
I can’t tell if Murphy is incompetent or just disengaged.