See How Many Cars Stolen In New Haven Each Year Over Past Decade

NEW HAVEN, CT - There has been lots of talk in recent months about what some say is a spike in car thefts - especially by juveniles - in towns in Connecticut.

There has been legislation introduced in the legislature to treat juvenile car thieves as adult offenders in an effort to stem the thefts.

There is disagreement by those on both sides of the issue whether the thefts are actually up and whether the juveniles are the reason.

What isn't in dispute is the number of thefts. Numbers don't lie.

A report compiled by Ken Barone, project manager at the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy at Central Connecticut State University, show that car thefts actually peaked a decade ago and decreased from there but have slowly been increasing the past few years - especially in towns that are near the bigger cities in the state.

Ironically, those same cities, except for Waterbury, have seen decreases in car thefts the past few years.

Patch has gathered the numbers of car thefts in New Haven over the past 10 years (2018 numbers are not yet compiled) to show you exactly what they are:

2008: 1,319

2009: 1,041

2010: 974

2011: 921

2012: 721

2013: 758

2014: 595

2015: 704

2016: 735

2017: 644

To see how New Haven stacks up with the rest of the state, click here.