Reported Car Thefts 2019-23

Request

1. The total number of car thefts reported within your police force area for the last five calendar years (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023). I do not require information on all vehicle thefts, just passenger cars.

2. Please could you also split this data by make and model of each stolen car, and by the colour of each stolen car, where available.

When referring to car theft, I mean offences of taking a motor vehicle without consent under Section 12 of the Theft Act 1968 (outlined here: https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cps.gov.uk%2Flegal-guidance%2Ftheft-act-offences%23%3A~%3Atext%3DSection%252012&data=05%7C02%7CFOI%40southyorks.pnn.police.uk%7C35a105167221420c363c08dcaa43eb3b%7Cb23255a18f784144890431f019036ade%7C0%7C0%7C638572455898423004%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=frTFEIczoJR6MHgW3TVBfTEPRLUtNQM14oEjntbbFS8%3D&reserved=0(1)%20TA%201968,the%20taking%20of%20pedal%20cycles).

Clarification

Of the below list of vehicle types that are recorded on SYP systems, could you please confirm which types you class as “passenger vehicles” so that the administrator can filter out any that are not of interest.

Vehicle Type Desc

2 Door Saloon
3 Door Hatchback
3 Wheeler
3 Wheeler Car
3 Wheeler Van
4 Door Saloon
5 Door Hatchback
Agricultural Machine
Agricultural Tractor
Airport Support Unit
Ambulance
Bottle Float
Box Van
Breakdown Truck
Bulldozer
Cab
Car Derived Van
Car Transporter
Cesspool Emptier
Combination
Combine Harvester
Concrete Mixer
Convertible
Coupe
Crane
Curtain Sided
Double Decker
Dropside Lorry
Estate
Fire Engine
Fitted Van
Flat Lorry
Forage Harvester
Front Dumper
Glass Carrier
Goods
Gritting Vehicle
Half Deck
Harvester
Hatchback
Hearse
Heavy Tractor
Hydraulic Excavator
Insulated Van
Invalid
Invalid Vehicle
Lift Truck
Light 4x4 Utility
Light Goods
Light Van
Limousine
Line Painter
Livestock Carrier
Loading Shovel
Lorry
Low Loader
Luton Van
M/C Combination
MPV
Minibus
Mobile Plant
Mobile Pump
Moped
Motor Caravan
Motorcycle
Mowing Machine
Non-Standard
Not Recorded
PCV
Panel Van
Pantechnicon
Pick-Up
Quad Bike
Rear Digger
Refuse Disposal
Road Stripper
Road Surfacer
Road Testing
Roller
Root Crop Harvester
Saloon
Scooter
Scooter Combination
Single Decker
Skeletal Goods
Skip Loader
Snow Plough
Solid Bulk Carrier
Special Mobile Unit
Special Purpose
Sports
Sprayer
Standee Bus
Station Tractor
Street Cleansing
Tanker
Tar Sprayer
Taxi
Tel Material Handler
Tipper
Tourer
Tower Wagon
Tractor Excavator
Trailer - No Cab
Truck
Van
Van/Side Windows
Viner/Picker
Windrower

Request

In response to your requested clarification, we consider the following to be classed as "passenger vehicles".

2 door saloon
3 door hatchback
3 wheeler
3 wheeler car
4 door saloon
5 door hatchback
Cab
Convertible
Coupe
Estate
Hatchback
MPV
PCV
Saloon
Taxi

Response

We approached our Performance Review Unit for assistance with your request. An analyst within this unit has conducted a search of our Crime Management System – Connect which records complaints or allegations of those matters, which the Home Office specify should be recorded as ‘crimes’. All our systems are designed and used first and foremost for Policing Purposes and have limited search capability. They provided me with the enclosed spreadsheet in response and the following explanation regarding their search criteria:

I have provided a count of all offences recorded on CONNECT crime that have been recorded as “48 - THEFT OR UNAUTHORISED TAKING OF A MOTOR VEHICLE” for the specified vehicle types confirmed by the requestor, and also a count of vehicles recorded broken down by make, model and colour. Please note that more than one vehicle may be recorded on a crime, therefore, the count of offences is expected to be less than the count of vehicles.

Criteria used – SYP & crime only filter and Incident Created Date is between 01/01/2019 and 31/12/2023 and HO Sub Sub Group Name is equal to / is in THEFT OR UNAUTH TAKING OF A MOTOR VEH and Vehicle Type Desc is equal 2 Door Saloon. 3 Door Hatchback, 3 Wheeler, 3 Wheeler Car, 4 Door Saloon, 5 Door Hatchback, Cab Convertibe, Coupe, Estate, Hatchback, MPV, PCV, Saloon, Taxi

Please note – This data set DOES NOT include any other offence types where a crime is recorded with a vehicle reported as “Stolen” where the principal crime rule applies. Only offences recorded as “48 - THEFT OR UNAUTHORISED TAKING OF A MOTOR VEHICLE” have been included

Please see the attached spreadsheets - 24.011309 (1) & 24.011309 (2). Note: make and model have been provided separately for you to filter as you need.

Please note, every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that data has been extracted from data sources used by this force for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording systems and information assets.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures/data for any requests may have limitations, and this should be taken into account when those data are used

Police forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures for capturing the data. For these reasons this response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with responses you may receive from other police forces.