Adrian Kulesza, Senior Photographer

As he headed to bed on a January evening, Matt Watson spotted two strangers smoking cigarettes in his 2020 Chevrolet Tahoe through his bedroom window. 

Matt and his wife, Jamie, rushed downstairs as he rapidly dialed 9-1-1. His call went straight to voicemail. So did his second dial. 

Recently discharged from the military, the couple decided to handle the situation on their own. They caught the would-be thieves by surprise and were struck by their youth: Matt estimates that one was 19 and the other was 16. 

While Matt patted the older teenager down to make sure he hadn’t stolen anything from the car, Jamie gave the younger a stern talking-to. The couple told both teenagers to go home.

As newcomers to New Haven — the couple left North Carolina for the Elm City’s Beaver Hills neighborhood in October 2023 — Matt and Jamie were unaware of what he has now dubbed the city’s car theft “epidemic.”

City-wide car theft surged by 66.5 percent in 2023, surpassing the 33 percent spike across the state. These crime trends, coupled with a viral YouTube documentary about the Connecticut Kia Boyz — adolescent car thieves that target Kias and Hyundais — have made auto theft top of mind for many New Haveners. 

“This is issue number one for the majority of people — at least in my neighborhood, and I’m sure in other neighborhoods,” Matt said.

Alder Brian Wingate, the chair of the Board of Alders’ public safety committee who represents a northern portion of Beaver Hills, said that his district, Ward 29, has had “some” issues with with auto theft — but not nearly as many as the adjacent Ward 28 to the south, which covers most of Beaver Hills.

Gary Hogan, Ward 28’s recently-elected alder, led community efforts to address auto theft in Beaver Hills even before running for a legislative position in his district’s November special election. On Oct. 2, Hogan hosted a meeting with New Haven Police Department Chief Karl Jacobson, Assistant Chief David Zannelli and Beaver Hills’ district manager, Sergeant Jonathan Lambe, for residents to share concerns about increasingly prevalent car vandalism, theft and speeding.

Hogan helped set up a second meeting with Jacobson and Lambe, held at the Whalley Avenue NHPD substation on Tuesday. At that meeting, Hogan learned that vehicle theft has actually declined in Beaver Hills in the past month. In that same period, according to a fact sheet Jacobson distributed, other crimes like car vandalism — break-ins and broken windows — became more prevalent in Beaver Hills.

Citywide statistics show a significant decline in car thefts in the past month, while vandalism and other theft either declined slightly or stayed at similar levels. According to the most recently released NHPD CompStat report, 60 motor vehicle thefts, 36 instances of “larceny from vehicle” and 157 instances of vandalism — a category that includes the car break-ins Hogan referenced — occurred between Oct. 28 and Nov. 24. Between Sept. 22 and Oct. 20, the city saw 84 motor vehicle thefts, 37 instances of “larceny from vehicle” and 171 instances of vandalism. 

Enforcing the law

Mayor Justin Elicker emphasized the challenges city police face in auto theft cases. A state statute prohibits police from pursuing stolen motor vehicles, citing the danger of injury or death that car chases can pose for officers, bystanders and the pursued drivers.

Instead, the New Haven Police Department relies on technology including Stop Sticks, tire deflation devices and StarChase, GPS tracking devices that attach to vehicles, to recover stolen cars.  

The NHPD has also joined forces with the Yale Police Department, the Connecticut State Police and eight neighboring police departments, to launch an auto theft task force on Oct. 12. The task force has recovered 22 stolen cars, seized five firearms and made 27 arrests as of Dec. 4, according to city spokesperson Lenny Speiller. NHPD Communications Officer Christian Bruckhart said that the individuals arrested include adolescents as young as 11 years old.

“The goal here is not to arrest people, especially young people,” Elicker said. “However … we also need to make sure there’s some accountability and some consequences for their actions that are really putting the community at risk.”

When the task force arrests a juvenile in a stolen car, the adolescent is usually given a summons, Bruckhart explained. The department can take a mugshot and fingerprints, but in most cases the arrested individual is released from police custody on the day of their arrest. Adolescents over the age of 16 can sign their own summons ticket and do not need to be collected by a parent or guardian. The juvenile probation court is then responsible for adjudicating the charges against the offender. 

Beaver Hills resident Benny Lieblich called for harsher auto theft enforcement on city and state levels. In August, teenage car thieves stole Lieblich’s car, driving off seconds after his 8-year-old daughter had left the backseat. Hogan’s October meeting with the police was inspired by Lieblich’s experience, which was profiled three weeks before in the New Haven Independent. 

“When people have no consequences, there’s no reason not to have bad behavior,” Lieblich said.

He also pointed to the NHPD’s yearslong staffing shortage, which he said leaves officers “completely demoralized” and ill-equipped to address car thefts. 

The NHPD’s union, Elm City Local, just signed a long-awaited contract with the city, offering officers a wage significantly higher than their previous contract. While Bruckhart believes the contract will help the department with recruitment efforts in the long run, its effects will not be immediate because of the time officers need to train and attend the Police Academy before they are given a patrol beat.

Beaver Hills residents have floated the idea of reinstating neighbor patrols to prevent car break-ins and thefts, Matt Watson said, but no progress has been made yet. Lieblich voiced support for a neighborhood watch.

“If the city and the government that is supposed to protect you will not do their jobs, then I think every single citizen, especially law-abiding citizens, has the right to defend themselves,” Lieblich said. 

New Haveners have set up neighborhood watches in the past. In 2007, members of the Yeshiva of New Haven set up a daily patrol of Edgewood Park carrying concealed licensed firearms. The group disarmed five months after its inception, following the resignation of the NHPD’s police chief. Beaver Hills residents launched a nighttime patrol in response to an uptick in violent crime in the fall of 2020.

Bruckhart discouraged residents from setting up armed patrols or “trying to be the police.” He did encourage concerned residents to act as witnesses so that the police could work effectively.

Getting more officers on the streets is a priority for the department, especially in the wake of four homicides investigated in the past two weeks.

“We have different groups of what looks like, mostly juveniles and teens who are in conflict with each other, so we’re trying to increase presence in areas where there might be future issues,” Bruckhart said, referring to the homicides. “Unfortunately, we can’t be everywhere at once due to our staffing numbers.”

Bruckhart noted that stolen cars were recovered in two of the most recent juvenile homicide cases.

Getting to the root

Wingate, the alders’ public safety committee chair, cautioned that punitive measures are complicated and limited due to the ages of the offenders in many of the auto theft cases. Wingate said that he has had discussions with other members of the committee about addressing juvenile auto theft. He hopes for the committee to put together a proposal on the issue in 2025.

“It’s not as simple as people think it is, to ‘get them and lock them up,’” Wingate said. “These are juveniles. It’s really hard to wrap our minds around. Do we lock up a 10-year-old? Lock up an 11-year-old? What does that look like?”

Most of the adolescents arrested in New Haven by the auto theft task force are New Haven residents, Bruckhart said.

Elicker highlighted the city’s investment in youth services, which he hopes will address the root cause of adolescent car theft.

The city invested $1.9 million in the most recent iteration of its Youth@Work program, which offers funding to local businesses and nonprofits that hire adolescents during the summer or school year. The increased program funding allowed for a 42 percent boost in employed youth this summer.

Over the past two years, the city also funneled $2.5 million into the Career Pathways Initiative, which extends career exploration and training opportunities to young adults.

Gwendolyn Busch Williams, who directs the city’s Youth and Recreation Department, pointed to New Haven’s Youth Connect program, which provides tutoring, employment matching and other services to at-risk students.

“The long-term solution is working more to invest in our youth so they don’t get to a point in their lives where they are resorting to stealing cars and engaging in this really negative activity,” Elicker said.

Watson emphasized the need for more city investment in youth services, referring to adolescent car thefts as a systemic problem stemming from “lack of opportunity and socioeconomic inequality.”

But Lieblich is skeptical about adolescents driving up the city’s car theft and break-in rates taking advantage of these services.

“I think that it’s going to be fruitless,” he said. “It’s not going to make any difference whatsoever… if the youth aren’t interested or care to go to these programs.”
As of Nov. 24, 922 car thefts were reported in New Haven in 2024.