Although auto theft continues to rise, police within GTA municipalities are making progress. Although our patience might be tested, there are promising developments to report.  Recently Peel Police, working with other agencies, announced a breakthrough with four arrests and the recovery of 78 stolen vehicles, cocaine, and cash.  Toronto Police also announced six arrests and the recovery of almost $1M of stolen property following an investigation into carjackings and pharmacy robberies. These two media releases illustrate how complex and multijurisdictional the investigations are. While these developments are welcome, we continue to believe that significant reductions in auto theft will take place after the end of 2023.

We recently learned that some insurance companies are offering free “tag trackers” for vehicles meeting specific criteria (new models and high-volume theft brands). This article highlights a couple of insurers. We suspect others may follow suit. It may be worth contacting your insurer to see if they have a similar program. 

Crime Data as of end of March, 2023

Break and Enter

Our primary focus for break and enter is house-related incidents. The SAHRA area is seeing a slight increase in house-related break and enters. Year-to-date we have experienced three. This compares with three in the same period 2022 but is up by one versus pre-COVID 2019.  For unknown reasons, this is higher than the west side of Avenue Road between Wilson and Lawrence where they have had zero house break and enters in 2023.  We will continue to monitor. 

Commercial break and enter on Avenue Road between Lawrence and the 401 has declined slightly this year. In March there were no incidents.

Auto Theft

Auto theft continues to challenge our area and we anticipate little or no relief in 2023 as the police investigations continue. The City of Toronto auto theft count year-to-date has increased 26% over the same period 2022.  A picture is always helpful! Each colour dot represents a theft. 

The SAHRA area experienced four auto thefts in the month of March. This brings our year-to-date total to 8 versus 7 in the same period 2022.