By Steven Symes 
It’s no secret Oakland, California has a serous problem with car thefts. As we’ve covered before, certain parts of the city are awash in abandoned, oftentimes partially disassembled cars just left on the side of the road. But Governor Gavin Newsom is touting a yearlong crackdown on thefts in the city by California Highway Patrol, citing some big numbers.
California is about to run out of license plate numbers.
Over the last year, CHP along with other law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area have arrested 1,823 car theft suspects and recovered 3,217 stolen cars, as reported by KTVU. Those are impressive figures.
For the first three months in 2025, CHP arrested 398 vehicle theft suspects and recovered 614 stolen rides. Again, that sounds pretty good. But there’s one big piece of information missing and we don’t think that’s by coincidence.
Just how many of these arrested suspects are still in custody? What charges have been filed against them? Have any taken plea bargains and are now serving prison sentences?
California prosecutors are notorious for not actually prosecuting car theft cases or giving sweet deals to repeat offenders. We wonder out of the 1,823 suspects arrested in the past year, how many unique individuals there are. In other words, you could have hundreds of people who were arrested over and over again, never facing any real consequences.
Just as important as the number of arrests and recoveries is the rate of car theft in the Bay Area. Has it dropped since this operation involving CHP and other law enforcement agencies began? Is it holding steady? Increasing? That would be another key detail which would indicate if this campaign is effective or not.
But we don’t get any of that information and it makes us suspicious. What reason does Governor Newsom have to only release some of the data? What story does the rest tell?
Image via Rachel Hammoud/Facebook