Nine out of 10 London car thefts are unsolved
Almost 90% of vehicle thefts reported to the Metropolitan Police remain unsolved, leading to calls for a national “crack squad” to deal with the issue.
London’s police force is the worst-performing force in the country on car crime, according to data from the Liberal Democrat-appointed House of Commons library.
The research showed that 88.5% of car thefts in the capital remain unsolved.
Car crime has a “significant impact on victims and communities”, the Met said, adding that it had reduced car crime in the capital by almost 15% in the last eight months.
A spokesman for the force said the number of recorded vehicle crimes, including theft, across London fell by 14.7% from 71,929 between April and December 2024 to 61,362 in the same period this year.
City of London Police had 81.5% of unsolved vehicle crimes but are responsible for a much smaller area, the Square Mile.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson MP said the previous Conservative government oversaw “years of self-defeating cuts to our police forces”, while the current Labor government “should not ignore this epidemic”.
The party has called for a specialist team based at the National Crime Agency that could bring together intelligence from automatic number plate recognition cameras, insurance records and police forces and border control to target organized car crime networks.
‘Fix security vulnerabilities’
The data showed 121,825 motor vehicle thefts were recorded by police forces in England and Wales, of which 92,958 were closed before any suspects were identified.
35 of the 44 forces in England and Wales had unresolved rates of 60% or more; An average of 76.3% of all investigations were completed without an identified suspect.
A Home Office spokesman said “not enough has been done to prevent these crimes or bring those responsible to justice”.
He said the government was “introducing new laws to ban electronic devices used to steal vehicles, train police officers on methods used to steal vehicles, and work with industry to address vulnerabilities in vehicles.”
The spokesman added that vehicle crime would fall by 12% per year until June 2025, while there would be a 7% decrease in vehicle theft.
The Conservatives have been approached for comment.
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