Law enforcement agencies are hopeful about a new law to rein in rampant auto theft – reversing soft-on-crime statutes that had earned our state a dubious distinction as the nation’s car-theft capital.

“For far too many years, auto theft was perceived as a victimless crime when the … value of a vehicle was low. In reality, it had a tremendous impact on the livelihoods of the vehicle owners and other community members when these vehicles were used to commit additional crimes,” Col. Mathew C. Packard, chief of the Colorado State Patrol, said last week in a press release sent to the news media. “This law acknowledges every victim and will deter repeat offenders.”

Senate Bill 23-097, signed into law June 2 by Gov. Jared Polis, will fix some of the damage done by lawmakers through previously enacted legislation. In 2014, the Legislature adopted a sliding scale that reduced penalties for stealing lower-valued vehicles. In 2021, lawmakers further watered down a range of criminal penalties – and made it a misdemeanor to steal any vehicle valued under $2,000. It all amounted to an invitation to steal cars with near-impunity.

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The new law will eliminate the state criminal code’s sliding scale tying the value of a vehicle to the penalty. All vehicle thefts will be upgraded to a felony once again, as they should be. The law also steps up penalties against repeat offenders, who account for a lopsided share of motor-vehicle thefts. Someone who already has two or more auto-theft convictions will be charged with first-degree motor-vehicle theft, a class 3 felony, if caught in the act again.

The State Patrol’s press statement notes the new law kicks in amid a dip in auto theft that began late last year. The two developments together could assure a longer-term decline in the auto-theft rate. It’s not a moment too soon, either – just as Coloradans were coming to regard auto theft as a certainty alongside death and taxes.

The new law is overdue and, you’d think, a no-brainer. After all, it enjoyed broad support, and Polis had called on lawmakers in his State of the State speech in January to “get tough on auto-theft sentencing.”

And yet, even so obvious a fix for our soaring auto-theft rate almost didn’t make it through the 2023 Legislature.

The bill stalled and idled for weeks in the House of Representatives without so much as a committee hearing. When it finally passed the House only two days before the end of the session – we’ll guess that took a nudge from the governor – 16 members of the seemingly bulletproof 46-member Democratic House majority voted against it. The measure wouldn’t have passed at all without some Republican votes; all House Republicans supported it.

Blame the close call on the ruling party’s political fringe. They are the ones who have been peddling the reckless “justice reform” dogma that has been invoked to slash criminal penalties, release high-risk criminal suspects and decriminalize dangerous drugs – all while Colorado’s crime rate has soared along with the rate of drug overdoses.

All of which suggests a vocal and influential faction of the Legislature is unrepentant about having opened the floodgates to crime in Colorado, and that faction remains an obstacle to much-needed, stiffer penalties for other crimes. Coloradans can take heart in the crackdown on auto theft, but they should be worried it faced so much opposition from so many of our elected lawmakers. It doesn’t bode well for the crime fight.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board