Rep. Henry Cuellar says federal government needs to do more to fight carjacking in U.S. cities

After getting carjacked, Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat of Texas, is looking at the federal government to building up investment for regulation enforcement.  

“We’ve got to make sure that we provide the resources at the federal level,” he mentioned. “I believe sharing sources and intelligence workforce shall be necessary to deal with this. 

Last week, as he used to be parking his automobile, 3 armed robbers in knit caps and ski mask approached the congressman close to his Washington D.C. house, stealing his Toyota Crossover. 

“It happened fast,” mentioned Cuellar. “Nobody expects to have a gun pointed at them to their heads. And it’s one of those things that it was, you know, a surreal moment. I was fortunate that I was not hurt. You can always replace a property, but you cannot replace your life.” 

A wave of new carjackings in country’s capital has raised considerations a couple of dramatic upward thrust in those bad crimes in a few of America’s greatest cities. But handiest about 1 in 3 circumstances finish in an arrest, in accordance to analysis. 

CBS News analyzed information from 11 main metropolitan spaces, which confirmed just about 4,000 reported incidents this yr by myself. In 2022, Chicago reported 1,650 carjackings, and Baltimore reported 714. The choice of reported incidents in Philadelphia tripled between 2020 and 2022.  

“Anybody can be a victim at any time,” mentioned Bruce Jacobs, a professor of criminology on the University of Texas, Dallas.  

“Most of these carjackings occur either in and around parking lots, residential streets, convenience stores, and or commercial parking lots,” Jacobs defined. “Anywhere they can approach you, get you out of the vehicle quickly, get in the car and drive away.” 

Despite the native news media consideration carjackings continuously obtain, the possibility of apprehending a suspect stays dishearteningly low. A contemporary document from the Annual Review of Criminology displays not up to one in 3 of those crimes ends in an arrest.  

“Very often the offender is wearing a hoodie or a cap or a mask and has concealed their identity. And a lot of times these offenses happen so quickly and there’s so much panic on the part of the victim that they cannot give a reliable description to authorities to take that person into custody,” Jacobs mentioned. “And that emboldens people if they know that there’s a stronger likelihood that they’ll get away than get caught.” 

Jacobs added the recognition of carjacking might be related to new era, which has made hotwiring more tough and time-consuming. Instead, equivalent to the case of Rep. Cuellar, carjackers continuously manner drivers in or round their automobiles to thieve their keys.  

“I saw to the left, somebody had a gun. I looked to the right. Another person had a gun. They said, we want your car. I said, OK,” mentioned Cuellar. “They didn’t even ask for my wallet. They didn’t want any money. All they wanted was the car.” 

Jacobs mentioned the congressman made the most secure transfer. His recommendation for sufferers is to keep calm, assess the danger, and cooperate.  

“Give them the keys. No resistance. Carjacking fatalities are extraordinarily rare; something like two-tenths of 1% of all reported carjackings result in a fatality,” Jacobs mentioned.  

Not each town is seeing a surge. Detroit, as an example, is not off course to see this yr’s carjackings decline through just about part when compared to 2022, and Minneapolis, in specific, has noticed a vital drop. According to CBS News information, town’s carjacking price will drop through more than 200 incidents, if present traits proceed thru the remainder of the yr. Minneapolis reported 524 carjacking incidents in 2022. 

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara attributes the dept’s luck in curtailing carjackings to their collaboration with federal government. The town has labored intently with Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger to deliver harsher consequences in carjacking circumstances – a transfer O’Hara believes has deterred criminals from sporting out the crime.  

“We have a U.S. attorney here that is driving all of the resources of the federal government against these problems,” mentioned O’Hara. “It sends a message to the community and to those who are doing these crimes that they will be taken very seriously and they will be prosecuted federally and there will be a consequence for these actions.”