(TND) — A former Trump administration official has died after he fell victim last week to a carjacking.
Mike Gill formerly served as chief of staff of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Gill was shot during the carjacking, which police in Washington, D.C., described as part of “an overnight crime spree.”
Gill is another victim of the carjacking scourge that’s grown over the last several years in the nation’s capital and other major American cities.
The carjacking rate last year in Washington was 142.8 per 100,000 people.
There’s been a 565% increase in carjackings in Washington since 2019, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
And the city’s police department shows a 101% increase over just the last 12 months.
Three-quarters of the carjackings in Washington involved a suspect who used a gun, and over 60% of those arrested in the city for carjackings were juveniles.
While Washington is an outlier in the scope of the problem, other big cities have also seen big increases.
Carjackings are up 93% since 2019 across 10 cities tracked by the Council on Criminal Justice.
The rate decreased by 5% from 2022 to 2023, but it remains much higher than it was before the pandemic. The total rate for those 10 cities last year was 11.7 per 100,000 people, up from 6.1 per 100,000 people in 2019.
Over that period, Chicago has seen a 115.7% increase in carjackings, Los Angeles has seen a 77.9% increase, San Francisco has seen a 70% increase, and Denver has seen a 61.7% increase.
Last year’s rates per 100,000 people were 101.9 in Baltimore, 58.3 in Memphis and 48.3 in Chicago.
Criminologist Alex Piquero said Monday that the public sees the headlines about carjackings, including the new “horrific case” involving the Trump administration official, and they wonder if “carjacking’s out of control.”
Chicago and suburban Cook County, for example, reportedly saw a 22% decrease in carjackings last year compared to 2022.
And Baltimore reported a 19% decrease in carjackings last year compared to 2022.
Piquero, a professor at the University of Miami and a former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, said there’s a serious data-tracking problem when it comes to carjackings.
Piquero also serves as a senior advisor to the Council on Criminal Justice’s Crime Trends Working Group.
The Council on Criminal Justice’s recent report summarized 2023 crime statistics across a dozen categories for nearly 40 cities.
But they were only able to find reliable carjacking statistics for 10 cities.
Piquero said the FBI and local law enforcement agencies haven’t historically tracked carjackings as a standalone crime.
A carjacking is an amalgam of a robbery and a motor vehicle theft, and most law enforcement agencies either don't collect carjacking data or they're not reporting it, Piquero said.
The national crime statistics released in FBI reports rely on data pulled from over 18,000 local agencies.
And crime data reporting is completely voluntary to the federal government, Piquero said.
“We should know more than what we know right now,” he said.
“... But I can reliably say some cities have a real significant problem that (they) need to get their hands around,” he added about carjackings.
Like politics, all crime is local, Piquero said. And the national narrative over the rise in carjackings appears to be “dominated by a few cities that are experiencing a real significant problem.”
Piquero said he’s talked to police chiefs around the country, and there’s a sense that carjackers aren’t just taking the vehicles for a joyride.
They’re stealing the cars and unloading them, either whole or in parts. And they seem to know where to go to do so.
“You're not going to put an ad out on eBay or on Facebook. Right?” Piquero said. “So, there's a market for this that exists where you and I aren't necessarily seeing that as general people.”
Even if the carjackers in a particular area are loosely organized, police are focused on gathering intel and disrupting their operations.
D.C. police, for instance, formed a carjacking task force in January 2021.
But Piquero said staffing shortages for many departments make that difficult.
He also said police departments can work with cities to install more surveillance cameras in public areas.
“CCTV is another set of eyes and ears, and you know a lot of big cities have it,” he said.
But cars are everywhere, they’re easy to take, and police are constantly playing catch-up, Piquero said.
Naida Henao, head of engagement at the Network for Victim Recovery of DC, previously told The National Desk that “the solution lies somewhere in investigating the root causes of crime that drive not only carjackings, but any other type of community violence.”
Those motivating factors can include poverty and inequality, she said. And she said a carjacker is probably not thinking about the consequences.
Police in D.C. have some tips to avoid being a carjacking victim, regardless of where you live:
Keep your doors locked and windows rolled up.
Travel with someone whenever possible, especially at night.
When you are coming to a stop, leave enough room to maneuver around other cars, especially if you sense trouble and need to get away.
Don’t stop to assist a stranger whose car has broken down. Use your cellphone to call police for help.
Park in well-lit areas.
Never leave valuables out in open view, even if the car is locked.
Even if you’re rushed, look around before you get out and stay alert to your surroundings.
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