Car Theft Is Falling in Peoria. Here Is What the Numbers Show

Peoria’s reported motor vehicle thefts fell 19% in 2024, from 1,150 to 932, according to the Peoria Police Department’s annual report. National thefts fell for a second straight year in 2025. Yet an Illinois auto-theft council report says Peoria County has consistently been among the state’s ten most affected counties. Those findings make a more useful story than either alarm or reassurance alone: the trend is improving, but everyday precautions still matter.

Peoria thefts fell in the latest city annual report

The police department’s 2024 report records 1,150 motor vehicle theft offenses in 2023 and 932 in 2024. That is 218 fewer offenses, a 19.0% decline calculated from the published counts. These are City of Peoria figures, not countywide totals. The department’s annual-report page is the place to check for later releases.

Officials described further improvement during 2025, but those statements were year-to-date snapshots, not annual counts. Reporting on a July 2025 City Council presentation said Police Chief Eric Echevarria put the city’s decline at about 50% compared with the same point in 2024. Separately, 25 News Now reported Sheriff Chris Watkins’s figures of 240 cars stolen from January through late May 2025 versus 500 in the comparable 2024 period. The sheriff’s comparison concerns his department’s county jurisdiction; it is not a second measure of the city’s annual total.

Why the county still matters in Illinois

The Illinois Vehicle Hijacking and Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention and Insurance Verification Council’s 2024 annual report describes Peoria County as consistently among Illinois’ top ten counties for auto theft and says it was in the top five for 2023. The ranking is historical; it is not a claim that Peoria held that position in 2025. The same report says the Greater Peoria Auto Crimes Task Force opened 339 cases and brought 288 auto-theft-related charges in fiscal year 2024. Cases and charges measure enforcement activity, not the number of cars stolen.

The national decline is substantial

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) counted 659,880 stolen vehicles in 2025, down 23% from 2024 after a 17% drop the year before. NICB calls it the lowest level in several decades, although that still works out to about one vehicle every 48 seconds. Illinois had 28,327 reported thefts in 2025, third among states by raw count. A raw count is not an individual driver’s probability of theft.

The ten most stolen models in 2025

This is NICB’s national ranking by theft volume, not a Peoria-specific list. A popular vehicle can appear high on a raw-count ranking even when its per-vehicle risk is lower than that of a rarer model.

Source: NICB, March 18, 2026. The models refer to all model years combined. The list cannot tell an owner the theft rate of a particular model year or trim.

The Hyundai and Kia pattern is changing

The Elantra still heads the national list, but NICB says Hyundai and Kia vehicles accounted for 14% of all thefts in 2025, down from 21% in 2023. The Highway Loss Data Institute’s May 2025 study found 46% fewer theft claims for eligible Hyundai and Kia vehicles that received the anti-theft software upgrade than for those without it. That is an insurance-claim comparison, not a 46% drop in every vehicle’s theft probability.

Owners of potentially affected vehicles should ask a Hyundai or Kia dealer whether their VIN is eligible and whether the update was completed. The software addresses a vehicle security weakness. A locksmith cannot substitute a lock or key repair for that manufacturer update.

Simple steps for Peoria drivers

25 News Now’s report described the Peoria Police Department’s motor vehicle theft dashboard as showing many thefts from driveways, with a concentration in June and between midnight and 3 a.m. Those are reported patterns from the dashboard at that time, not a prediction that a parked car is safe at other hours. The Sheriff’s practical advice is to lock the car and take every key fob inside.

• Close the windows, lock the doors, and check the handles before walking away.
• Take all keys and fobs inside, including a spare kept in a bag or console.
• Never leave a running vehicle unattended, even briefly.
• Park in a well-lit place when possible.
• Keep your plate number and VIN accessible at home so you can report a theft promptly.

Those first four steps follow NICB’s prevention guidance. If a vehicle is stolen, contact police and your insurer immediately. An NICB theft-prevention brochure says immediate reporting is associated with a 34% chance of recovery in the first 24 hours; it is a national figure, not a Peoria guarantee.

An attempted theft can leave a broken door lock, key cylinder, or ignition even when the vehicle is not taken. HLDI found higher vandalism claim frequency in upgraded Hyundai and Kia vehicles than in comparable non-upgraded vehicles, which it says may reflect failed attempts. If your vehicle was damaged, file a police report, check insurance coverage, and have a qualified professional inspect the affected hardware. Our car lock repair and ignition repair pages explain the repair side; the dealer remains the right contact for an anti-theft software update.

About these numbers

The city chart uses the Peoria Police Department’s 2024 annual offense counts. The sheriff’s May 2025 figures and police chief’s July 2025 comment are partial-year statements reported by journalists. The state report describes a county ranking for 2023 and task-force work in fiscal 2024. NICB’s national 2025 totals and model ranking count reported stolen vehicles. These different measures are presented side by side for context, not as interchangeable estimates of the same population.