The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft, identified the ten areas with the highest vehicle theft rates in 2007:

1. Modesto, Calif.
2. Las Vegas/Paradise, Nev.
3. San Diego/Carlsbad/San Marcos, Calif.
4. Stockton, Calif.
5. San Francisco/Oakland/Fremont, Calif.
6. Laredo, Texas
7. Albuquerque, N.M.
8. Phoenix/Mesa/Scottsdale, Ariz.
9. Yakima, Wash.
10. Tucson, Ariz.
Source: National Insurance Crime Bureau

The rate is determined by the number of vehicle theft offenses per 100,000 inhabitants using the 2007 U.S. Census Population Estimates, the most current figures available.

Preliminary 2007 crime data released by the FBI in January shows that vehicle thefts declined by 7.4 percent in 2007 — the fourth consecutive year of declining vehicle thefts. There has been an overall 11 percent reduction in vehicle thefts, nationally, since 2000.