TIKTOK trends might be contributing to a spike in car thefts as creators use hashtags like #creepingwhileyouresleeping, #lockitorloseit and #pursuit to share videos of crime online.
New NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) data shows regional areas bore the brunt of a rise in vehicle thefts in the last five years and executive director Jackie Fitzgerald put it partially down to a bounce-back from a COVID-driven decline in crime.
"Another factor however, may be young people being spurred on by social media posts encouraging vehicle thefts on TikTok," she said.
"This potential link with car theft is not something we have come across before, but it is being reported in regional NSW, the Northern Territory and QLD.
"It does look like it's something that's emerging and potentially changing the crime landscape in ways we haven't seen before.".
A TikTok spokeswoman said it is vigilant in its commitment to removing content that promotes or endorses theft to prevent behaviour becoming normalised or copied.
"This has been the case for the type of content that the BOCSAR report refers to, and over the past year we have removed hundreds of videos on this basis," she said.
"We engage directly with key stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, and are committed to taking action where necessary.
"Issues around the type of offending referred to in the report are whole of community concerns, involving other social drivers too, and are not the responsibility of platforms alone."
The data shows Cessnock ranked the eighth worst for vehicle recovery in the state, with more than half of the cars stolen between March 2022 and April this year never being returned.
It narrowly escaped the top 10 for car theft, coming in at the eleventh highest in the state, Ms Fitzgerald said.
"I'm not sure why that's the case for Cessnock but it is a place where the rate of car theft is pretty high," she said.
Rather than increasing dramatically, Cessnock's rates of car theft are consistently high, with the volume remaining similar to where it was five years ago.
Newcastle ranked 14th in the state with 72 more offences than five years ago.
That represents a 12.5 per cent increase, which Ms Fitzgerald called "problematic".
"Newcastle seems to be one of those places showing elevated car theft numbers, it's about 13 per cent higher last year than it was before the pandemic," she said.
"It's not as large as some increases in NSW, but many areas are still well below pre-pandemic numbers so it is on the higher end."
Lake Macquarie ranked 42nd in the state, with the number of stolen cars last year below where it was pre-pandemic.
About 477 cars were stolen in the year to March compared to 522 at the same time in 2019, Ms Fitzgerald said.
"It's increased in the most recent two years but it looks like it's a post-COVID bounce back, rather than a whole scale increase beyond where we were before the pandemic hit and interrupted crime levels so dramatically," she said.
Maitland also saw a 10 per cent increase in car thefts compared to pre-pandemic levels, and Ms Fitzgerald said the official numbers statewide are rising because of pockets of crime particularly in north-western NSW and the North Coast.
In a number of regional areas, vehicle theft is now well above pre-pandemic levels.
While not as hard-hit as the New England North West region, vehicle theft in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie was up by 23 incidents in the year to March 2023 - compared to 2019 figures.
Cars manufactured by Toyota, Holden and Ford accounted for 38 per cent of stolen vehicles in the year to March across the state.
The cars with the highest rate of theft were Jeeps, Land Rovers and Audis.
According to BOCSAR, it's likely regional vehicle theft is opportunistic, with offenders stealing cars for joyrides and transport.
Offenders are overwhelmingly male, with data showing 83 per cent of them were responsible for car theft in regional NSW, and it's more likely to be committed by a young person than in Sydney.
At least half of the people taken to court for vehicle theft in the year to March 2023 were under 18 in regional areas.
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