ICBC has just released auto theft numbers for the last 10 years and New Westminster has seen a 25-percent decrease for the first six months of 2012 as compared to the first six months of 2011.
In 2011, there were 89 car thefts in New Westminster reported to ICBC and that number fell to 67 for the same period in 2012.
The decrease marks the ninth straight year that the numbers have fallen. In 2003, there were 381 New Westminster auto thefts reported for the first six months of the year, falling to 349 in 2004 and steadily every year since.
Since 2003 - the year that the Bait Car program was introduced to the area - there has been an 82 per cent decrease in New Westminster auto thefts for the first six months of each year.
The decreasing numbers are part of an overall trend in the Lower Mainland.
In neighbouring Burnaby, there was also a 25-per-cent decrease from the first six months of 2012 as compared to the same period in 2011. The decrease since 2003 is 84 per cent.
And in the Lower Mainland as a whole, the decrease was 17 per cent between 2011 and 2012 and 78 per cent going back to 2003.
The figures released were part of Crime Prevention Week, which ran from Nov. 1 to 7.
