Vehicle thefts from Toronto homes last year were down by almost a third compared to the previous year, police data shows.
Some 3,102 vehicles were reported stolen from outside residential homes in 2024, which amounts to roughly 1,476 fewer thefts than in 2023.
Overall, vehicle thefts from all locations in the city fell by about a quarter.
Toronto Police Service (TPS) spokesperson Stephanie Sayer attributed the reduction in car thefts to increased awareness of the crime, vehicle owners taking proactive measures to mitigate the risk of theft and law enforcement initiatives.
So far in 2025, auto thefts are down 37 per cent, Sayer added.
At a national auto theft summit held last February, the federal government announced plans for tighter scrutiny of shipments leaving Canada’s ports.
Vehicles stolen in Ontario have been tracked to used-car lots in Ghana and Dubai in recent years.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada's vice-president of the Ontario and Atlantic region, Amanda Dean, attributed the reduction in car theft to police and prosecutors focusing on the issue, as well as improved inspection of the shipping containers leaving the country.
"The federal government, following the auto theft summit, had a series of commitments, and they've certainly started down the path of implementing some of those commitments," Dean said.
"One of those items included beefing up resources for the [Canadian Border Services Agency] to look at things that are leaving the country just as closely as we are looking at things coming into the country.”
Toronto police recently laid charges in relation to stolen vehicles found in a shipping container last fall.
Rising rates of auto theft have added $130 a year to the average Ontario driver's auto insurance premiums, as well as extra surcharges for drivers who own cars and trucks that are most sought-after by thieves.
"Claims costs had increased for insurers between 2018 and 2023 nationally by 254 per cent, and in Ontario, that number alone was 524 per cent," Dean said.
Within TorontoToday's coverage area, the worst car theft hotspot was along Dundas Street East just east of Yonge, where just two 250-metre wide areas have seen 115 vehicles stolen over the last decade.
This map shows auto theft by the location the theft occurred, using data from the Toronto police:
Looking at the wider 416 area code, vehicle theft rates are highest in the city's northwest, and worst in an area southwest of Steeles Avenue and Highway 400.
This map uses Ministry of Transportation data and shows vehicle thefts by the home postal code of the vehicle owner:
Sayer said the widespread use of automated licence plate readers by police is helping the force intercept stolen vehicles.
"This [Automated Licence Plate Recognition] technology automatically scans the licence plates of vehicles passing police cars, allowing us to receive real-time alerts. More than 600 police vehicles have the ALPR system, which can translate to well over 1.1 million plates scanned every 24 hours,” she said in an email.
