Multnomah County DA’s Office Takes On Less Than Two Thirds of Car Theft Cases From Law Enforcement Agencies

Data provided by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office shows that prosecutors continue to reject more than a third of the auto theft cases presented to them by police. That rate remains essentially unchanged despite a 2019 law aimed at making it easier to prove someone stole a car.

In 2015, the DA’s office took on 52% of the cases referred by law enforcement agencies (this includes other local police departments, but most of those cases are referred by the Portland Police Bureau, according to the DA’s office). By 2018, that rate had risen to 58%; and in 2019, 60%. In both 2020 and 2021, the rate has been 61% of cases taken on by the DA’s office.

The rejection rate is puzzling, because in 2019, Oregon lawmakers passed House Bill 2328, which allowed law enforcement to bring more evidence against the defendant in hopes it would make prosecutions easier. The law was partially inspired by WW’s reporting in 2017 that explained how repeat car thieves could avoid prosecution by claiming they didn’t know they didn’t know they were driving a stolen vehicle.

The steady rate of accepted cases by the DA’s office shows that Portland’s criminal justice system hasn’t cracked down as car thefts skyrocketed—even after lawmakers gave them the tools to do so.

DA’s office spokeswoman Elisabeth Shepard say challenges that existed prior to the 2019 law still remain, inhibiting the DA’s office from taking a higher percentage of cases.

“These cases require the police to initiate investigations, meaning they are looking for the vehicle, scanning license plates and apprehending those vehicles. That takes both resources and risk,” says Shepard. “When you overcome those obstacles on the policing side, new obstacles arise on the prosecution side. Even with the new legislation, the burden of proof from the state still relies on the defendant knowingly taking a vehicle without the consent or permission of the victim beyond a reasonable doubt. We simply cannot rely on circumstantial evidence alone to say that someone stole a car. That’s how the law works.”

Shepard says there’s a “myriad of factors that make cases like these unprovable to a court and a jury. It’s a lack of evidence, witnesses, victim participation, and a basic inability to prove that the vehicle was taken without consent or permission from the owner of the vehicle. We use our limited resources to ensure those factors impact as few cases as humanly possible, but it’s not easy.”

Police arrests for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in Portland have risen consistently with an uptick in overall car thefts across the city. This year’s car theft tally is 20% higher than last year’s; arrests this year (according to raw data shared with WW by PPB) are 18.5% higher than last year’s.

But arrests don’t always result in referred cases. Referred cases to the DA’s office so far this year (which include police bureaus in addition to PPB) are 8% higher than in 2020—far lower than the car theft hike between last year and this year.

It’s hard to say the outcome of most of those issued cases over the past two years: A majority of them are still pending due to pandemic court slowdowns. (Because of the pandemic, a fraction of cases brought to trial weekly prior to the pandemic are now being brought. Average cases per week pre-pandemic was 25. Now it’s rarely more than five.) But the statistics in years when most cases are complete show that more than 75% of the cases prosecutors accept result in convictions.

Dismissal of accepted cases is often because of lack of victim or witness availability or because plea deals were made, according to the DA’s office.

Last week, WW reported that 1,141 cars were stolen in November in Portland, and 8,024 so far this year (the highest since at least 1997). The Portland Police Bureau has no detectives or police officers dedicated to car theft, leaving any follow up investigation to neighborhood patrol officers, who the bureau says don’t often investigate cases if there isn’t readily available incriminating evidence.

Bureau spokesperson Kevin Allen says it’s “exceedingly rare” that an investigation takes place after a car is recovered.

Arrests so far this year in Portland represent just 11% of overall car theft cases documented this year by PPB.

Kevin Demer, a senior deputy district attorney with the DA’s office, says his ability to prosecute a case is dependent on whether or not law enforcement investigates cases and brings forward enough compelling evidence.

“The police are the pitcher,” he says. “We’re the catcher.”