The Milwaukee areas you're most likely to have your car stolen

There have been 5,838 cars stolen in Milwaukee so far this year. Here are the areas where the most cars have been stolen.Milwaukee police crime mapping and statistics don't quite name streets when it comes to tracking crime. Instead, the city is broken up into hexagons, each with its own individual grid ID.Still, the area with the most car thefts in the last year is a 9-block area between West State and West Wisconsin, North Sixth Street and the Milwaukee River. So far, 103 cars have been stolen in this area in the last year. Other areas where the most cars have been stolen include downtown and Milwaukee's east side, identified by the darker blue hexagons on Milwaukee's crime mapping. A car stolen from UW Milwaukee's campus ended with the suspects getting chased by police, and shortly after, the chase ended, causing a fiery pileup.UWM sent an alert out to students and faculty, warning about car thefts in the area just minutes before the crash happened. However, school officials say they sent it out due to a recent uptick in car thefts in the neighborhoods nearby, not directly due to that specific theft."These are individuals who are making decisions to be destructive, right there, making the decisions to steal these vehicles, to use them as missiles," Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said Friday.Johnson added that police are constantly working to tweak plans for specific crime in neighborhoods across the city. "Nobody should have to deal with that," he said. "Nobody should, and no neighborhood throughout this city, or any community or region in our state."Car thefts in Milwaukee are down 41% so far in 2023, still at 5,838 as of Dec. 8. To view crime trends for your specific area, click here.