ST PAUL, Minn. — A new bill introduced in the Minnesota legislature doesn't specifically mention Kia, Hyundai or public safety, but make no mistake, it is directly aimed at addressing issues with all three.
House File 1100 would require car manufacturers to offer antitheft protection devices on vehicles that were built without an immobilizer after Jan. 1, 2013. The bill passed it's first committee hearing Monday.
"It ensures that it's the auto manufacturers - not the consumer, not the state, not the insurance companies - that have to foot the bill for the mistake that they created," said Rep. Zach Stephenson.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara made a trip to the Capitol to voice his support for the bill on Monday. After a viral social media trend exposing Kia and Hyundai security flaws last June, he says thefts have jumped more than 833 percent. In past years, he said the city typically saw about 200 Kia and Hyundai thefts a year, but in the last six months of 2022, he says there were more than 2,300 thefts.
Even more alarming, he says those thefts were also linked to five homicides, 13 shootings, 36 robberies and 265 car accidents.
"This is something that, literally, young people are losing their lives over, getting seriously hurt and becoming involved in more and more serious crime because of a lack of accountability over this issue," O'Hara said.
Kia and Hyundai have announced software upgrades to make cars harder to steal -- and say they're working to provide steering wheel locks to drivers' of older models.
O'Hara says it's done little to slow down thefts. In just two south Minneapolis neighborhoods, there were 30 thefts or attempted thefts during the last week of February.
In addition, O'Hara says MPD has only received about 100 of the club-like locks to distribute to car owners.
"That does not even cover the victims of theft - of Kia's and Hyundai's - that have had their cars stolen more than once over," O'Hara said. "That's obviously not enough."
While he hopes the bill passes, and re-calls are issued, O'Hara says legislation, alone, won't be enough to address another underlying issue, that the repeated thefts have also exposed.
"These kids are involved multiple times now in these thefts, and the stuff is on social media, and they are learning that there is no consequence," O'Hara said. "I am afraid about what that will mean if this pattern continues over time as those kids get older."
"We need intensive services for these young people, particularly if these young people are not going to be held after police take them into custody. If they are immediately released back into the same environment with no support, no services and mom is saying I can't control this kid, that's a problem. I don't understand how we would expect a different result."
When asked if there was other legislation he might support to improve public safety, Chief O'Hara said he would support gun control legislation that is focused on addressing legally purchased guns that are transferred to criminals, such as through straw buyers.
"The second amendment is sacred in this country, like all of our constitutional rights, but I think we have to recognize that we have a serious problem around gun violence," O'Hara said. "The majority of guns used in crimes originally are purchased in Minnesota."
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