A DFL [Democrat] legislator who has introduced a bill that would require
automakers to install antitheft devices in cars older than a decade was called out by Republicans in a House committee hearing Monday who say his proposal scapegoats businesses for out-of-control crime in Minneapolis.
Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, is authoring HF1100,
which would require automobile manufacturers to offer to install at no
cost to the consumer an authorized antitheft protection device on all
motor vehicles manufactured without an immobilizer after Jan. 1, 2013. A
similar bill was just drawn up in the Senate and has not received a hearing.
While the language of the proposed legislation doesn’t mention
specific automakers by name, Tabke told his colleagues in the House
Commerce Committee on Monday that the impetus of the bill is to curb
thefts of Kia and Hyundai vehicles, which he says have been stolen at a
significantly higher rate than other makes of vehicles over the last
year in Minneapolis and surrounding cities because so many don’t have
working antitheft devices.
“These two automakers, specifically, instead of doing that (including
antitheft devices), they chose to cut costs and make savings,
throughout the 2000s and up until the last few years,” Tabke said,
adding that in Minneapolis alone, thefts of Kia and Hyundai vehicles
were up more than 800 percent in 2022 over the previous year.
“The reason Kias and Hyundais are being targeted is because [many of
them] are missing anti-theft devices in the vehicles,” Tabke said.
Republicans in the committee scoffed at the bill, saying that it was just an echo of a public relations campaign over the weekend orchestrated by Minneapolis and St. Paul mayors Jacob Frey
and Melvin Carter and Attorney General Keith Ellison to blame a spike
in automobile thefts on specific automakers rather than address a
continued policing shortage in Minneapolis. The bill passed in the
committee on a party-line vote and is now headed to the House floor.
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This begins to sound like a gun control argument which always blames the gun instead of the criminal using it.
Regards,
Russ
