In the month of April, the Arlington County Police Department (ACPD) will host two different events featuring giveaways of $20,000 worth of anti-car-theft devices for free, including steering wheel locks, as the nation, and the Washington D.C. region in particular, faces a spike in car thefts.

According to Just The News, such giveaways have already happened in the area, including D.C., northern Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, Norfolk, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland. The giveaways are due to a provision of the COVID-19 relief package passed in 2021, the American Rescue Plan, called the Law Enforcement Equipment Grant. With this grant, the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) has been able to distribute over 1,000 steering wheel locks to the ACPD.

In the year 2024 thus far, there have already been at least 90 car thefts in Arlington County, with police warning that the rate could increase even further in the summer. The most commonly stolen vehicles in Arlington are Hyundais and Kias, which police attribute to a trend that went viral on the Chinese platform TikTok in 2022, with users showing their viewers how to steal these cars in particular. Other cars that are also frequently stolen in the area include Toyota Camrys and Croloss, Chevrolet Expresses, and Honda Civics and Accords.

From the year 2021 to 2022, the area surrounding D.C. saw an uptick in car thefts. Arlington County saw its rate increase by 32%, from 313 incidents to 412, while Manassas Park saw an 86% increase, from 14 to 26, in the same period.

Similar anti-car-theft equipment giveaways were held in Maryland, including by the Laurel Police Department in May of last year, featuring wheel locks for drivers of Kias and Hyundais. Another giveaway was held in Bowie in March.