SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

NHTSA administers a program for reducing motor vehicle theft. The central feature of this program is the Federal Motor Vehicle Theft Prevention Standard, 49 CFR part 541. The standard specifies performance requirements for inscribing or affixing vehicle identification numbers (VINs) onto certain major original equipment and replacement parts of high-theft lines of passenger motor vehicles.

The agency is required by 49 U.S.C. 33104(b)(4) to periodically obtain, from the most reliable source, accurate and timely theft data, and publish the data for review and comment. To fulfill the § 33104(b)(4) mandate, this document reports the preliminary theft data for CY 2003 the most recent calendar year for which data are available.

In calculating the 2003 theft rates, NHTSA followed the same procedures it used in calculating the MY 2002 theft rates. (For 2002 theft data calculations, see 69 FR 53354, September 1, 2004). As in all previous reports, NHTSA's data were based on information provided to the agency by the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The NCIC is a governmental system that receives vehicle theft information from nearly 23,000 criminal justice agencies and other law enforcement authorities throughout the United States. The NCIC data also include reported thefts of self-insured and uninsured vehicles, not all of which are reported to other data sources. The 2003 theft rate for each vehicle line was calculated by dividing the number of reported thefts of MY 2003 vehicles of that line stolen during calendar year 2003, by the total number of vehicles in that line manufactured for MY 2003, as reported by manufacturers to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The preliminary 2003 theft data show a decrease in the vehicle theft rate when compared to the theft rate experienced in CY/MY 2002. The preliminary theft rate for MY 2003 passenger vehicles stolen in calendar year 2003 decreased to 1.84 thefts per thousand vehicles produced, a decrease of 26.1 percent from the rate of 2.49 thefts per thousand vehicles experienced by MY 2002 vehicles in CY 2002. For MY 2003 vehicles, out of a total of 217 vehicle lines, 21 lines had a theft rate higher than 3.5826 per thousand vehicles, the established median theft rate for MYs 1990/1991 (See 59 FR 12400, March 16, 1994). Of the 21 vehicle lines with a theft rate higher than 3.5826, 18 are passenger car lines, 2 are multipurpose passenger vehicle lines, and one is a light-duty truck line.

In Table I, NHTSA has tentatively ranked each of the MY 2003 vehicle lines in descending order of theft rate. ( printed page 10067) Public comment is sought on the accuracy of the data, including the data for the production volumes of individual vehicle lines.

Comments must not exceed 15 pages in length (49 CFR 553.21). Attachments may be appended to these submissions without regard to the 15 page limit. This limitation is intended to encourage commenters to detail their primary arguments in a concise fashion.

If a commenter wishes to submit certain information under a claim of confidentiality, three copies of the complete submission, including purportedly confidential business information, should be submitted to the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, at the street address given above, and two copies from which the purportedly confidential information has been deleted should be submitted to Dockets. A request for confidentiality should be accompanied by a cover letter setting forth the information specified in the agency's confidential business information regulation. 49 CFR part 512.

All comments received before the close of business on the comment closing date indicated above for this document will be considered, and will be available for examination in the docket at the above address both before and after that date. To the extent possible, comments filed after the closing date will also be considered. Comments on this document will be available for inspection in the docket. NHTSA will continue to file relevant information as it becomes available for inspection in the docket after the closing date, and it is recommended that interested persons continue to examine the docket for new material.

Those persons desiring to be notified upon receipt of their comments in the rules docket should enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard in the envelope with their comments. Upon receiving the comments, the docket supervisor will return the postcard by mail.

Privacy Act

Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 19477-78) or you may visit dms.dot.gov.

Authority: 49 U.S.C. 33101, 33102 and 33104; delegation of authority at 49 CFR 1.50.

70 FR 10066