Chattanooga police recorded 630 theft-from-motor-vehicle cases (car break-ins) from April through September 2026, down 53.5% from 1,354 in the same months of 2020 and the lowest count for that window in the twelve years in the dataset (2015 to 2026). The previous low was 1,028 in 2016. Each case number is counted once and cases marked Unfounded are excluded. The fall from 2025 is smaller: 698 to 630 (-9.7%).

Full years show the same path. Break-ins peaked at 2,608 cases in 2020, then fell every year: 2,520 in 2021, 2,163 in 2022, 2,061 in 2023, 1,703 in 2024 and 1,399 in 2025, the lowest of the eleven complete years (-46.4% from 2020). Leaving out February and March 2026, which are incomplete in the published file, the five lowest months for break-ins since 2015 all fall in 2025 or 2026: April 2025 (69), July 2026 (79), January 2026 (80), September 2026 (84) and May 2025 (85).

Break-ins fell faster than serious crime overall. Other Part 1 cases in the April-September window went from 9,976 in 2020 to 7,040 in 2026 (-29.4%).

The decline is citywide. All six police zones fell from April-September 2020 to 2026: Charlie North 373 to 166, Adam South 281 to 164, Adam North 257 to 118, Charlie South 177 to 47, Baker South 170 to 63 and Baker North 96 to 72. It is not driven by a few hot spots: the ten most-reported block addresses of each year held 109 cases in 2020 and 49 in 2026, and everywhere else fell 53.3%, from 1,245 to 581.

The cases did not move into neighboring categories. Over the same window, thefts of vehicle parts fell from 329 to 85, all other larceny from 1,095 to 849, and vandalism from 1,532 to 802. Cases where a break-in was the only offense recorded fell 55.9% (1,243 to 548), about the same as the total, so the drop is not a change in how many offenses are listed per case.

Few break-ins end in an arrest, then or now: 58 of 1,354 (4.3%) in April-September 2020 and 26 of 630 (4.1%) in 2026. Newer cases have had less time to close.

The dataset records incidents reported to or by police, so it cannot separate fewer break-ins from fewer people reporting them. The data does not say why the count fell. The comparison uses April through September because the published file has far fewer records for February and March 2026 than for the months around them.