PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Car thefts are on the rise in Portland and show no sign of slowing down, which could eventually impact your monthly bills.

Insurance rates are tied to a number of cars in a certain area and if those numbers keep going up, your insurance bill will too. To add insult to injury, even if the thief is caught, that person may not be prosecuted.

“If we can’t get a handle on auto theft, it’s going to be a bigger and bigger expense to the consumer,” Jim Perucca said.

Perucca, the executive vice president for the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Oregon, has been in the insurance industry for more than 40 years and said he’s seen a huge increase in the number of stolen cars and a change in the type of person stealing them.

“Now they are stolen by professionals,” he said. “Autos were stolen 20 years ago by kids that were joy-ridden and they were found later and the insurance company had to pay to do the repairs.”

That has already caused insurance premiums to rise, especially in Multnomah County, where the District Attorney’s office reports that over the first quarter from last year to this year, reports of stolen cars have increased by 63%.

Deputy DA Ryan Lufkin said while reports of thefts and arrests are going up, prosecutions have dropped about 20%.

“It all takes time to wash through the system, but it will gradually increase rates for the parts that cover auto theft,” Lufkin said.

He says that trouble began in 2012 when the court of appeals began interpreting the old 1970s statue a bit differently, imposing a stricter burden of proof on prosecutors. Now they must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person knew they were in a stolen car.

“We routinely see police reports where defendants who are driving around stolen cars say, ‘well officer, I bought this car from Joe, he’s a transient, I have no way of reaching him, I got it for $100, I don’t have a title, he gave me a screwdriver to use as a key and I thought it was totally fine,'” Lufkin said.

Because of the judicial opinions, those excuses have worked and hundreds of cases won’t make it to trial. Lufkin has introduced legislation to change the language of the old statute and turn things around for prosecutors.

“We just want to be able to get to a jury,” Lufkin said. “We currently are not able to get to a jury on these cases. And that is an acceptable.”

If it passes, it would go into effect in July.