Prince George's County Police Chief Malik Aziz discusses carjacking crisis with FOX 5

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - Statistics show that five years ago in 2018, there were a total of 82 carjackings in Prince George's County. Fast forward to 2022, there were a total of 430. It's no secret that carjackings are skyrocketing.

The rise in that specific violent crime is a big concern for people all across the D.C. area. Chief Malik Aziz says his agency is working hard to address the problem.

"That is a figure that should make everyone stop and pay attention. It's a concern of mine. What are our young people doing? Why would such a violent crime be so attractive?," said Aziz. "I think anyone would come to the conclusion that the pandemic did something. I think we cannot just let that go. It cannot be excluded that something happened with our young people."

In Prince George's County, more juveniles are being arrested for carjackings than adults. The big question is why are kids getting involved in this type of behavior?

"If we figure it out we're going to be billionaires together," said Aziz.

Chief Aziz says he does not think kids are facing harsh enough consequences for their actions.

"I think that the system itself, the cogs in the wheel don't always work properly together, I don't think there are meaningful resources that speaks to accountability on the juvenile who has committed the offense," said Aziz. "Honestly speaking, we there are so many failures in the cogs in the system when they don’t work together and it doesn’t function properly. We need to reevaluate and reassess and look at it from a team approach."

Chief Aziz even said he believes parents should be held accountable.

In addition, he mentioned carjackings are difficult to solve especially since suspects are swapping cars with one another to commit other crimes and if they get pulled over, there is no evidence that they originally stole it.

"Some of the violators, the criminals who are doing this, they park the car, they have a network within themselves, they have streets they park these vehicles on, and it is open for another person who has stolen a car or carjacked a vehicle to get inside these cars and ride them and go commit other offenses in them," said Aziz. "The criminals are getting smaller so our justice system has to get even smarter, but we're experiencing like a rental lot almost. You go to a place and take a vehicle, and it's open and the keys are in the vehicle," he continued to say – "It's a sick game."