WHITEHALL, Ohio — The Whitehall Division of Police arrested five of seven juveniles who crashed a stolen Kia near a church Tuesday evening.
The department's Flock camera system, which can read license plates and send alerts to law enforcement, picked up on a Kia that was stolen from Easton on Joyce Avenue near East Blake Avenue.
Whitehall Police Sergeant Jon Earl said officers observed the vehicle driving recklessly and running stop signs and red lights before the crash. The five juveniles who were arrested are between 12 and 16 years old. The other two juveniles ran away.
All seven juveniles in the car have been arrested by Whitehall police before.
10TV is not naming the juveniles because of their age, but one of the juveniles was released from a detention center on June 8 on charges related to a stolen car. Whitehall police said he cut off his electronic monitoring device and was arrested again in a stolen car on June 11, and again on June 13.
“I know these kids were involved in other stolen cars in the city of Columbus. This is just what we could verify. To have every single kid in this vehicle be in multiple stolen cars within this year, it's something to be said,” Earl said.
So far in 2023, 50 cars have been reported stolen in Whitehall. At this time last year, that number was 138.
Earl said he is glad no innocent bystander or any of the juveniles were injured. He said the teens need to get the message somehow.
"There really is no fear of repercussions at this point," Earl said.
10TV reached out to the Franklin County juvenile court administrative judge for an interview, but they declined to comment.