A carjacking case that sat unsolved in Southfield for two years has finally led to charges, Southfield Police announced. Police Chief Elvin Barren spoke publicly about the investigation, which detectives worked for two full years before obtaining charges against a suspect in the cold case.
Two Years of Digging Ends in Charges
Southfield Police completed the two-year investigation and obtained charges in the cold-case carjacking, according to FOX 2 Detroit, which first reported the announcement. Chief Barren, who leads the department, discussed the case publicly as police disclosed that charges had been obtained following the lengthy inquiry. The station's report does not specify the suspect's identity, the date of the original carjacking, or the charges filed, and those details remain unclear from the available reporting.
Barren took over the Southfield Police Department in July 2019 after a 21-year career with the Detroit Police Department, where he retired as a deputy chief overseeing more than 1,100 officers, per ClickOnDetroit. He is also an eight-year U.S. Navy veteran who holds a master's degree in criminal justice, according to the same outlet.
The Regional Task Force Behind Southfield's Auto Crime Cases
Cold-case carjackings like this one often benefit from the resources of the Oakland County Auto Theft Unit, a multi-agency task force that includes the Oakland County Sheriff's Office along with police departments from Southfield, Detroit, Farmington Hills, Hazel Park, and Waterford, according to the City of Southfield. Southfield maintains a dedicated detective assigned to that unit, which investigates carjackings, chop shops, stolen vehicles, and auto-related fraud across county lines.
The task force's track record has drawn statewide recognition. The Automobile Theft Prevention Authority ranked the Oakland County Auto Theft Unit number one in Michigan in its 2025 annual report, crediting the unit with recovering 750 stolen vehicles valued at nearly $20 million and making 378 arrests, per WHMI 93.5 Local News. The authority was created in the mid-1980s, back when Michigan had the highest vehicle theft rate in the country, the station reports.
What Michigan Law Says About Carjacking Charges
Whatever charges Southfield Police obtained in this case, Michigan law treats carjacking as a serious felony. Under MCL 750.529a, carjacking is punishable by imprisonment for life or any term of years, and sentences can be ordered to run consecutively to any other conviction stemming from the same incident, according to the Michigan Legislature. The statute defines carjacking as committing larceny of a motor vehicle through force, violence, or threats against an operator or passenger.
Felony carjacking prosecutions in Southfield fall under Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald's office, which frequently adds felony firearm charges that carry mandatory two-year consecutive prison sentences under Michigan law when a weapon is involved, according to Oakland County. Michigan law requires that felony firearm sentences be served consecutively to the underlying felony conviction.
Southfield's Recent History With Carjackings and Vehicle Crimes
This is not the first violent carjacking Southfield Police have worked in recent years. In February 2025, officers arrested a 19-year-old suspect on 10 felony counts, including carjacking, after a driveway carjacking touched off a pursuit in which an officer struck the armed suspect with a cruiser to disarm a 3D-printed assault weapon, FOX 2 Detroit reported at the time. Barren noted then that carjacking incidents were relatively rare in Southfield.
A month later, in March 2025, Southfield Police arrested four individuals and obtained felony charges against two Ypsilanti residents following an overnight attempted vehicle theft on Berkshire Drive that involved a brief chase and a police PIT maneuver, according to ClickOnDetroit. Officers recovered one stolen vehicle and disabled a second fleeing vehicle in that incident.
License Plate Readers Help Track Stolen Cars Across County Lines
Regional agencies assisting Southfield Police frequently rely on Flock Safety automated license plate reader technology to trace stolen vehicles once they leave the city. That system led to the December 2025 arrest of two suspects in Monroe County who were found with a vehicle carjacked in Southfield, according to CBS News. Cameras detected that stolen sedan less than 24 hours after the carjacking occurred, per the same report.
Southfield is an Oakland County suburb of Detroit with roughly 76,000 residents, anchored by the 2.2 million-square-foot Southfield Town Center office complex, according to Niche. The city borders Detroit along 8 Mile Road.
A Department With a History of Reopening Old Cases
The newly announced carjacking charges add to a pattern of Southfield Police revisiting long-standing unsolved cases using forensic advances and sustained investigative work. In April, the department announced an arrest in a 1997 cold-case homicide, solving the murder of a General Motors technician using forensic fingernail scrapings, as Hoodline previously reported. Barren has also led press briefings on other major cases in Southfield this year, including a murder suspect ruled fit for trial in the Tahiry Broom killing.
Details on the suspect charged in this latest carjacking case, along with the specific date of the original crime and the exact counts filed, have not yet been released beyond Barren's public remarks. Southfield Police have not indicated whether further arrests are expected as the case moves through the Oakland County court system.
