In April 1942, four months after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy picked a patch of Davis County farmland roughly equidistant from every major West Coast port and started building a supply depot. Eleven months and $25.5 million later, it was the largest naval supply depot on Earth. That depot became Clearfield, and car insurance here still carries the marks of that industrial history.
The Navy closed the depot in 1962. A year later it reopened as the Freeport Center, a tax-free warehousing district built on the same 841 acres. More than 70 companies and upwards of 7,000 workers now move freight through it every weekday, and that traffic pattern is a big part of why Clearfield prices differently than a typical Davis County suburb.
A City Built Around Two Gates
Clearfield sits at the West Gate of Hill Air Force Base, one of the base's primary entry points for a workforce that runs close to 20,000 military and civilian employees. Shift changes send a wave of commuter traffic through Clearfield streets twice a day, on top of whatever the city's own roughly 35,000 residents are already driving.
Stack the Freeport Center's freight trucks and forklift traffic on top of that base commute, and Clearfield ends up with two independent sources of heavy vehicle volume feeding the same handful of arterial streets — a different profile than a commuter suburb that only has to absorb one.
Where the Theft Numbers Actually Sit
Clearfield's vehicle theft rate comes in around 1.44 incidents per 1,000 residents, enough to place the city in the 34th percentile nationally for that specific risk — about two out of three U.S. cities see less of it. Property crime overall also runs above the national rate here, even though Clearfield's broader crime index sits well below the U.S. average.
- Central Clearfield: the highest concentration of reported vehicle theft in the city
- West Clearfield: theft odds run meaningfully lower, closer to the safer end of the range
- Citywide property crime: above the national average even as violent crime stays comparatively low
That split matters for comprehensive coverage specifically — the part of a policy that pays for theft and vandalism claims — since insurers underwrite by ZIP code, not by a city's overall reputation.
The State Minimum Still Applies
None of that history changes what Utah requires. Clearfield drivers carry the same 30/65/25 liability minimum and $3,000 PIP floor as everyone else in the state, since Utah runs on a no-fault system where your own policy pays your medical bills first, regardless of fault. Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage stays optional here too — Utah is one of the few no-fault states that doesn't require it automatically.
Not sure whether that PIP floor covers a real emergency room visit, or whether the state minimum leaves you underinsured against your own vehicle's value? Our minimum vs. full coverage guide walks through the math.
What Clearfield Drivers Should Actually Do
- Keep comprehensive coverage: Clearfield's theft numbers, especially near the center of the city, make this worth more here than in a lower-theft suburb.
- Ask about a ZIP-specific quote: west-side addresses report meaningfully lower theft odds than central Clearfield.
- Add uninsured motorist coverage: Utah doesn't include it by default, and roughly 6.2% of Utah drivers carry none at all.
- Confirm your PIP limit: $3,000 covers very little of a real collision-related ER bill.
The Freeport Center isn't going anywhere, and neither is the West Gate traffic that comes with living next to Hill Air Force Base. Pricing a policy around what Clearfield's streets actually carry — freight, shift-change commuters, and an uneven theft map — gets closer to a fair quote than assuming the city's quiet reputation tells the whole story.