PORT ANGELES – Local police officials are reacting to new crime statistics released this week.
The Washington State Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs issued it report on crime rates for last year.
In 2022 vehicle theft increased statewide by 34.1 % and robberies increased by 18%. In Port Angeles, vehicle theft increased by 65.3%, a one-year record increase for this type of crime. Burglary increased 69.5%, theft increased 31.0 %, robbery increased 33.3% and destruction of property increased by 26.8%.
In 2022, Port Angeles saw a 27% per cent increase in reported aggravated assault, a 14.5% increase in reported simple assault and a 14% increase in reported sexual assault. WASPC reports a statewide violent crime increase of 8.9% in 2022.
The report also showed a continued drop in the number of law enforcement officers statewide, with Washington at the lowest per capita rate in the country for a 13th straight year.
Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith says his agency is fully staffed for the first time in years. However, it is still below the state average. Smith says an additional three officers would make a dramatic difference in responding to crime locally.
“We’re at about 1.3 and the state average is like 1.67, I think, and that’s dropped. And if we were at the state average, which everybody says is 51st is really low, that would be about three more officers for us; which would be like winning the lottery in terms of our ability to be proactive. So, we have a ways to go to have Staffing that’s consistent with our needs and the crime that the community experiences. And one of the pieces of this is a crime number isn’t just a number, it represents a victim. It represents a person who is victimized whether it’s property crime or whether it’s violent crime,” said Smith.
Clallam County Sheriff Brian King agreed. He says six more deputies would be great.
“Today if I had another six, deputies, that’s a whole new team and it’s something that I’ve envisioned for many years. I hope it becomes a reality during my tenure as sheriff is to have an actual proactive Sheriff’s team of four to six deputies, actually go out into the community and specifically address a problem at the direction of the sheriff. If they didn’t have that call responsibility, if they weren’t conducting major investigations, if I had that ability to have this proactive team to go out there every day and I direct them to say, ‘hey here’s our problem neighborhood, or here’s our problem area I need to go out there and solve some problems,’ I think we would go a long way,” said King.
Unincorporated Clallam County saw its crime rates remain relatively flat from 2021 to 2022.