Lacey Police Chief Robert Almada reported that in 2022, the City of Lacey experienced crimes at the rate of 60.8 per 1,000 residents. This marked a 4.4% uptick compared to the 2017-2021 period but remained below the state average of 675 per 1,000 residents.
The city’s crime is also lower compared to its neighboring cities. According to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), Olympia’s crime rate for 2022 was 87.5 per 1,000 residents, and Tumwater’s was 66.8.
The NIBRS crime rates are the number of crimes recorded per 1,000 residents in a certain jurisdiction.
“We’re doing good, that’s the trend that I can see…Overall we're staying fairly consistent,” said Almada during the city council’s work session on Thursday, October 12.
Almada said the city’s crime rate for violent crimes, which include robberies and assaults, is 2.25 per 1,000 residents, which is still lower than the state’s averageof 4.1 per 1,000 residents.
For non-violent crimes, Almada said larceny is the biggest contributor. In 2022, there were 1,389 reports of larceny in the city, which includes a variety of thefts. This is a 12.3% increase from 2021, with 1,237 recorded reports.
There were 270 reports of burglary in 2022, which involved breaking into a structure. Almada said approximately 60% of the reports involve commercial burglary.
Almada also reported that the police successfully retrieved 80% of the reported stolen vehicles in 2022, despite there being 271 auto theft reports.
“They're just using them for getting from point A to point B to commit crime versus stealing them to strip them for parts,” said Almada.
Almada said auto thefts increased 97.5% increase from 2021; he said that changes in the state law regarding high-speed pursuit impacted proactive policing in such incidents.
There was also a significant increase in domestic violence, from 23 reports in 2021 to 41 in 2022.
During the same meeting, Almada lamented the declining police staffing ratios amid the growing population in the city. The police chief noted that this problem is seen nationwide, statewide and regionwide.
“We are definitely impacted,” said Almada.
Almada said that as of 2022, the police staffing rate of Lacey, which is the number of officers per 1,000 residents, is at 0.98%. This is below the state average of 1.36%
With the current population of Lacey and with 67 authorized staffing positions for the police department, Almada said the rate would be at 1.15%, which is still below the state average.
“[We have] 30% reduced staffing, that's about as far as I can go without starting to affect services,” said the police chief.
Almada said they are streamlining the hiring process of police officers but still notes that it takes “a long time to replace police officers.”
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Honestyandrealityguy
Better. But not good. Crime is taking over.
Monday, October 16, 2023 Report this
BobJacobs
How can the stat average crime rate be over ten times that of Lacey?
Does the author not know that just two years' data is not very helpful.
The chief says he can have 30% reduced staffing without affecting services. But he needs more staff??
Tuesday, October 17, 2023 Report this
Disappointed
Bob Jacobs, I'm guessing that the reporter missed a decimal point--state average is likely 67.5 per 1000 residents, not 675.
Tuesday, October 17, 2023 Report this
ejpoleii
Lacey, if you want to have any chance of not becoming Olympia, vote for Lenny Greenstein and Ed Kunkel.
Tuesday, October 17, 2023 Report this