SHORELINE — Crime is up in some areas and down in others, but Shoreline’s police chief remains optimistic that the police department is headed in the right direction.
The police department’s annual crime report, which spans 2005, indicates that Shoreline continues to have a lower crime rate than most cities in the area.
Some types of crime, however, such as property crimes and auto theft have risen while others, such as violent crimes against people, have tapered off.
“At the end of the year, we sat back and looked at the results,” said police chief Tony Burtt. “By and large, it was a pretty successful year for us in terms of policing.”
The city of Shoreline contracts with the King County Sheriff’s Office for police services. The report highlights crime trends, crime prevention efforts and citizen satisfaction with police service.
Police department staff mapped out what they would like to see accomplished in terms of lowering crime in 2005, said Burtt. Once problem areas were identified, strategies were developed.
“As a police agency, we rededicated ourselves in proactive areas,” Burtt said. “We increased our focus on auto thefts and burglaries.”
An area which showed a large decrease was auto collisions, with 555 collisions. This is a five-year-low, said Burtt, who speculated the low collision rate was due to more citations issued. Preliminary data for 2006, which covers the beginning of the year through July, shows some positive trends, Burtt said.
So far in 2006, traffic citations are up by 45 percent and traffic accidents are down 20 percent, Burtt said, which is likely due to an additional traffic enforcement officer and restructured patrol hours that focus on rush hours and school zone enforcement. Auto thefts and burglaries also are down by 11 percent, Burtt said.
“The fact that it is down at all is incredible,” Burtt said about the auto theft rate in preliminary 2006 data.
The decrease in auto thefts so far this year is likely attributed to a new division in the King County Prosecutor’s office which processes auto theft cases and a new computer system installed in patrol cars that allows officers to quickly type in a license number instead of calling a dispatch center. The system allows officers to check more license plates than ever before, Burtt said.
“Almost not a day goes by that I don’t see a copy of a report where an officer made an arrest on an auto theft suspect,” said Burtt, who added that most auto thieves are male adults between the ages of 18 and 25.
The burglary rate through July 2006, when compared to the same time last year has shown a “pretty huge decline,” Burtt said, for both residential and commercial burglaries. Most burglaries occur during the daytime when people are at work, he said.
The report was presented to the Shoreline City Council on Aug. 28.
Deputy mayor Maggie Fimia was concerned with the high burglary rate in 2005 and requested more data, such as demographics on suspects who are arrested for burglary.
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