Seattle and Tacoma law enforcement leaders are talking about the data their agencies are putting out on crime. Seattle supports it’s data however Tacoma’s police union believes that the crime data for Tacoma is misleading. The pandemic created outlier data in the previous two years. Some experts are saying things are getting back to normal. Unfortunately, the number of violent crimes continues to climb in Seattle. The city is on pace for 5,504 violent crimes, clearing last year’s record-high of 5,412.
Many look at the violence of the late 80s and 90s for comparison. Tacoma recorded 35 homicides in 2022 – two more than the previous record in 1994 and 1988, according to annual reports from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. Homicides in those years were at the height of a crime wave fueled by gang violence, drugs, and drive-by shootings.
Tacoma Police Chief Avery Moore reported in a recent press conference that violent crime — murder, robbery, aggravated assault — is down 37% within Tacoma. That qualify as the sixth-lowest month of crime in the previous year. Seattle has witnessed a 13% drop in crime from January through October, according to SPD statistics.
Tacoma’s police union head didn’t provide data but said there are too many shootings in Tacoma to believe that crime is going down. Seattle’s Police head said they believe in their data. In SPD’s data, Seattle recently recorded the lowest amount of crime in a month since June 2021, with just 3,894 crimes logged in September 2022.
SPD Detective and Public Affairs Head Patrick Michaud said, “Our Data Driven Unit does an excellent job of vetting all statistics before publishing anything. We very rarely run into issues with the data. The department has worked very hard to build trust in the reporting process and as that work continues, people feel safe reporting crimes.”
