Sisters of murdered woman hope Tacoma's new crime reduction plan leads to arrest of shooter
Hotspot patrols to arrest offenders in crime-prone areas in Tacoma
Tacoma Police now have their eyes on commercial places and surrounding areas they say are magnets for violent crime throughout the city. FOX 13's Franque Thompson takes a closer look at the crime reduction plan to make Tacoma a safer city.
TACOMA, Wash. - Tacoma Police have their eyes on businesses and hotspots around the city they say are magnets for violent crime. It’s one of many measures in the Tacoma Police Department Crime Reduction Plan towards a safer city.
The sisters of 25-year-old Astina Messieur said they hope the plan will help lead to an arrest in her murder.
"I see all over the news this person’s killer being found, or this person’s killer being found. And my sister was killed in April and there’s still no leads, no nothing. And it’s like nothing is done—that’s what it feels like to me and my family," said Adia Messieur, Astina’s older sister.
The goal of the crime reduction plan is to get criminals off the street and prevent future violence that has claimed the lives of 25 people this year, including Astina. The plan works to identify crime-prone places, arrest offenders and get to the root of the underlying conditions causing the crime.
Police Chief Avery Moore and a team of criminologists identified violent addresses throughout the city, where officers are now conducting hotspot patrols. As part of the hotspot patrols, officers park their patrol cars and flash their lights for 15 minutes during times of day when crimes are committed based on data. Moore and the team of criminologists will review the hotspot results and strategic plan every 90 days.
"It is really to deter behavior, change behavior and arrest just those that need to be arrested," said Moore.
Though the police department said it can’t reveal where those violent addresses are, Astina’s sisters said they noticed an increased police presence in their neighborhood on South Hosmer Street, the same street where the mother of two was shot and killed in a parking lot on April 12.
"Finding her killer and having whoever it was arrested and us getting justice, it’s not going to bring her back. But it is going to give us some type of peace knowing that the person that murdered our sister is no longer on the streets. My niece and nephew don’t have to worry, ‘Oh, who was it that killed my mom?’" said Messieur.
Criminologists found 12% of violent "street crimes" like murder, robbery and aggravated assault mostly occur at commercial establishments in Tacoma. This includes shopping centers, malls, convenience stores and multifamily dwellings. South Hosmer Street has several of those kind of establishments—an area that has a reputation for trouble.
"It is possible both that a hotspot can remain cool for an extended period of time. Sometimes multiple treatment periods. It’s also possible that a hotspot can reemerge as a hotspot. Every city has places, that if you talk to community members or you talk to the cops, they can all tell you this is the spot or this is the neighborhood, this is the street corner, this is the business, that sometimes these have been problematic for years at a time. It’s unrealistic to think that 90-day treatment is going to fix that problem. And so, some hotspots may carry over from treatment period to treatment period. It’s also possible that they will no longer be hot, but they may reemerge three to six, nine months later. So, that’s what the analysis is designed to uncover," said Mike Smith, criminologist with University of Texas at San Antonio.
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Astina’s family said they worry her case hasn’t received the attention it deserves because of the location.
"It’s more and more stress that’s getting put on me and my sister, and we’re literally the only ones left," said Jeanette Messieur, Astina’s younger sister. "It’s not going to go unanswered. Whether it’s me and my family that are going to do something about it, or the police or the detectives. Something is going to be done."
Now that hotspot patrols are happening throughout the city, it could help investigators track down who killed the mother of two.
"We want people to come forward and we want to hear our sister’s name. We don’t want her case to go cold," said the eldest Messieur sister. "We want what everybody else who has had a family member murdered in Tacoma—everybody else has justice. They see their family member’s killer behind bars and that’s what we want."
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In order for the crime reduction plan to be effective, Mayor Victoria Woodards said the community is going to have to speak up.
"If you’re not reporting, that makes it difficult for us to have the right data," said Mayor Woodards. "If we don’t know the crime is happening… if you don’t want to call 911, call the non-emergency number, fill out a report to make sure we have all of this data, because it’s not data that we can collect on our own."