Tacoma's violent crime reduction plan shows positive results after 1st year
Tacoma sees progress with violent crime reduction plan
After a steep increase in violent crimes in recent years, Tacoma is making significant progress towards becoming a safer city.
TACOMA, Wash. - After a steep increase in violent crimes in recent years, Tacoma is making significant progress towards becoming a safer city.
On Tuesday, Police Chief Avery Moore and a team of researchers presented a years-worth of results from their Violent Crime Reduction Plan.
Tacoma Police Department began enforcing the plan in 2022. With results from July 2022 to June 2023, the city saw a 17.5% reduction in violent crimes.
"We have reduced crime," said Moore. "Rest assured that we, the Tacoma Police Department, are working and are committed to reducing crime in this city."
The police chief and researchers from the University of Texas at San Antonio created the crime reduction plan to address rampant violence hitting record levels in Tacoma.
"The trend has been reversed," said Dr. Michael Smith, with University of Texas at San Antonio.
During the one-year period, an area of enforcement included officers conducting "hotspot" treatments at known locations where crime was highest. Officials said those patrols proved to be effective.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Tacoma enters new year under 'Crime Reduction Plan'
"15 to 16 hot spots per 60-day period," explained Smith. "Violent crime is down about 26% across all of our treatment locations."
In the same time frame, researchers said Tacoma saw a 26.7% reduction in murders.
"We all recognize that while the numbers are good, we’ve had a rough week—a rough couple of weeks—and that one homicide is too many in the City of Tacoma," said city council member Kristina Walker.
In October and so far in November this year, there were seven shootings across the city. Only one of them was not deadly.
"The last couple of weeks haven’t been very good, as far as crime. And I don’t want this to appear that we are being insensitive to victims," said Moore.
On Nov. 5, five people were shot inside a business, killing two. The police chief said the promising news is the suspect in that homicide, and other offenders in Tacoma, are getting arrested.
"Citywide drug arrests are up. Citywide weapon arrests are up. And the point I make is we’re making a lot of arrests, a lot of great arrests," said Moore. "We’re just doing it not necessarily associated to the crime plan, but really, it’s that we’ve made significant arrests with racing and speeding. Many of them have weapons, drugs, et cetera. We’ve done several drug related arrests with FBI, DEA, et cetera."
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Tacoma Police say 'hotspot' patrols reduced violent crime by 30% in targeted areas
Phase 1 of the three-phase violent crime reduction plan is complete. Officials said though data shows violent crime is going down, it remains substantially higher than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
"While violent crime went down about 18% during the first year of the crime plan compared to the year before, that 18% reduction, still, is a total that is significantly higher than when it was back in 2019," said Smith. "There’s still a lot of work left to be done with reducing violent crime in Tacoma. The good news is that the trend is moving in the right direction."
Moore said the department just started Phase 2 of the plan. This includes a deeper focus on Hosmer Street. An operations plan was developed to address crime on the historically-challenged street.
"I’ve talked to a lot of residents out there. They have noticed a significant difference on Hosmer Street. And I think this crime plan is a big part of that. They notice a lot of the additional officers out there," said city council member Joe Bushnell, who represents Hosmer Street.