'We're all living in fear:' Federal Way community members say they're fed up about crime
FEDERAL WAY, WA - Federal Way community members say they are fed up with crime.
"We're all living in fear and that’s not a fun way to live your life," says Federal Way resident Donna Arnold.
Arnold has lived in Federal Way for 30 years. She’s raised her family here, but these days, she says it doesn’t feel like a place you want to call home.
"Right now we don't feel safe going to any restaurants or even shopping at Fred Meyer; we go to Milton to do our grocery shopping because we don't feel safe here."
Donna is part of a community Facebook page where she says the hot topic is crime, specifically armed robberies happening around town.
On Monday, the Federal Way Police Department posted on their Facebook page acknowledging that they’ve heard from folks about their concerns. The post also disclosed that in the last three weeks, a Starbucks, Safeway, Walgreens, and Papa Murphy’s pizza were hit.
Looking at the first three months of the year compared to the first three months of last year, Federal Way PD says crime is down 6% total. Assault is down, as is residential burglary, down by 30%. Drug offenses are down a whopping 76%.
But it’s not all positive. Motor vehicle theft is up 36%, and there have been seven more forcible sex offenses this year than last, and four more kidnappings. However, the crime many are focused on: robbery has stayed fairly consistent, with 36 cases last year and 38 this year.
"I’m not sure how confident I am of those stats, I don’t know. I just know how everyone feels and we're just tired of it."
Donna was surprised to learn the police department says there’s been such a minimal increase in robberies, and she says it doesn’t change anything for her. She and several other dozen community members are still planning to meet about the issue, before going to city officials about it.
"We’re going to try to come up with some kind of resolution and let them know that we're serious about it and we're willing to do whatever we need to do. We want to go with a plan and not just go and complain."
Federal Way Police tell us, while there hasn’t been a big uptick in robberies as it seems some community members have suspected, they say they’re still taking all of 38 cases they’ve had so far this year very seriously. They say they have investigators and analysts looking for similarities within cases and have increased patrol units, among other methods.