This story was originally published on MyNorthwest.com.
Crime rates dropped overall in Washington last year compared to the year before, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC).
WASPC’s new report found that the murder rate — though still higher than pre-pandemic levels — dropped by 18.8% between 2023 and 2024. Property crimes, which include car thefts and vandalism, declined 13.4%, while violent crime decreased 7.6%.
“This is a good trend and we think it has a lot to do with allowing law enforcement, and supporting law enforcement, to do the important work of holding people accountable for crime,” Kent Police Chief and WASPC Vice President Rafael Padilla said.
Padilla also credited recent changes in Washington’s law. He pointed out that car thefts increased dramatically after the state legislature placed strict limits on police pursuits in 2021, but began to decline after lawmakers loosened those restrictions in 2024.
And he actually sees the 31% increase in drug and firearms violations, which are categorized as “crimes against society,” as a positive sign.
“It is an indication that we are out back enforcing the law and holding people accountable,” he shared.
What led to Washington’s murder rate dropping
In 2021, the Washington State Supreme Court tossed out the state’s drug possession law, declaring it unconstitutional. In 2023, the Washington State Legislature passed a new law making drug possession a gross misdemeanor and giving law enforcement tools, Padilla said.
“The ability to take action and at least have an interaction where someone may be compelled to get help,” he said. “It’s also reducing the violence we see, and the secondary crime that we see, with open drug use and drug trafficking in particular.”
Though crime statistics are trending in the right direction, the WASPC report indicates there’s still work to be done.
Crimes against persons — half of which are domestic cases — ticked down only slightly, by .08%. Of the total arrests made between 2023 and 2024, 5.6% were juveniles.
“For a lot of communities, it still feels like things are unsafe. A lot of parents, they feel like their kids can’t safely go to a bus shelter or walk to school. We don’t want to discount those feelings, and collectively in the state, your law enforcement professionals are committed to doing even more,” Padilla said.
But law enforcement agencies in Washington State continue to do more with less. The report shows that out of 50 states and the District of Columbia, Washington ranked last for the number of officers per person: a statistic that hasn’t changed for more than a decade.
The rate of police per 1,000 civilians is 1.38 while the national average is 2.31.
“Imagine what we could do if we right-sized our law enforcement staff?” Padilla asked
He said it would put agencies in a position to not only respond to crimes, but to increase their presence in communities to prevent them.
Read more of Heather Bosch’s stories here.
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