(The Center Square) – A recent presentation reveals that Yakima is seeing an overall drop in crime despite a worsening staff shortage issue.
Yakima Police Chief Matthew Murray presented the department’s 2023 year-end review to the Yakima City Council on Tuesday.
Murray emphasized preliminary data from the Uniform Crime Report Yakima that showed a decrease in crime throughout all categories, except for narcotics, through Dec. 20 of last year. This includes a 13% decrease in aggravated assault, 50% decrease in robberies and 26% drop in property damage.
The Yakima Police Department also responded to 6,042 incidents involving homeless people.
The department is down 24 police officers, creating a staffing crisis for Yakima.
“I just don’t have the staffing; we are tasking our people with more than we probably should,” Murray said at the city council meeting.
The city has eight police officers working throughout at a given time. Overnight it drops down to six officers. This has caused burnout for officers within the department.
The Yakima Police Department is also facing a budget deficit of $1.2 million that is anticipated to reach $1.38 million in 2025, according to Murray.
The two most notable types of crime that plague the city are gang violence and domestic violence. Yakima was ranked in the worst three communities in Washington state for domestic violence and had over 10,000 calls per year to the YWCA for help. Murray said the police department averages about 3,000 to 3,500 domestic violence cases a year, whereas the number of gang crime cases was about 300.
Still, Yakima has long been known as a city with a gang violence issue. In 2021, the Yakima sheriff and the Yakima county prosecutor partnered with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to launch a program that introduces strategies for focused gang deterrence. According to Murray, the model takes away the people who are most likely to shoot or be shot and reduces that list to 25 people and focus all attention on them.
The WAY program – otherwise known as the Walk About Yakima program – has had 86% of people deemed likely to shoot or be shot not have any more police contact, according to Murray.
Another statistic mentioned in the presentation is that 25% of all shootings in Yakima were done by five people.
“So if you can get those five people, you can make a huge difference when it comes to crime,” Murray said.
In 2021, the Yakima City Council approved the acquisition of Flock cameras, which are cameras that capture vehicle license plates. Since the cameras have been introduced, they have assisted in solving 11 homicides, 24 robberies, 52 police evasions, 56 weapon offenses, 78 hit and runs, 392 stolen or retrieved vehicles, according to the presentation to the city council.
By the end of 2024, the Yakima Police Department expects 87 Flock cameras to be used throughout the region. There were initially 30 in 2021.
