By Dennis Box

The Courier-Herald

Bonney Lake Police Department crime statistics showed both good and bad news.

Crime in 2005 was up 9.8 percent compared to 2004, but the report pointed out the numbers were down from the high mark in 2002.

The total number of reports in 2005 were 3,198, compared with 3,131 in 2004.

The categories measured in the Uniform Crime Report evaluation were homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft and auto theft.

For 2005, the total crimes reported was 787; in 2004 it was 718 and in 2002, 894.

In 2005 there were no homicides reported, but there were three rapes, six robberies, 185 assaults, 98 burglaries, 412 thefts, 78 auto thefts and five arson cases.

The report also notes 3,914 traffic infractions were issued, along with 472 criminal traffic citations and 630 misdemeanor citations.

A few categories took significant jumps from the previous year. Domestic violence hiked by 24.12 percent from 112 in 2004 to 139 in 2005. Aggravated assault went from five cases reported in 2004 to 29 last year, an increase of 480 percent.

Juvenile arrest jumped 112 percent from 50 in 2004 to 106 in 2005.

Misdemeanor and felony arrests rose to 488 adults arrested in 2005 from 404 the previous year.

Interim Police Chief Buster McGehee said 2005 was a &#8220benchmark year” in terms of gathering statistics.

&#8220I'm a data person,” McGehee said. &#8220I was surprised by how much we do. In many small communities officers go out of their way to write reports because there's nothing else to do. Not in Bonney Lake, there's too much to do.”

The chief also said he was surprised at he amount of activity at Allan Yorke and the number of &#8220troublemakers from other areas at the park.”

Some of the more high profile cases over the year, McGehee said, included breaking a burglary and car theft ring with 200 stolen items recovered and 22 stolen vehicles and a child abuse case involving zip-tied children where a stepmother received an eight-year sentence and the biological father a three-month term in jail and three months home detention.

The report cited the investigations unit worked on nearly 300 cases and solved about 30 percent, which is equal to the national average.

The chief said next year he intends to focus on training for sergeants and &#8220budget more money for supervisory training.”

The department has 24 officers including the chief, one lieutenant and five sergeants.

Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@courierherald.com.