Car thefts, DUIs, and commercial burglaries – these are just some of the crimes that the Enumclaw Police Department saw increase in 2022 over the previous year.
The EPD releases its annual crime stats every February, showcasing how many crimes were reported in the last year, as well as how many arrests were made, how many infractions were issued, and how many 911 calls were received.
Overall, law enforcement dealt with more than 7,350 various crimes and incidents in 2022, close to a thousand more than in 2021.
This includes crimes from assault and theft to vandalism, but also parking complaints, suspicious person/situation reports, and “other offences” – civil standbys, information reports, firearm surrenders, paper services, citizen assists, bail collections, found property, custody disputes, and more – which make up the vast majority of police responses in the city.
In fact, “other offenses” and suspicious person/situation report incidents combined increased by nearly 700 from 2021 to 2022, which goes to mostly explain the increase in total incidents between the two years.
Conversely, more serious crimes like assault and theft were down in 2022 from the previous year overall.
Still, total adult arrests increased in 2022, jumping from 155 to 267, and bookings at the jail (both from EPD and outside agencies) also increased from 438 to 585.
Booking has increased in part due to the increased arrests, but also because COVID restrictions on jail capacity were lifted last year.
DRIVE SOBER OR GET PULLED OVER
Though DUIs ultimately made up about 1% of everything the EPD dealt with this last year, the numbers of DUIs increased from 17 in 2021 to 79 in 2022, a more than 364% increase.
According to Commander Mike Graddon, this is largely due to an increased number of people coming to town to party.
“We’ve seen a huge spike in alcohol consumption,” he said, noting that it’s contributed to other increases in crime, too, like barfights and officer assaults. In 2021, there was only one officer assault by an intoxicated individual – last year, there was five. “We’re seeing it across the board.”
The EPD has also been participating in a Safe Streets program, where officers will pick streets to patrol based on complaints and crash data, which contributed to both the rise in DUI arrests and general traffic infractions.
VIOLENT CRIMES CONTINUE DOWNWARD TREND
Crimes like rape and assault have been generally decreasing over the last nine years, with 2022 setting a new record low.
There were a total of 55 various violent crimes in the previous year. Most were simple domestic violence assaults (25) or simple assaults (22). There were also three robberies, two cases of intimidation, and one case of an aggravated assault.
To round out the year, there was also one case of sexual assault with an object and one case of forcible rape.
There were 68 violent crimes tallied in 2021; 77 in 2020; 72 in 2019; 71 in 2018; 83 in 2017; 81 in 2016; 100 in 2015; and 107 in 2014.
Adding in 2022 data, the average of violent crimes per year has dropped from just about 82 to just over 79.
“This area has enjoyed very low violent crime rates,” Graddon said, adding that most violent crimes happen off the I-5 corridor. “A lot of that is attributed to low income housing, mass transit, 24-hour businesses, hotels and motels – that all feeds into those types of crimes around drugs, prostitution, violent crimes. The further you get away from that I-5 corridor, you see less and less crime.”
AN INCREASE IN THEFTS
Unlike violent crimes, there doesn’t appear to be a pattern of rising or falling burglary, theft, and fraud rates in Enumclaw over the years.
Last year saw an increase over 2021, but it doesn’t fall outside the realm what’s historically normal in the city.
“We have some increase in commercial burglaries. I’d say a lot of that is contributed to drug abuse,” Graddon said.
Notably, there were 56 motor vehicle thefts last year, up from the 30 recorded in 2021. However, the number of thefts from vehicles remained more-or-less constant (57 in 2022, and 58 in 2021), and theft of car parts fell marginally (31 to 29).
The number of reported shoplifts and thefts from buildings also fell.
The number of commercial burglaries increased from 13 in 2021 to 21 last year, while the number of reported residential burglaries remained the same at 11.
As for fraud, there were no cases of impersonation reported last year, down from the seven reported in 2021. Interestingly, an increase of “confidence games” were reported, from 19 to 23.
In total, there were 309 various burglaries, thefts, and fraud cases reported in 2022.
This is up from the 289 reports in 2021, but less than the 351 reported in 2020.
Adding in 2022 data, the nine-year average number of various thefts per year is about 314.
