Crime in Washington 2007
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WASHINGTON STATE UNIFORM CRIME REPORT is prepared by Criminal Justice Information Support Staff: Linda Schaffel, CJIS Manager Tonya Todd, Document Imager Kellie Lapczynski, Statistical Compiler THE WASHINGTON STATE UNIFORM CRIME REPORTING PROJECT IS A COOPERATIVE EFFORT OF: WASHINGTON ASSOCIATION OF WASHINGTON STATE CRIMINAL SHERIFFS AND POLICE CHIEFS JUSTICE TRAINING COMMISSION 3060 Willamette Dr. NE 19010 – 1st Avenue South Lacey, WA 98516 Seattle, WA 98148 Phone: (360) 486-2380 Phone: (206) 835-7300 Fax: (360) 486-2381 Fax: (206) 439-3752 Website: www.waspc.org Website: www.cjtc.state.wa.us Donald G. Pierce, Michael D. Parsons, Ph. D., Executive Director Executive Director Front cover designed by Tonya Todd. CRIME IN WASHINGTON STATE - 2007 SUMMARY RATE OF INDEX CRIME - Index crimes in Washington State totaled 280,538 for 2007, constituting 43.3 offenses per 1,000 persons. This represents a decrease of 10.2% in the index crime rate over 2006. POPULATION - **The estimated population in Washington for 2007 was 6,488,000 as compared to 6,375,600 for 2006. This represents a 1.76% increase. VIOLENT CRIME - Violent crime offenses are murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Reported violent crime offenses totaled 21,409 for 2007. The violent crime rate per 1,000 persons for 2007 is 3.30, which is a decrease of 3.8% compared to 2006. While simple assault can be violent, it is not generally serious in nature therefore is excluded from the categorization of violent crime for this publication. PROPERTY CRIME - Property crime offenses are burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Reported property crime offenses totaled 259,129 for 2007. The property crime rate per 1,000 persons for 2007 is 40.0, which is a decrease of 10.6% compared to 2006. VALUE OF PROPERTY STOLEN AND RECOVERED - Property valued at $354,106,974 was reported stolen in 2007. Of this amount, $138,922,219 or 39.2% was recovered. The value of property stolen shows a decrease of 13.0% over 2006. NUMBER OF LAW ENFORCE MENT OFFICERS KILLED OR ASSAULTED- One law enforcement officer killed accidentally while in the line of duty. A total of 924 law enforcement officers were assaulted during the year. Assaults on officers decreased 9.5% when compared to 2006 with 1,021 officer assaults reported for that year. RATE OF CRIME CLEARANCES - There was an 18.2% clearance rate for all index crimes reported in 2007. The clearance rate for 2006 was 16.1%. ARRESTS - A total of *265,050 arrests were made in 2007 constituting an increase of 3.7% over the year 2006. DRUG ABUSE ARRESTS - There were *30,992 reported drug abuse arrests. Of this number, 9.9% were persons under 18 years of age. DUI ARRESTS - A total of *38,656 arrests were made for DUI, which constituted 14.6% of the total arrests reported in 2007. This percentage represents the arrests of 38,024 adults and 632 juveniles. LAW ENFORCEMENT EMPLOYEES - In 2007 there were 14,873 full-time law enforcement employees in the State of Washington. Of these, there were 10,541 commissioned officers, which is an increase of 0.9% over 2006. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - There were 48,102 domestic violence offenses including simple assault and violation of protection/no contact orders. This was a decrease of 3.9% over 2006. A total of 246 law enforcement agencies participated in this data collection. HATE/BIAS CRIME - There were 201 reported hate bias crime incidents by 262 participating law enforcement agencies. This represents an increase of 15.6% over 2006. Of the 201 incidents, there were 252 hate/bias offenses. It is important to remember that there can be more than one offense within a single incident. Of 262 reporting agencies, 205 reported that there was no hate crime activity in their jurisdiction. ** Source: Office of Financial Management, Forecasting Division 2007 Population Trends for Washington State ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CRIME IN WASHINGTON STATE 2007 was compiled from data submitted to the Washington Uniform Crime Reporting program of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs by Washington State Law Enforcement agencies during 2007. Coverage is 99.8% of the state population. This report would not be possible without the voluntary cooperation of Washington State’s law enforcement agencies. Additionally, input and guidance from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs WUCR/NIBRS Committee is gratefully acknowledged. INTRODUCTION This is the twenty-eighth annual report of criminal offenses, arrests, law enforcement officers killed or assaulted, and full-time law enforcement employees produced by the Washington Uniform Crime Reporting Program (WUCR). Funding for WUCR is provided by a contract agreed upon with the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC). Administration of WUCR is the responsibility of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC). WUCR is unique in that it is the only state UCR program which is sponsored, administered and supported by an organization of contributing agency administrators, rather than a bureau or department of state government. WASHINGTON UNIFORM CRIME REPORTING PROGRAM Although the impetus for collecting nationwide crime information dates back to the 1890's, no ongoing program was initiated until the committee on uniform crime records of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) was established in 1917. This committee's responsibility to provide management information to law enforcement agencies was eventually turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1930, when the FBI received a congressional mandate to collect and disseminate national crime information. The IACP has continued to serve the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) in an advisory capacity and has been joined in this responsibility by the National Sheriffs Association. Data for Crime in Washington State 2007 are compiled from monthly Summary UCR reports submitted by individual law enforcement agencies throughout the State of Washington. WUCR was activated in October 1979 and began the collection of monthly reports from contributing agencies in January 1980. At the present time, the UCR program is operated on a semi-annual and computerized basis. The computer program is designed to provide automated data input processing and provides various programs that are necessary for statistical purposes in the criminal justice system. OBJECTIVES OF WASHINGTON'S UCR Increasing attention has been focused on the problem of crime in our communities in recent years. Because of this attention, many segments of our population need more complete information for a variety of reasons. Citizens are understandably concerned about the possibility of becoming victims of crime but may not know what the real probability is. Law enforcement professionals, managers and administrators who must focus on crime in their own jurisdictions, also need to know what is occurring in surrounding jurisdictions in order to deploy personnel and equipment more efficiently to protect citizens and bring criminals to justice. Legislators need statewide information about crime in order to pass realistic laws that will increase the stability of our society. Researchers and planners need to know what is actually happening to predict trends and recommend changes. The objectives of Crime in Washington State 2007 are to implement and administer a uniform system of WASPC 1 Crime in Washington 2007 collecting crime and arrest statistical data from contributing law enforcement agencies in the State of Washington and present the information needed by each of these groups. This information will not in itself prevent crime, but it may encourage segments of society to understand the problem and to work together with law enforcement agencies to reduce crime. Additional objectives of Crime in Washington State 2007 when compiled and evaluated are: 1. To identify the number of crimes reported by contributing agencies. 2. To identify the geographical distribution of reported offenses. 3. To determine whether or not reported crimes have increased or decreased. 4. To determine whether or not reported crimes have increased or decreased by population groups. 5. To determine the number of clearances and the clearance rate for reported offenses. 6. To determine the reported number of arrests by charge, age, sex and race. 7. To determine the number of law enforcement officers assaulted and killed. 8. To determine the number of commissioned (sworn) and civilian law enforcement employees by sex. 9. To determine the rate per population group of commissioned (sworn) and civilian law enforcement employees. CRIME FACTORS Care should be taken in drawing conclusions and making decisions about problems based solely on crime and arrest data that is reported to WUCR. Factors relating to crime reporting practices, law enforcement policies, population characteristics and attitudes all contribute to variation in reported data. Some general factors which may affect the amount of crime reported and type of crime committed are: 1. The density and size of the community population and of its surrounding area. 2. The variations in composition of the population, particularly to age. 3. The economic status, education and recreation characteristics of the community population. 4. The stability of population with respect to residents' mobility, commuting patterns, and transient factors. 5. The climate, including seasonal weather conditions, and other geographical variations. 6. The religious characteristics of the