Community Safety Action Strategy
A comprehensive, long-term approach to community safety that goes beyond policing and crime enforcement.
We've heard from you that safety means more than just the absence of crime. It's about being connected to your neighbors, enjoying clean streets, providing safe places for youth, and supporting local families and businesses.
A Collaborative Effort to Improve Racial Justice and Equity in Tacoma
Like our Affordable Housing Action Strategy - City of Tacoma this initiative encourages collaboration between residents, businesses, community organizations, law enforcement, and government agencies.
Community safety is a key driver of Racial Justice and Equity in Tacoma, and to make sure this strategy reflects the voices of all residents, we'll work together through partnerships and data to support anti-racist policies, programs, and systems.
A Shared Vision for Safety
What we heard formed Tacoma’s vision for community safety: In Tacoma, we collaborate to make healthy and vibrant neighborhoods and places where everyone can feel safe. We invest in people and prevention to create a sense of belonging. We respond with care and respect to many different community safety needs. We support healing and repair, helping everyone thrive together.
Everyone in Tacoma deserves to feel safe. However, residents experience safety differently. For example, according to the 2022 Tacoma Community Survey:
- Black residents feel 50% less safe than white residents.
- Hispanic individuals were more likely than the population average to be very or somewhat fearful that they might be affected by crime (88%).
- Respondents with household income greater than $100,000 were more likely to rate their overall feeling of safety as very or somewhat safe (85%), and those with household income between $50,000 to $99,999 were less likely to feel safe (59%).
- Individuals who were aged 34 years or younger were more likely to have been affected by crime than the population average (56%), and those aged 64 or older were less likely (19%).
- White individuals were less likely to have been affected by crime (34%) and Hispanic individuals more likely (69%).
Individuals who rented their homes were more likely to have been affected by crime (59%) and those who owned their homes were less likely (35%)