IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 7, 2023

MEDIA CONTACT

Shelbie Boyd, Tacoma Police Department Public Information Officer, sboyd@cityoftacoma.org, (253) 405-7134 

Tacoma Police Department Provides Violent Crime Reduction Plan Update

TACOMA, Wash. - The City Council received a briefing today on the latest data and results of the Tacoma Police Department’s Violent Crime Reduction Plan, which showed a continuation of the significant overall downward trend in the number of violent crimes compared to one year ago. The summary had the first twelve months of the plan, a discussion about ongoing efforts, and the next steps of the mid-term strategy.

The year-end results of these efforts (July 2022-July 2023) were:

• Tacoma experienced a 17.5 percent decrease in violent street crime incidents in Year 1 of the Crime Plan compared to the previous 12 months. Yearly violent crime counts remain substantially higher than they were before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Violent crime in treated hot spots was down more than 25 percent compared to the previous year, and it was down a similar amount in surrounding catchment areas, indicating that crime displacement did not occur due to the hot spot treatment. 
• Total arrests were up slightly city-wide and in hot spots during Year 1 of the Crime Plan, but violence-related arrests, drug arrests, and illegal weapons arrests were down 38 percent, 61 percent, and 7 percent, respectively, in the hot spot areas.
• Violence-related calls were down nearly 20 percent in the treated hot spots. 
• Taken together, the hot spot results, along with an interrupted time-series analysis of violent crime pre-and post-implementation of the Crime Plan, provide strong evidence that the Crime Plan’s focus on hot spots was likely responsible for a 17 percent reduction in city-wide violent crime compared to the previous year. 

The Tacoma Police Department has already begun working on the Mid-Term Strategy, including identifying initial locations (8810/8820 Hosmer Street) and developing an operations plan for the area. A working group has begun data collection, and engagement with stakeholders and community members in the area has already produced improvements.

The first site could move into the maintenance phase in the future while we identify additional sites. 

For more information about the Violent Crime Reduction Plan visit cityoftacoma.org/crimereduction. To see the full study session presentation, visit cityoftacoma.org/TVTacoma.

###