Yakima's crime rate plummets to lowest in decades

Statistics for 2007 show that property crime in Yakima decreased in almost every category, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. As a result, the city's overall crime rate of 76.3 per 1,000 residents was the lowest since the state began keeping comparable statistics in the late 1970s.

Car thefts dropped 16 percent, burglary dropped nearly 18 percent and thefts were down 22 percent. Only
arson, which increased by 23 percent, went against the grain.

The trend mirrored that of the rest of Yakima County and most of its 13 other cities, which saw overall crime rate dip 15 percent.

Yakima's drop would have been even more dramatic were it not for increases in violent crime due mostly to a nearly 56 percent spike in aggravated assaults. There were 226 aggravated assaults in 2006 and 352 last year.

The number of assaults was the city's most since 1996, when Yakima was coming down from a 10-year explosion in crime that peaked, statistically, in 1988.

Robberies were actually down 14 percent. But the jump in assaults pushed the city's rate of violent crime (rape, robbery, assault) to 6.8 incidents per 1,000. That was the city's worst since 1997 but far from the record of 14.1 set in 1990.

Violent crime here was only slightly higher than three other major Washington cities -- Seattle, Spokane and Kent -- and lagged far behind Tacoma, which had a worst-in-the-state rate of 10.4 violent crimes per 1,000 for the second year in a row.

Among big cities, Tacoma and Everett also have the highest property crime rates, a dubious distinction held by Yakima in 2006.

Capt. Jeff Schneider, acting chief in place of Chief Sam Granato, who was out of town Monday, said he didn't have any special insight into the decline in property crime.

The same is true of the increase in assaults. Schneider noted, however, that random stranger-on-stranger crime is extremely rare in Yakima.

"And even then, it's more like bar-fight kind of stuff, not somebody walking their dog down the street and getting attacked," he added. "That stuff just doesn't happen."

The overall decrease in crime is not news to Yakima police, said Schneider, who insisted that crime in the city is not nearly what is used to be when he was a rookie cop in 1984.

"Some days you could call it routinely dull around here," he said. "That was never the case back then."

* Chris Bristol can be reached at 577-7748 or at cbristol@yakimaherald.com.

Overall crime rates for Yakima Valley cities

Union Gap (pop. 5,700) -- 136.8*

Toppenish (pop. 9,105) 82.5

Sunnyside (pop. 15,130) -- 80.3

Yakima (pop. 82,940) -- 76.3

Wapato (pop. 4,540) -- 74.7

Grandview (pop. 9,150) -- 70.7

Zillah (pop. 2,660) -- 62.8

Mabton (pop. 2,080) -- 49.0

Granger (pop. 2,955) -- 40.9

Yakima County** (pop. 89,740) -- 32.5

Selah (pop. 6,935) -- 31.1

Tieton (pop. 1,200) -- 9.2

Moxee (pop. 2,065) -- 7.7

* Rate per 1,000 residents

** unincorporated areas of the county and towns of Harrah and Naches

Cities with the highest crime rates

Everett (pop. 101,800) -- 91.6*

Tacoma (pop. 201,700) -- 83.4

Yakima (pop. 82,940) -- 76.3

Seattle (pop. 586.200) -- 64.5

Spokane (pop 202,900) -- 63.0

Kent (pop. 86,660) -- 62.6

Federal Way (pop. 87,390) -- 58.9

Vancouver (pop. 160,800) -- 45.2

Bellevue (pop. 118,100) -- 36.7

Spokane Valley (pop. 88,280) -- 35.9

* Rate per 1,000 residents

Source: Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs