Criminals may not follow the law, but they seem to be taking Gov. Jay Inslee’s advice.
Crime is way down on Bainbridge Island since COVID-19 hit in March.
Compared with 2019, calls for service dropped 700 in March and have been down anywhere from 500 in April to 250 in August.
“That’s an impact of COVID-pandemic-related closures,” BI Police Chief Joe Clark said. “There’s just been a lot less crime overall this year.”
Actual case reports are not as obvious, dropping in March, but actually going up in May and June before heading down again.
Through September, or the end of the third quarter of this year, crime statistics have gone down in most categories, but have gone up in others, such as domestic violence.
Clark said he can only speculate, but he said that increase probably has a lot to do with people being home together more, along with stress that goes along with life, with COVID-19 mixed in, and unemployment.
The largest increase is in crime against property. In all of 2019, there were 328 cases. Already this year there are 532. But Clark said about 300 of those have to do with the unemployment fraud cases earlier in the year.
Crimes against people are down slightly.
Crimes down just a little are driving under the influence, drugs and criminal citations.
“A lot of places have been closed, so the ability to go out and drink and drive has been reduced,” Clark said.
Crimes down a lot are: traffic citations from 233 to 132; adult arrests from 233 to 132; and traffic collisions from 149 to 86.
Again, with more people working from home and fewer people out and about traffic is down and so are accidents and citations.
As for the holiday season, Clark said there hasn’t been an influx in thefts, either from stores or porches. However, he always encourages people to be cautious about packages delivered to their homes.
“Make alternate arrangements, like having a neighbor pick it up,” he said.
The police department also keeps track of how well the force deals with the public with customer surveys. Through the end of the third quarter, 48 responses were given out of 140 surveys mailed.
Responders either reported a crime, were a victim of a crime were stopped for an infraction, were involved in a collision, requested information, or some other reason.
A large majority of the responses were positive. Comments included: “The officer was attentive and very professional. He was empathetic to the situation and was helpful;” “Sir, your officers really made me feel a lot safer. They calmed me down. They were very polite, seemed that they are just good cops.” And, “One situation involved a medical emergency and death of a family member; the officer was professional, compassionate, communicative and supportive while he stood by.”
The only three negative responses out of 48: “I had something stolen from my property and while everyone was very courteous, I was surprised that no investigation happened, not even a visit to my property;” “Enforcing and patrolling ‘speeders’ on back road/wealthy neighborhood is an obvious excuse to fine poor/less wealthy people (who can’t afford to live on Bainbridge)”; and “I asked the officer to document the collision and establish fault. He refused to establish fault.”
