Overall Crime in Bonney Lake Down 4.6 Percent in 2012 From Previous Year

New crime data for 2012 released by the Bonney Lake Police Department this week shows the total number of reported crimes decreased to 1,100 from 1,153 in 2011, giving Police Chief Dana Powers a solid reason to laud her officers for a job well done.

"Overall, the statistics are going down and that's very good," she said. "We're at a very good staffing level and will make sure we stay up with the trends."

With the recent appointment of two assistant chiefs under a new structure to accommodate a larger department, Powers said leaders will make sure to have the staff to carry out the department's public safety duty if growth in the city continues.

The nature of the data also reveals not just the number of crimes but also time information which helps Powers to determine how to best staff the department without taxing resources but optimizing the officers on duty.

For example, she said, crimes in general tend to pile up on Fridays and Saturdays in a given week. More recently, crimes have seen a decrease on Saturdays and instead are picking up from the Sunday through Tuesday timeframe.

In 2012, the highest number of crime reports occurred in July with March coming in at second. August and September were at the low end.

By the Numbers

Forcible sex offenses, assault, drugs violations and weapons violations all saw a decrease. Crime analyst Laura Miller wrote in her summary that the decrease in the latter offenses could be attributed to new laws related to vehicle searches during an arrest.

On the other hand, the data showed a 75 percent increase in the number of robberies: from 4 in 2011 up to 7 in 2012.

And the biggest increase in a specific type of crime was found with burglaries, jumping 33 percent from 91 cases in 2011 to 121 cases in 2012. Similarly, auto theft rose to 37 reports in 2012 over 27 reports in 2011.

Powers noted those increases and said the department would focus on working those this year, but she also attributes the increased number of reports to citizens themselves being more willing to call the police.

"We've had a lot of proactive work by homeowners and having good neighbors who will call if something is suspicious," she said. "It's about the people just not being afraid to call the police. I find more times than not, they didn't want to call because they didn't want to bother us."

Continued Communications and Outreach

Analyses being what they are, "the officers are doing an outstanding job. They're being out there and being proactive," and she hopes to be able to build on that proactive work and extend it to investigations in the next few years.

Part of that proactivity is reaching out to the people they serve. Powers said officers are happy to come and speak with homeowners associations and neighborhood groups about how to make a residence less vulnerable.

It's also communication. With two designed public information officers on staff along with an active and direct communication channel to the public on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/BLPoliceDept), Powers said she is happy being able to get information out to both the media and to residents quickly about everything from an active Amber alert, to when someone might be loose locally with a dangerous weapon, to messages wishing everyone a happy holiday.

The department also puts out an annual report which should be published this year in mid-April, she said. Meanwhile, the city of Bonney Lake's police department crime analysis section has crime data going back to 2005 that citizens can study. The Neighborhood Crime page also allows residents to search for crimes reported in their specific neighborhood.

Click the PDF with this story to review the 2012 data.