Car thefts up, violent crime down in Washington last year, new law enforcement report says

Crime totals increased by 15.3% in Washington state between 2019 and 2022, according to Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs data, but that trend could be starting to reverse. WASPC released its annual “Crime in Washington” report, and the results show an 8.5% decrease in crime totals across the state in 2023, although there were some notable exceptions.

Washington State Crime Rate

The report, which uses the National Incident-Based Reporting System, found that the statewide crime rate fell from 67.5 “Group A” offenses — a designation that primarily includes violent crimes, property crimes and weapons and drug offenses — per 1,000 people in 2022, to 62.0 last year.

31,208 violent crimes, a rate of 3.92 per 1,000 people, were reported in Washington last year, according to WASPC, down from over 32,850 in 2022.

After murders had nearly doubled between 2019 and 2022, they fell last year. There were 376 murders reported across the state, compared to 399 the previous year, amounting to a rate of 0.05 per 1,000 people.

Robberies down, car thefts up

Property crimes, which make up the vast majority of all offenses recorded in the state, were down by 11.9% in 2023. 360,372 were recorded last year in Washington, 407,258 were recorded the year before. Of those, 145,194 were classified as larceny – theft, down from 179,343 in 2022. Robbery and stolen property cases were down as well.

However, not all forms of theft were down last year. Car thefts increased significantly between 2022 and 2023, from 47,448 to 54,187, a rate of 6.81 per 1,000 people. The vast majority of the value of stolen cars was recovered though, according to the report.

Hate crimes in Washington

Hate crimes were also on the rise last year, with bias-motivated incidents up by 5.5% to 576 and bias-motivated offenses up by 7.8% to 729. The victim’s and ethnicity was targeted the most often, followed by sexual orientation and religion.

Crime statistics by city

In line with the statewide trend, Washington’s biggest local police department, Seattle, reported a 6.3% decrease in crimes. Here are how some other locales fared:

• Tacoma police reported an 11.8% decrease in crimes, driven by decreases of over 20% in aggravated assault, burglary and larceny. Its overall crime rate remained relatively high at 148.3 per 1,000 people.
• In the state capital, Olympia reported a 3.6% decrease in crime, including a 17.4% decrease in car thefts. Its overall crime rate fell to 84.2 per 1,000 residents.
• Neighboring Lacey reported 56 crimes for every 1,000 residents, a 6.9% decrease from 2022 despite seeing a 225% increase in drug-related crimes.
• Bellingham’s crime rate fell by nearly 30%, including a 33.8% drop off in larceny offenses, a 27.5% decrease in destruction of property cases and car thefts cutting in half. Overall, 96.7 crimes were reported for every 1,000 residents.
• In eastern Washington, Kennewick reported a 5.2% decrease in crime despite simple assault cases rising by 22.2%, destruction of property rising by 14.5% and drug crimes up 72.3%. Those increases were canceled out by sharp drop-offs in burglary, larceny and car thefts, bringing its crime rate to 93.2 per 1,000 people.
• Richland reported a decrease of 16.3% in overall crime, bringing its offenses per 1,000 people rate to 63.4. In neighboring Franklin County.
• Pasco saw a 12.9% decrease in crime, bringing its rate of offenses to 54.7 per 1,000 residents.