Violent crime is down in Tacoma, new data shows, but not everyone is feeling the relief.
City Council heard a mid-year update on the Tacoma Police Department’s Violent Crime Reduction Plan during a study session earlier this week. Violent crime — which includes aggravated assaults, robbery and murder — dropped 18.6% in last year’s latter half compared with the same time frame in 2022.
Police Chief Avery Moore highlighted another significant stat on Tuesday: a 40% year-to-date decrease in homicides.
“Overall, our violent crime is down 17.3% year to date, and total crime is down 23.6% year to date, and property crime is down 24.6%,” he said. “So, yes, we’re still going in the right direction.”
Tacoma is not the only city to witness a post-pandemic plunge in its murder rate. Other metros are seeing similar year-to-date declines in reported homicides , including Seattle, Boston, Dallas and Miami, according to Axios.
In Tacoma, calls for violence-related help also dropped citywide by 15% and by 8% in “hot spots,” areas where crime has historically been high.
The Violent Crime Reduction Plan launched in July 2022 and has sought to provide evidence-based solutions to fighting crime. The Tacoma Police Department teamed up with the University of Texas at San Antonio on the effort.
Michael Smith with UT San Antonio said during Tuesday’s presentation that violent crime has been trending downward since the plan first began. Researchers looked at the areas surrounding the treated hot spots, too, to see whether crime had been transferred there, he added.
“So that’s a pattern that we’ve seen before here in Tacoma. It’s also consistent [with] what we’ve seen in our other cities that we do this work in,” Smith said. “It’s confirmation that crime is just not moving around the corner when we treat these hot spots here in Tacoma.”
Moore underscored the importance of consistency when it comes to the crime plan. The department hasn’t fielded complaints of over-policing, he said.
Smith noted a recent push toward evidence-based practices in policing nationwide.
“This is the medicine that works, and we should keep using it for the long term,” he said.
Mayor Victoria Woodards thanked Smith for the presentation.
“I think it’s important for, not just the council and those in the room today, but for our community to understand that this isn’t a presentation that will go away, or this isn’t a program that in two years, we’ll be done with it and move on to something else,” she said. “This is the new way of doing policing in the community.”
Critics remain skeptical about the violent crime-plan data
News of Tacoma’s crime decrease has divided social media as some users question whether the numbers are too good to be true.
KIRO 7 noted that while reporting on the crime-plan update, a photojournalist was assaulted by someone near the Hosmer Street area . Its news team also saw an argument unfold between a store owner and a man “smoking drugs in front” of the business.
Andrea Haug, chair of the South End Neighborhood Council, told The News Tribune that the new data doesn’t necessarily reflect residents’ experiences. Some have stopped reporting certain crimes because they don’t think there will be an adequate response.
The News Tribune reached out to the Tacoma Police Department, but a spokesperson said that Moore was unavailable for an interview.
Haug said she knows the Police Department is doing the best it can. Much of the crime problem is related to issues like mental health, with not enough services and resources to go around, she said.
“There’s office data, and then there’s real life,” she said. “And I really do see discrepancies across the board [between] people’s lived experience and what is being reported.”
Plenty of the area’s crime is a symptom of other problems such as addiction, Haug said. Many people experiencing homelessness struggle with substance use. If their encampment is moved by the city, she added, that doesn’t mean that their addiction just disappears.
The South End Neighborhood Council seeks to approach such topics holistically and not only from a policing lens, she said.
“As long as the state, county and city continue to warehouse unhealthy populations in a small area, we’re going to have issues,” Haug said. “And Hosmer is where a lot of people like to — you know, they hide people over there.”
The area’s bad wrap doesn’t sit well with Haug. She said some neighbors won’t come out of their homes because of the stigma.
The way she sees it, there’s a lot to be celebrated about Hosmer.
“There is a lovely floral shop over there, there’s Elmer’s [Restaurant] with great breakfast, and the media and social media continue to perpetuate Hosmer as bad instead of focusing on the fantastic things, like the litter cleanups,” she added. “There’s Kaiser Permanente over there. There’s some restaurants that are delicious, and it would be fantastic to start seeing some of those things come out.”
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