Crime — particular property crime — in Walla Walla was up in 2022, according to the 2022 Crime in Washington Report released this summer by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.

This same report shows crime decreasing in College Place and in other parts of Walla Walla County, while increasing statewide.

The Crime in Washington reports looks at crimes reported by all local law enforcement agencies in the state. The latest report compares crime levels in 2022 to those of 2021.

Locally, department leaders in the Valley have different things they look at on the report as the departments all face their own unique challenges.

Walla Walla Police Chief Chris Buttice said he doesn’t worry too much about what other departments are doing.

“I don’t compare us to anyone else,” he said. “I compare Walla Walla to Walla Walla. Part of that is, I don’t have any control over what happens in other jurisdictions. All I know is what I have control over here, and where we put our emphasis and focus.”

College Place Police Chief Troy Tomaras said the CPPD uses its own report that it issued earlier in the year to inform its policing.

He did say that he finds it valuable to review data from other departments, however.

“I do look at the state report because I am a police chief,” he said. “I like data. It’s interesting to look at what is trending. It’s interesting to compare our data to data from the (Walla Walla County) Sheriff’s Office and the WWPD.”

The report

The Crime in Washington Report gives detailed statistics for each agency in the state.

The report is divided into primary jurisdictions, not solely by city or town.

In Walla Walla County, Walla Walla and College Place are the only cities with police forces. So they have their own reports.

The other cities in the county, Waitsburg and Prescott, contract with the Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement. As a result, their numbers are included in the Walla Walla County statistics.

Walla Walla Police Department

In total, crime in Walla Walla increased by 36.3%, according to the report. The department reported 2,387 crimes in 2022, compared to 1,751 in 2021.

That did not surprise Buttice.

“I expected those numbers to be up,” Buttice said. “We knew that was going to happen … there’s a bunch of different things that played into it.”

While the biggest increases appeared in the “crimes against property” category, some “crimes against persons” also increased, though by smaller margins.

Aggravated assaults went up 33.8% — from 65 to 87 — while simple assaults went up by 30.1% — from 136 to 177.

Rape also increased by 19% — from 21 to 25.

Other personal crimes decreased. Incest dropped 100% — from 14 to 0 — and kidnapping decreased 71.4% — from 14 to four.

Property crimes saw large increases.

Burglaries more than doubled, increasing 131.5% — from 92 to 213 and vehicle thefts increased by 88.5% —from 98 to 52.

Like other law enforcement agencies in the state, the WWPD has been adjusting to police reform laws passed in 2021.

These, among other things, limited when officers can engage in vehicle pursuits and changed the standard required to detain someone.

Some of these laws have since been walked back a bit.

The Walla Walla Police Department also faces some staffing issues, which have started to improve.

Buttice said these challenges are reflected in the report.

“I don’t want to say we expected to see this, because you never want to see numbers grow, but I think the expectation was — because of some of the legislative changes — we were going to see some more of these crimes,” he said. “I feel like that’s what we saw. Now, obviously we have had some fixes in legislation.”

He also said the department adjusted to operate more efficiently under the current rules.

“We have done some things differently here to address what we can, locally,” he said.

One such change came as a result of improved staffing levels.

The department brought back the Career Criminal Apprehension Team — or CCAT — which focuses on warrant arrests of repeat offenders. This team had been deactivated due to staffing shortages. It made its return this year.

Though the 2023 report won’t be out until next July, Buttice keeps a record of key crimes each month and provided the U-B with July 2023 numbers.

This document shows that efforts to address rising crime seem to be paying off.

“Burglaries were going crazy,” he said. “Out of control. CCAT is out there now, and they are driving those numbers down.”

In July 2023, Walla Walla saw five burglaries compared to 18 in July 2022. The year-to-date total after July is 72. After July of last year, it was 117.

July 2023 saw 39 thefts compared to 46 in July 2022. Across the board, property crimes seem to be trending down this year.

“Just because it’s property crimes that were going out of control (in 2022), the (July 2023) numbers are pleasing, and I know there’s a direct correlation to CCAT being out there.,” Buttice said. “The focus is back on making sure we’re out there being visible and slowing those guys down.”

Aggravated assaults are also heading down, according to the July numbers. This July saw 6 such crimes compared to 10 in July 2022.

College Place Police Department

The Crime in Washington Report for College Place and the CPPD’s own report offer similar numbers. Although they differ slightly, Tomaras said he goes off the CPPD’s report.

Tomaras said the differences in the numbers are partly due to the way dates are assigned to crimes.

He said in the state report, an incident that occurred in 2021 but isn’t charged until 2022 would appear on the 2022 report. In the CPPD report, these cases would appear on the 2021 report.

The Union-Bulletin relied on stats from the state report for this story.

The state report shows crime going down in College Place, almost across the board.

In total, crime dropped 12.2%, from 337 crimes reported in 2021, to 296 in 2022.

Burglaries, robberies and protection order violations were exceptions.

Like in Walla Walla, College Place saw a sharp increase in burglaries, which rose 73.3% — from 30 to 52.

Tomaras said Washington laws regarding thefts at businesses can lead to increased burglary charges.

He said if someone is arrested for a misdemeanor theft at Walmart, trespasses at the store, and then returns to commit another theft, that second charge is raised to felony burglary.

“That’s where you’ll see some of those burglary increases,” he said.

The city’s other two increases were much smaller. While robberies increased 100%, they went from one to two.

Protection order violations increased 21.4%, from 14 to 17.

Personal crimes saw big decreases.

Aggravated assaults dropped from nine to five — 44.4% and simple assaults dropped from 39 to 13 — 66.7%.

“Some of my biggest concerns are any type of assault, or domestic violence,” Tomaras said. “Those stand out to me. We want to be able to respond to those crimes.”

Tomaras said one way he makes use of the Crime in Washington report is to look at statewide numbers and watch for trends.

“One of the main things I look at is the statewide number of officers assaulted,” he said. “We lost two officers in 2022, but we had several thousand assaulted. It gets into how they were assaulted and with what kind of weapons. Were they ambushed? I really look for that so I can have those conversations with our regional instructors so we can try to meet some of those concerns and safety issues to protect our officers.”

Sheriff’s Offices

Though the Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office has countywide jurisdiction, numbers for the office include only the parts of Walla Walla County that don’t have a separate police force — in other words, the entire county except for Walla Walla and College Place.

Crime in the county dropped by 5.4% with 716 reports in 2022, compared to 757 in 2021.

The most noteworthy drops included a 75% decrease in robberies — from four to one — a 8.1% drop in burglaries — from 86 to 79 — and a 20% drop in rapes — from five to four.

The most concerning increase was a 106.1% climb in vehicle thefts, from 33 to 68.

The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office patrols the entire county. Neither Dayton, the county’s only city, nor Starbuck, the county’s only town, has its own police department.

In Columbia County, crime was up 51.6%. The office reported 194 crimes in 2022, compared to 128 crimes in 2021.

Most personal crimes were low, even the ones that saw increases. For example, aggravated assaults increased 50%, but that increase was only from two to three. Simple assaults climbed from 23 to 26.

State facts and numbers

All counted categories of crime increased in the state, according to the report. Crimes against persons increased 4.9%. Crimes against property increased 9.8%. Crimes against society increased 3%. Violent crimes increased 8.9%

There were 394 murders in the state, up from 338 in 2021.

The Crime Clock portion of the report lists how often different crimes happen.

According to the clock, a murder occurred in Washington every 22.8 hours, a rape occurred every 3.4 hours and a burglary occurred every 11.8 minutes.

To see the full report, go to bit.ly/crimeinwa2022.