The Marysville Police Department is recognized as proactive; doing more than responding to 9-1-1 calls.
The culture has been to seek out opportunities to address crime and deal with those who would victimize our citizens. For over three years, Marysville police have focused on implementing Intelligence Driven Policing to emphasize a proactive approach toward specific crime trends and areas of the city needing more attention.
We have had many success stories.
Looking at crime statistics is a quick way to obtain a “big picture” overview of how police efforts are impacting crime trends.
At the end of 2015 our community had a 9.84 percent decrease in crime over 2014. Crimes like assaults, burglaries, robberies, vehicle thefts and vehicle prowls were down between 10 percent to 42 percent from 2013-15.
Theft continues to increase; many are associated with big box stores. Police efforts to address theft sometimes conflict with individual store policy. If theft is factored out of the equation, then, we show a 22.26 decrease in all other crime from 2013-15.
The police NITE Team of five officers focuses their everyday operations on concerns like street-level narcotic sales, drug-and-nuisance houses, property crimes associated with drugs, crimes involving guns and career criminals with outstanding warrants.
This group has been busy since January 2013 having served over 430 search warrants, took 159 guns off the street and recovered 98 stolen vehicles. They have also made over 850 felony and 820 gross misdemeanor and misdemeanor arrests, in addition to the 750 warrant arrests.
The NITE Team has been charged with addressing neighborhood livability issues. Their proactive approach in communicating with neighbors, partnering with code enforcement, crime watch initiatives and working toward resolutions has improved the quality of life in many neighborhoods.
The Property Crimes Unit started in January of 2015 and has had impressive results, too. This group is made up of three representatives from Marysville, two detectives from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and one detective from Lake Stevens.
Their mission is to aggressively investigate crimes and the individuals associated with the trafficking and possession of stolen property regardless of jurisdictional boundaries.
It is the inter-department cooperation and team approach that allows this group to share intelligence, identify suspects and track them down regardless of where they are hiding while building solid cases for prosecution.
They have served 33 search warrants, recovered over $295,000 in property, charged over 408 crimes and made 258 arrests.
Specialty teams with specific missions is only one approach taken in Intelligence Driven Policing.
Using resources from patrol, investigations, school resource officers, K-9, crime analyst and the community service officer, they have focused efforts on specific crimes or predetermined areas for other policing projects.
A Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) boundary was created in the southern part of Marysville between I-5, Alder Avenue and 9th Street south to the waterfront.
By creating SODA, police were able to use specific laws with penalty enhancements and other coordinated efforts by patrol, bike patrol, NITE Team and other city departments to drive crime down by 49.5 percent from 2013 to early 2016 within SODA.
In March 2015 our PD initiated Operation Northern Lights, a long-term policing project spearheaded by an overlap shift using combined resources of patrol, bike patrol and other city departments.
Their mission is to improve the neighborhood livability and quality of life for shoppers and residents in Lakewood; west of I-5, east of 25th Avenue, from 156th Street north to 186th Street.
Through January they had invested 1,623 hours of police presence in this area. They have responded to 671 calls, made 21 arrests, took 133 case reports and trespassed 10 individuals leading to a 30 percent decrease in activity since March of 2015.
Through community and business meetings they are staying in touch with needs of neighbors, business owners and shoppers.
Another long-term policing project, Operation Southern Comfort, was spearheaded by the other overlap shift beginning in September of 2015.
This project focuses efforts and resources by the waterfront, a sub-area within the SODA. Operation Southern Comfort’s focus is on illegal camping, aggressive panhandling and consumption or distribution of illegal substances in the waterfront park area. This area continues to be a challenge seeing a 2.05 percent increase in activity. But they have recently seen marked improvement with a 32 decrease from May until now.
We have had a citywide focus to reduce, if not eliminate, aggressive panhandling along with illegal camping.
The adoption of new panhandling laws and area restrictions have helped reduce this activity. We still encounter complaints and work quickly to address those.
In May, a survey of known illegal camping spots was conducted with only nine camps identified. Most of these were vacant or abandoned, which is significantly lower than prior years.
Community engagement is a big part of the Marysville Police Department’s success. Outreach efforts like MVP’s vacation house checks, Neighborhood Crime Watch, neighborhood meetings, Business Watch, narcotic tip line, Marysville Facebook page, report-a-code-violation link, Ask a Cop link, non-emergency police line, Twitter and Organized Retail Crime monthly meetings are all programs that engage our community, obtain feedback and address issues.
We are proud of our police and what they have accomplished.
Jon Nehring is the mayor of Marysville. His column runs monthly.
