SNOHOMISH COUNTY—The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) released its annual crime rata report on Tuesday, July 9, which compiles crime data across the state.
Overall, the report found that crime rates were down across the board in Washington State yet hate crimes and vehicular thefts continue to climb. Still, crime rates have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels and Washington State still ranks last in the nation for commissioned police officers per capita.
Another observation the report shows is that juvenile crime across the state has skyrocketed.
Across the board, larceny-thefts were the number one crime committed in the following Snohomish County cities. Destruction of property was a close second resulting in millions of dollars worth of damage.
Most violent crimes, however, saw a decrease from 2022.
The following is a breakdown of crime data in Snohomish County by city. The Lynnwood Times will be releasing this data in installments, and this is just the first of many. So if you don’t find your city of interest in this installment, please stay tuned for the second installment.
To read more about our summary of statewide data click here.
LYNNWOOD
For the most part, violent crime in Lynnwood was down in 2023, compared to 2022.
Out of the 26 categorized serious crimes (classified as Group A offenses by law enforcement agencies), 11 of these were increases from 2022 while 12 of them were decreases. The remaining three saw no change from 2022 to 2023. There was a total of 7 crime categories that went unreported in both 2022 and 2023 and therefore are not included in this report.
Some of the decreases Lynnwood saw included murders (a 100% decrease with 0 reported in 2023 compared to five the previous year). Other decreases include rapes (-23.5%), kidnappings (-11%), drug equipment violations (-78.5%), and robberies (-21.8%) to name a few.
While these areas saw decreases there was a 100% increase in extortion/blackmail, 150% increase in pornography, 225% increase in arson, and a 200% increase in sodomy—the highest increases out of those listed.
Similar to years prior, larceny-theft offenses remained the highest reported crime in Lynnwood by a long shot (approximately 2,045 cases).
Lynnwood Police reported 4,739 total Group A crimes offenses in 2023. Group A offenses include serious crimes such as murders, rapes, assaults, kidnappings, etc. In other words, a Group A offense is anything that does not include trespassing, bad checks, DUI’s, disorderly conduct and crimes of that nature (classified as Group B). There was a total of 657 Group B offenses in 2023.
Of the reported data, 1,779 of the 4,739 Group A offenses resulted in arrests with 178 of those involving juveniles. Approximately 45% of all Group A offenses have since been cleared.
There was a slight decrease to property damage crimes (2%) from 2022 to 2023 but the overall cost of those damages is still estimated to be roughly $11,349,410.
Most of all drug-related crimes reported in Lynnwood in 2023 involved opiates (such as fentanyl, oxycontin, etc.) at 35% followed closely by stimulants (cocaine, crack, etc.) at 30%.
MILL CREEK
There was a total of 1,014 Group A offenses in Mill Creek in 2022 with 29.1% of those being cleared of wh243 led to arrests with 28 of those involving juveniles.
Similar to Lynnwood, Mill Creek saw an overall decrease in crime. There were 20 categorical crimes committed in Group A with 11 of those categories being decreases. Also like Lynnwood, Mill Creek’s most committed crime was larceny-theft offenses totaling 363—a decrease of 20% from 2022.
Second to larceny-theft offenses, the most committed Group A crime in Mill Creek was destruction of property at 182 incidents resulting in approximately $3,207,813 worth of damages.
Larceny-theft offenses and destruction of property were the only two categories that broke the hundreds in Mill Creek in 2022.
As far as violent crimes go, Mill Creek saw one murder last year (which at a single murder in 2022, remains a 0% change), four rapes (compared to 0 in 2022), an 11% increase in simple assaults from 2022 with a 27.4% increase in aggravated assaults, and a whopping 93.3% increase in drug-related violations. The most common drug involved in drug-related incidents were opiates at 43%.
Mill Creek only saw 71 reported Group B offenses in 2022 with 7 of these involving juveniles.
EDMONDS
Edmonds’ highest crime, in both 2022 and 2023, was larceny-thefts at 825 (a decrease from 2022 of 7.2%). The breakdown was simple assault (139), burglary (161), motor vehicle thefts (115), destruction of property (425), fraud offenses (216), and drug incidents (170). The drug most associated with these incidents were opioids at 53%.
There was a total of 2,330 Group A offenses in 2022 with 526 of these resulting in arrests and 31.3% of these being cleared.
Edmonds saw one murder in 2023, which was a 0% change since the city saw a single murder the year prior. There were 6 rapes, 20 robberies, and 45 aggravated assaults. All of these were decreases from 2022 except for the murder.
EVERETT
As to be expected of Snohomish County’s largest city (population 114,200 according to Census data), Everett reported the most amount of serious crime in Snohomish County at 11,247 Group A offenses in 2023 of which 2,795 of these resulted in arrests and 29.9% of them have been cleared.
Everett had three crime categories that passed the thousands: larceny-thefts at 3,210 (a decrease of 10.5% from last year), destruction of property at 2,384 (a decrease of 7%), and 1,268 motor vehicle thefts which increased from 2022 by 23.7%.
Destruction of property incidents resulted in $28,621,712 worth of damages.
There were also quite a few that made the hundreds below that with simple assaults (823), burglary (683), drug violations (672) being the highest. Opioids were the most common drug involved in these cases at 53%.
Everett saw 10 murders last year, 45 rapes, and 117 robberies. There were also two manslaughter incidents. Except for robberies (which is up by 1.7%) all of these are still decreases from 2022.
There were 2,242 Group B offenses recorded with 13 of these involving juveniles.
MONROE
Monroe saw an increase in crime in 2023 but not by much. Kidnappings, sexual assaults, robberies, extortion/blackmail, prostitution, animal abuse, and weapons law violations were all down from the previous year.
Overall, there were 1,156 Group A offenses in Monroe reported with 389 of these resulting in arrests and 39.8% of these being cleared.
Like neighboring cities, the highest crime committed by far was larceny-thefts at 397 (actually a 15.9% decrease from last year), with destruction of property trailing behind at 222 (also a decrease from last year at 26.7%). Destruction of property resulted in about $1,534,270 worth of damages.
Simple assaults were the only other crime that broke the hundreds last year at 134 total cases (an increase from 2022 of 27.6%).
Aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle thefts, and drug violations were next to that. Drugs involved in these cases were both mostly stimulants (32%) and opioids (32%).
Monroe saw 184 Group B offenses with 10 of these involving juveniles.
UNINCORPORATED SNOHOMISH COUNTY
To avoid confusion the following crime snapshot involves incidents that took place in unincorporated Snohomish County or were primarily handled by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, not a summary of the county at large.
Again, like the cities mentioned above, larceny-thefts was the number one committed crime in Snohomish County at 2,122 total incidents—still a 20.7% decrease from 2022.
Other crimes that broke the thousands of incidents were simple assault at 1,122 (a 21.3% increase), motor vehicle thefts at 1,237 (an increase of 28.6%), and destruction of property at 1,736 (a 6% decrease). Destruction of property incidents resulted in $79,732,798 worth of damages.
Crimes that broke the hundreds were: aggravated assault (392 – a 3.4% increase), intimidation (199 – a 29.2% increase), violation of no contact/protection order (462 – an increase of 4.1%), burglary (624 – a decrease of 20.7%), fraud offenses (395 – an increase of 38.1%), stolen property (a decrease of 35%), and weapon law violations (125 – an increase of 15.7%).
Compared to the cities listed, and compared to other crimes in the county, drug related incidents were quite low at 171 offenses. There was a total of 158 drug equipment violations. 53% of all drug-related crimes in Snohomish County involved opioids.
Murders doubled in Snohomish County from 2022 to 2023. Rapes, although a decrease from 2022, were still 25, and there were 28 kidnapping incidents—an increase of 33.3%.
There was a total of 1,232 Group B offenses with 9 of these involving a juvenile.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
