SPOKANE, Wash – Property crime in Spokane is down close to 25% year to date. Across the board, all types of property crime Spokane police track are down: garage burglary is down over 50%, residential burglaries and vehicular thefts are down about 30%, and arson is down over 40%.
Spokane Police Lieutenant Terry Preuninger says after seeing recent property crime stats in Spokane, “The first thing we want to do is pat ourselves on the back. It’s a great job and then making lots of arrests…but we have to be careful about how we evaluate those numbers.”
He says with all property crimes down double-digits year to date, the factors at play go beyond the force.
“If you can get a couple of those people in custody and off the street for a little while, that itself can have a significant impact,” Preuninger said. “Those crime numbers can then come right back up once that person is out of jail and commits crimes.”
“We worry sometimes about property crime, especially as it is very underreported,” Preuninger added.
Preuninger said Spokanites may not be reporting more minor property crimes because they believe there will be no action.
“There are times where we have crimes that are absolutely solvable or they have solvability factors, and we simply don’t have the resources to work them. Well. There’s an unintended consequence that people feel nothing is happening, then they don’t want to take the time to report.”
However, he says your voice is still heard.
“We want you to report them because we need those numbers,” Preuninger said. “We need to show. Look, this is what we fight for resources. We need to show how many crimes we can’t even get to.”
Because, he said, the best source for the force is all of us.
“They’re the best source of information that we have,” Preuninger said. “It helps us to stay focused and shift our resources and fight those crimes.”
