Last year was a rough one for crimes reported to the Kitsap County sheriff’s office. Serious assaults, unlawful use of firearms and car thefts all climbed, while the agency struggles to get enough deputies on the street.

“It was a bad year,” Sheriff John Gese said. “It was alarming. We saw increases in so many categories. Robberies were at a ten-year high. Auto theft definitely was up. Aggravated assault was at a ten-year high. 2022 was not a good year.”

Crime statistics were released this month as part of the annual Crime in Washington report, compiled by the state Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. The report tracks crime and arrest data from law enforcement agencies statewide.

The rate is determined by the number of crimes per 1,000 people. When it comes to city stats in Kitsap, Port Orchard’s rate is 107.5, up from 93.3 last year. To compare, Bainbridge Island is at 29.4; the sheriff’s office 47.8; Poulsbo, 62.5; and Bremerton 102.1. Seattle’s rate is 97.3.

County crime was up, and the number of law enforcement officers were down, the WASPC report says. Violent crimes showed an increase of nearly 9%. Murders climbed to 394, an increase of 16.6% over 2021. Crimes against people, property and society all rose.

Rising statistics mirrored increased crime in many parts of the Evergreen State.

In Kitsap County, aggravated assaults rose 31%, from 342 to 448. Misdemeanors, or simple assaults, increased 14.6%, from 955 to 1,094.

“What stood out to us is we are seeing more assaults where people are confronting each other with weapons, particularly guns. We are seeing a trend of young people getting into disputes and solving their disputes with weapons.”

The sheriff ticked off several examples.

“We had the case where I think there were two 19-year-olds here in Port Orchard. Apparently, there was a drug deal gone bad over a pound of marijuana and some kid shot the other kid and killed him. We had a string of armed robberies just a few weeks ago where we had very young kids – age 14 or 15 – brandishing a weapon as they went into four or five small stores… We just had on Ridgetop an assault first degree where somebody fired a shot and that was all over a dispute just started in the street.

“Those are kind of rare occurrences for Kitsap County, but we are seeing them on a frequency much more than we have seen in the last couple of years.”

Gese is at a loss to explain why. “I truly don’t know. I think there are guns out there, and people are getting their hands on them. Some of these are people who shouldn’t have guns to begin with and some of them actually have lawful authority to have guns,” he said.

Robberies increased nearly 44%, from 41 to 59. Strong-arm robberies, involving physical force, and armed robberies both increased. The increasing number of times a shoplifter when confronted by store staff uses force to get away has contributed to the rise in robberies, Gese noted. Use of force can elevate a shoplift to a robbery.

Nearly 32% more burglaries were reported last year. In 2022, there were 819 compared to 622 the previous year.

Theft saw a 34.3% rise, going from 2,097 to 2,817. “I tie some of this to seeing more retail theft from stories,” Gese noted.

Stolen car crimes soared over 65%, speeding from 408 to 674.

Gese blames the higher numbers on a 2021 state law that limited police pursuits. “The law was very, very restrictive. It didn’t allow pursuits for most property crimes, like burglary and auto theft,” he said. “Once that law passed it was pretty clear (car thieves) knew the rules. If you stole a car and the police got behind you but you didn’t stop and took off, they could not pursue you. We saw that happening repeatedly,” Gese said.

During the last legislative session law enforcement lobbied state lawmakers to relax rules on police pursuits. Some modifications were made – including lowering the standards from “probable cause” to “reasonable suspicion” – however, legislators did not expand permissible car chases for property crimes.

“We had a person who was a prolific burglar and auto thief. This fella was doing smash-and-grab burglaries where he was smashing into front doors of businesses and stealing ATM’s. He was stealing cars to commit all of these crimes. We knew who he was and what he was doing. We would see him, but he would take off as soon as we tried to stop him. It got to the point where the prosecutor’s office issued a million-dollar warrant for him. Still with all of that, it still didn’t meet the criteria to engage in an actual pursuit,” Gese said.

Eventually, the suspect was apprehended in Oregon.

WASPC executive director Steve Strachan said the rise in car thefts statewide has a dramatic impact.

“Vehicle theft can seem minor. Some people view it as a property crime … (but) stolen vehicles can sort of turn people’s lives upside down, particularly if they don’t have insurance. They are holding down two jobs, and daycare and doing the best they can. They don’t have the resources to bounce from that that many others do. That can really have a giant impact to the victims,” Strachan said.

The sheriff’s office saw the biggest rise in crime centered on stolen property. Such offenses nearly doubled from 81 in 2021 to 160 in 2022. That broad category largely involves suspects knowingly buying, selling or possessing stolen property. Typically, the stolen property was taken in a burglary, robbery or by fraud.

Staffing

Like many jurisdictions, the Kitsap sheriff’s office had staffing challenges. Statewide, the state’s population rose over 93,000 residents to over 7.8 million, yet there were 70 fewer officers to respond to calls in 2022, according to the report.

The decline in officers left Washington again ranked 51st out of the 50 states and District of Columbia for the number of officers per 1,000 residents, Strachan noted. “We have been 51st in staffing, in per capita numbers per thousand for thirteen straight years,” he said. The state has 1.3 officers per 1,000 vs. the national average of 2.31 per 1,000.

Gese reported he has filled nearly all of his deputy positions, but still struggles to get enough “deployable” deputies on the street. The office is down up to 20% of trained deputies who can work in the field, he said. Several new deputies are in the training phase. New recruits can require up to 1 1/2 years of training before they are able to hit the street on their own, Gese said.

“We are extremely busy because there are fewer people doing more right now. There are fewer people to respond to those 911 calls. Detectives’ caseloads are up dramatically this year,” Gese said.

Staffing challenges have required the sheriff’s office to prioritize where it directs resources. “We had to focus on just key areas which is handling 911 calls and following up on violent crime investigations. What that means is the more minor crimes – like vandalism to mailboxes, minor shoplifting cases and traffic enforcement – do suffer and don’t get the attention they deserve,” Gese said. “It’s kind of like a hospital triage system right now. We try to address the most serious cases with our resources.”