Major crimes increase in Medical Lake

Crime reports in Medical Lake have gone up.

According to statistics from the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, 269 crimes were reported from January to June 2014, a 16 percent increase over the 227 reports generated during the same time last year.

Major crimes are up 27 percent (102 compared to 140). Domestic violence crimes remained the same at seven reports, while dead on arrival/suicide and telephone harassment increased slightly. Minor crimes that do not fall into a specific category are up 42 percent (27 to 46). Assaults are up by 21 percent (55 to 69). Assaults currently account for 49 percent of major crimes in the city.

At the June 19 Medical Lake City Council meeting, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said many of these crimes are generated by a few key areas with Eastern State Hospital and some of the adult care facilities as drivers for the increase in assault.

“We’re going to keep monitoring that and keep the city posted,” Knezovich said.

Deputy Mark Gregory explained that the hospitals are reporting all assaults to the Sheriff’s Office.

Property crimes are up by 4 percent (78 to 81). Burglaries are at the same number of five while forgery, malicious mischief and theft crimes are down. Stolen vehicles went up from zero to five.

Sex crimes are up 55 percent (13 to 29). The two biggest contributors are suspicious persons incidents (12) and juvenile runaways (11).

Traffic crimes are down 55 percent (29 to 13). Computer aided dispatches dropped by 10 percent (1,077 to 976). Self-initiated incidents and traffic stops are down. Calls for service went up from 414 to 442.

Reports of suspicious activity incidents went up 13 percent (87 to 100), a good sign Gregory said.

“Whether the reports are deputy initiated or its civilians calling in, it shows that we’re working together to prevent these crimes as opposed to having deputies respond to them after the fact,” Gregory said.

Arrests dropped 36 percent (97 to 63).

Similar to suspicious activities, Knezovich said that this is a result of the deputies and citizens working together to keep repeat offenders out of the city.

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].