Crime in Cheney rises 11 percent

Crime in Cheney saw a 11.1 percent overall rise in reportable offenses in 2018, a continuation of a rollercoaster-type pattern the city has seen over the past three years.

According to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs’ “2018 Crime in Washington Annual Report,” overall Group A offenses rose by 70 reports to 702 in 2018 from 632 in 2017. The latter was a 20.1 percent decline from 2016’s 791 reports, which itself was a 24.5 percent increase from 2015’s 636.

Group A reports are broken into three categories: crimes against persons, crimes against property and crimes against society. The data for the annual report is compiled through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) – a much more thorough reporting system than the what Cheney produced under the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data.

“It tracks things we didn’t track with the UCR,” Cheney Police Chief John Hensley said.

Where the Monthly Accountability Report (MAR) produced from the UCR had 11 Group A categories, the NIBRS data has 33: 14 under crimes against persons, 12 in crimes against property and seven under crimes against society. One of the columns that paint a different picture than what was presented under the UCR is the number of domestic violence-related incidents per category.

For instance, in the five crimes against persons categories with more than 10 reports in Cheney, intimidation rose 18.3 percent from 191 incidents in 2017 to 2018 last year —with almost 81 percent of these involving domestic violence. Last year’s reports were a 7 percent increase over 2016’s 178 incidents, with 87.43 percent of those involving domestic violence, compared to 84.27 percent of those in 2016.

The rate of intimidation rose to 18.5 per 1,000 in population in 2018, up from 16.1 percent in 2017 and 15.3 percent in 2016. Of that 2018 figure, department officers made just two arrests.

Other Group A offenses showing increases were aggravated assaults, up 108.3 percent from 12 to 25 – a number higher than either 2016 or 2015, simple assaults, which rose 46.7 percent from 60 to 88 and violation of no contact/protection orders, up 60 percent from 15 to 24. Of these, 37.50 percent of simple assaults, 24 percent of aggravated assaults and 79.16 percent of order violations were domestic violence related, with officers making eight aggravated assault arrests, 27 simple assault arrests and 10 orders violations arrests.

“Domestic violence, sadly, is the most prevalent radio calls we receive, not in numbers but in severity,” Hensley said.

While most of the calls are “pushing and shoving” incidents, Hensley added that officers take these as seriously as those where the violence is more pronounced.

“Even if it’s just verbal, there’s a sense of fear (involved),” he said.

As opposed to crimes against persons, crimes against property saw more decreases than increases. While burglary rose 44.7 percent (38 reports to 55 in 2018), larceny-theft offenses (Third and second degree) dropped 12.9 percent (155 to 135), motor vehicle theft fell 50 percent (24 to 12) and fraud declined 28.6 percent (21 to 15).

In crimes against society, drug/narcotic violations dropped 30.8 percent from 13 to eight in 2018 while weapon law violations doubled from four to eight. Overall, slightly over 36 percent (253) of the 702 total Group A offenses in 2018 involved domestic violence, with officers making 96 arrests.

Under Group B offenses (bad checks, curfew/vagrancy, trespass, etc.), driving under the influence arrests remained low in 2018 with nine arrests, down one from 2017. With four new officers hired in the past year, Hensley said that figure will change in 2019 — and the figures bear witness to that.

As of July 11, Cheney officers had made 15 DUI arrests so far in 2019, a figure that will increase.

“I found one additional case where the DUI charge is pending blood results from the toxicology lab,” Sgt. Nate Conley said in an email.

With one more officer wrapping up training, Hensley said the department is finally at full strength with 17.5 officers – the half being school resource officer Dane Gilman who is half employed by the city, half by the Cheney School District. The department’s dispatch staff is also back to full strength with the hiring of additional personal, moves Hensley feels have finally led the department away from a statistics-driven culture to one orientated to service.

“That pays off in the long run when the community needs to call us for any sort (of incident),” Hensley said. “Not just for public safety, but just when you need some confidence (in someone responding).”

Still, the eight-year veteran leader of Cheney’s force is concerned about the types of incidents he sees occurring in the city — especially crimes against persons. Statewide, 22 percent of Group A reports are crimes against persons with 70.1 percent being crimes against property.

In Cheney, 54.84 percent of Group A reports are crimes against persons, with 42.59 percent being crimes against property.

“To some degree, we’ve lost the ability to manage our tempers,” Hensley said, adding one needs only to check social media sites to see how quickly people turn to confrontation.

“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of room in the middle,” he said. “I’m concerned about aggravated assaults. I’m just not sure if they’re controllable in this community.”

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].