COVID-19 causing spike in domestic violence

AIRWAY HEIGHTS—Crime fell from 2018 to 2019 within the jurisdiction of the police department according to the 2019 Washington National Incident-based Reporting System (NIBRS) report, but domestic violence rates have been on the rise in 2020, according to Police Chief Brad Richmond.

Cases of domestic violence have been especially increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.

“Domestic violence is up quite a bit since COVID,” Richmond said, attributing the trend to people being cooped up with each other more often since the virus shutdowns began.

He said during May and June, there was a 50% increase in domestic violence calls from 2019.

A total of 97 simple assault and 14 aggravated assault domestic violence cases were reported in 2019, per the NIBRS report.

During the pandemic, the police department received an average of 1,000 calls for service per month, Richmond said.

“That’s pretty significant, I believe, for a small municipality of 10,000 people,” he said.

Richmond said the most frequent calls the police department get, beyond domestic violence involve trespassing and theft.

Fifty-five trespassing offenses were reported in 2019, the most among “Group B Offenses” as described in the NIBRS report. For comparison, only 17 DUI offenses were reported, which was the second-most in the “Group B” category (excluding the “All Other Offenses” category).

The police department stationed officers at Walmart during the pandemic, catching many attempted thefts, Richmond said.

“It was very active there for a while,” Richmond said. “We were more proactive because we were actually working there.”

There were 142 arrests made for larceny-theft by the police department in 2019, by far the most of any “Group A Offenses” as described in the report. There were 110 reported instances of destruction of property, but only six arrests made. There was $1,118,863 worth of property was reported either stolen, destroyed, recovered, counterfeited, burned or seized in 2019.

The 110 reported offenses were actually a 22.5% decrease from the 142 reports in 2018, but it remains a concern, Richmond noted.

Richmond said the community can be influential in helping to catch more property crime perpetrators, as it can often be difficult to catch suspects of this crime otherwise.

“Where the community sees those issues, we try to push resources,” Richmond said. “We encourage people to have video cameras; it helps us evidence-wise.

“We would like our community to tell us if they have crime in their area,” he continued. “If they see something, (they should) say something, so that we can facilitate the safety of all of our citizens.”

The police department also often finds itself at Northern Quest Casino, working in tandem with the Kalispell Tribe officers. Richmond said the most common offenses at the casino are theft, property, trespassing and some drug crimes.

The police department has concerns with frequent findings of fentanyl pills, as well as possession with intent of heroin and methamphetamine. Drug/narcotic violations rose 13.8% from 2018 to 2019, according to the NIBRS report.

Richmond said the police department has also made more of an effort recently in investigating human trafficking with federal partners at the FBI. He didn’t give an exact number of current investigations, calling that an “ongoing process.”

“It’s prevalent in our community,” Richmond said. “We’re working with our federal partners a lot more … it’s something we’re progressing toward to make our community safer.”

Drew Lawson can be reached at [email protected].