With Clark County and area incorporated cities all experiencing a decrease in their crime rates in 2023 as compared with 2022, the Woodland and Battle Ground’s police chiefs discuss crime trends, patrol emphasis and more.
Overall, reported Group A offenses in Woodland dropped 3.5%, while Battle Ground’s dropped 2.6%, both Woodland Police Chief Jim Kelly and Battle Ground Police Chief Dennis Flynn were pleased with the progress made in a year’s time, which is continuing into 2024, they said.
The crime stats for the entire state of Washington were released on the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs website on July 9, which showed an 8.5% decrease in crime statewide. Clark County as a whole dropped 10.22% in Group A offenses.
Battle Ground
The Battle Ground Police Department (BGPD) experienced a 2.6% decrease in reported Group A offenses, which include burglary, homicide, motor vehicle theft and more, in 2023 from 2022. The agency supports a population of 21,912 and experienced 670 reported Group A offenses, with 128 adult arrests and 43 juvenile arrests in 2023.
The city did experience an increase in some categories, such as a 29.5% uptick in motor vehicle theft in 2023, compared with 2022. But, Flynn said, that appears to be going down again because, as of July 24, the vehicle theft trend has drastically decreased 87% from this year to the same time in 2023.
“So one thing to consider in 2022, those numbers were 44, and in 2023 those numbers were 57. That’s a numerical increase of 13. So keeping that in mind, that’s less than five vehicles a month, which is still too many, …” Flynn said, adding that Kia and Hyundai vehicles were commonly stolen in 2023, adding that resulted from a group called the Kia Boys. “They became famous on TikTok, and there are some design issues with Kias and Hyundais. And once it went out on TikTok, it became known around the United States. That’s where most of our increase was for last year.”
Near the end of 2023, the Battle Ground Police Department made a significant arrest that still has the community experiencing a positive result.
“Towards the end of the year, we made an arrest that was several juveniles that were claiming to be part of the Kia Boys that were also stealing Kias and Hyundais,” Flynn said. “Since we’ve made that arrest, we reviewed our statistics. So, for 2024, from January [until] now, this time last year in June, we had 31 auto thefts. This year, we have four.”
With vehicle thefts in the city of Battle Ground decreasing, overall call-load is also going down, while officer-initiated events are dramatically increasing. In a year-to-date report by the department, by the month of June, officer-initiated events reached over 7,000. In 2023, the department did not reach 7,000 contacts.
“That means they’re being proactive,” Flynn said. “When your officers are out there, and they’re actively engaging people in the community, it’s going to have a reverberating effect on crime.”
To help with that proactive approach, the agency has implemented bike patrols during events, which could be expanded upon in the future, Flynn said. He added that the feedback regarding the bicycle officers and their interactions during Harvest Days and the Maddox Industrial Transformers Third of July event was “phenomenal.”
“So that’s something that we want to continue to do because it just furthers our community engagement,” Flynn said. “The more times that police can interact with the public in positive ways when it’s not enforcement goes a long way. Policing, you know, can’t just be stick-and-whistle policing, it also has to be that we are members of the same community and that we’re all working towards the same common goal that we’re all trying to make Battle Ground a safe place to live, work and play.”
One crime trend increasing in 2024 is fraud and scams, mostly against the older generation, which are difficult for police to make arrests, Flynn said. He added that educating the vulnerable and senior populations will help to curb the crime from global callers disguised with local phone numbers.
“When we do a deeper dive into those crime statistics for fraud, we find most of them involve the senior population and vulnerable victims,” Flynn said. “So, to address that, every month we attend the Battle Ground Seniors event and speak to them on some fraud-related topics because many of the incidents that we deal with are senior scams. So we educate them on the different scams that we’re aware of and how to be vigilant for them.”
Woodland
The Woodland Police Department (WPD) experienced a 3.5% decrease in Group A offenses in 2023 from 2022. The agency, which covers a population of 6,570, experienced 464 reported Group A offenses, with just 107 adult arrests and zero juvenile arrests in 2023.
Kelly believes the 3.5% decrease is a reflection of the City Council and citizens authorizing a levy lid lift in order to add more patrol positions to the Woodland Police Department. Currently, street patrol is three positions down due to internal promotions, but Kelly said the department is actively searching for candidates.
Like Battle Ground, with proactive policing, Kelly said his department has been visible in the neighborhoods this year.
“One of the biggest things that we enjoy in Cowlitz County is the support from our citizens,” Kelly said. “So they keep us pretty dialed in on any concerns that they have. [They] may not necessarily be calling 9-1-1, but they do call the office and let us know of any concerns that they have. And, because of the officers’ visibility, they’re able to have face-to-face conversation with an officer just to express a concern or pass on some intel and those types of things. I think we’re pretty lucky in that because of our relationship with our community.”
Kelly said the agency has a good working relationship with the retail establishments in Woodland, as well. Kelly believes the majority of larceny theft is at retail establishments. Those reports rose 6.9% in 2023, compared with 2022. He believes that problem will continue because of the freeway access near some of Woodland’s retail.
“We’re working closely with them to streamline the process when it comes to identifying these individuals and apprehending them,” Kelly said of curbing retail theft. “I think we’re going to see improvements. Of course, it works better with the more officers we have, the more presence we have, and so on. That’s a big factor for that. It’s going to be a really good deterrent once our roster is completely full.”
In 2024, Kelly said the department is working on better visibility in the community to help deter crime. Along with patrolling off the main thoroughfares when call volume allows, his officers make recreation-area checks by getting out of the patrol car and being present in all city parks, not just Horseshoe Lake, Kelly said.
To help with the busy weekends at Horseshoe Lake, an extra patrol has been authorized for just the park.
“The mayor has authorized us to provide an officer to be at Horseshoe Lake, an extra patrol every Saturday,” Kelly said. “Of course, if that officer needs help, the patrol officers will come and help them out.”
Kelly added that the officer assigned to Horseshoe Lake is strictly for the park, unless something major were to happen.
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