The
murder
rate in
Washington
state rose to an all-time high in 2022, as the state reported consistently low
police
staffing and the lowest number of police officers per capita in the nation.
The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs released its annual
report
Monday, reporting 394 murders last year, over a 16% increase compared to 338 murders in 2021. This year’s murder numbers mark the highest number recorded since 1908 when law enforcement began using the National Incident-Based Reporting System to track information.
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The number of police officers in Washington dropped to the lowest rate in state history, with data from 2022 showing 10,600 officers in The Evergreen State. The
WASPC 2021
report documented 10,736 commissioned officers, slightly more than this year’s data.
The staffing rate sits at 1.36 officers per 1,000 people, marking the lowest per capita rate of officers in the state since the 1980s. Washington state has the lowest law enforcement staffing rate in the country, with WASPC Executive Director Steven Strachan
saying
this data marks the 13th year in a row Washington holds ranks.
The number of arrests for drug and narcotics violations was down by 33% in 2022, totaling 1,444 arrests this year compared to 2,163 in the previous.
Washington also recorded an 8.5% increase in overall crime from last year, with violent crimes rising 8.9%.
There was a drop in hate crimes since 2021, with 544 bias-motivated incidents reported, compared to 592 last year. However, last year marked the highest number of hate crimes in two decades.
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While homicides reportedly dropped in major cities in 2022, with the Major Cities Chiefs Association
documenting
a 2.4% fall from 2021, violent crimes are still on the rise, spiking 4.2%.
Over the last several years, FBI data shows a climb in murder overall — The FBI will include this data from Washington in their annual national crime report, typically released in the fall.
