New report: Violent crime drops in Vancouver

Violent crime in the city of Vancouver dropped 14 percent in 2015 from the prior year, while property crimes rose 2 percent, according to the Vancouver Police Department.

The numbers contradict FBI statistics The Columbian reported last week that showed Vancouver’s violent crime was up 18 percent for the first six months of 2015. That’s because the FBI uses the Uniform Crime Report Index to track crimes, whereas Vancouver police use the National Incident Based Reporting System, Vancouver police Chief James McElvain told the city council Monday.

“Our methodology of measuring crimes are a little more precise,” he said.

The Uniform Crime Report tracks only eight crimes, but the reporting system tracks 46 crimes. For instance, the Uniform Crime Report only counts aggravated assaults, which typically involve a weapon, but the reporting system records simple assaults, too, the chief said. Also, unlike the Uniform Crime Report, the reporting system allows a classification of a crime to be changed after more information is learned. That would allow, for example, a death that’s initially reported as suspicious to be changed to a homicide later. The reporting system also tracks individual crimes that occurred during a single incident, unlike the Uniform Crime Report, which just lists the highest-level crime committed, McElvain said.

“At the end of the day, what got reported to the FBI and reported in The Columbian was correct,” McElvain said. “Using their methodology, violent crime did increase.”

But under the reporting system, which Vancouver Police have used for years, violent crime fell in all categories. The number of homicides, rapes, robberies, assaults and domestic violence assaults all declined in 2015, from a total of 1,992 in 2014 to 1,713 last year. (McElvain acknowledged that many crimes go unreported.)

Meanwhile, the departments’ dispatched calls for service went up 7 percent, from roughly 60,300 in 2014 to 64,600 this year.

Out of the top five retail stores with the highest numbers of calls for service, Wal-Mart made the list three times. The Wal-Mart on Mill Plain and 104th Avenue ranked No. 1, with 695 calls for service in 2015. That was followed by 370 calls from the Vancouver Mall, 293 calls from Target at Vancouver Plaza, 258 calls from the Wal-Mart at Mill Plain and 192nd Avenue, and 187 calls from the Wal-Mart at Fourth Plain and Grand.

In January 2015, the department introduced the Fourth Watch patrol, an early swing shift (10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.) that provides overlap with other shifts, making more officers available during higher call volume times. As a result, even though they had the same level of resources, policing activity self-initiated by officers increased 9 percent last year, when they initiated roughly 47,400 events, compared to 2014, when officers initiated 43,600 events, according to police department statistics.

McElvain has recommended adding 42 police officers and 19 civilian staff to the department over the next five years to fill service gaps in traffic enforcement, property crime investigations and crime data analysis. The department has 190 sworn officers to serve the city’s roughly 167,000 residents.