Washougal’s latest police statistics show vehicle thefts climbed in 2021, while drug-related arrests declined.
The Washougal Police Department recently released its annual report outlining arrests and types of police calls for service in 2021. The department recorded 43 cases of motor vehicle theft last year, a 59 percent increase over 2020’s numbers.
“If you look at the numbers, 27 to 43, it’s not a huge (increase),” Washougal Police Chief Wendi Steinbronn told Washougal City Council members during a workshop last month. “However, if you look at the prior years — 28 in 2017, 25 in 2018 and 20 in 2019 — that’s statistically significant for our area.”
Steinbronn said nearly half of the vehicles stolen in Washougal in 2021 were Ford trucks — with the Ford F250 model standing out as an especially popular target — and that most of the stolen vehicles were taken overnight from the owner’s driveway or yard.
While vehicle thefts rose in 2021, Washougal’s number of drug-related calls decreased. Washougal police received a total of 37 drug-related service calls in 2021 compared with 62 in 2020. Likewise, the local police department made 13 arrests for drug-related offenses in 2021, down from 84 in 2020.
Steinbronn attributed the decrease in narcotics calls to a 2021 Washington Supreme Court ruling that the state’s felony drug possession statute is unconstitutional “and more specifically related to the fact that we are now required to refer people to treatment in lieu of arrest.”
“The issue is that the recovery navigator systems aren’t completely in place, so we end up continuing to give out referrals past the two that are required,” Steinbronn said. “I see an arrest as an intervention. If we are not arresting people, then that intervention isn’t happening. As a consequence, since drugs aren’t ‘free’ and the treatment referral system isn’t complete, people who suffer from drug addiction are going to continue to engage in theft to support their habit.”
The 2021 Washougal police report showed the police department responded to 21 sex offenses, four robberies, 172 assaults, four kidnappings, 37 burglaries, four arsons, 219 larcenies and one extortion case in 2021. The city had no murders last year.
Although Washougal police had nearly 10 percent fewer calls for service in 2021 than in 2020 (10,056 calls in 2021 compared with 11,016 calls in 2020), Steinbronn said the department still averages more calls per officer than nearby police departments.
The Washougal Police Department received 1,006 calls per officer in 2021, almost twice as many as the Camas Police Department’s 512. In 2020, Washougal received 1,084 calls per officer compared with 572 in Camas 799 n Battle Ground.
“The good news is that our average response time is still under five minutes in all categories, which is pretty good,” Steinbronn said. “A lot of it has to do with the 6.8 square miles in our patrol area to respond to — we can get pretty much anywhere within five minutes.”
