By Jack Mayne Despite fears in Burien that crime is increasing, Police Chief Ted Boe says the general city and King County crime rate is going down – except for car thefts. “Auto Theft is currently up and burglaries are down in July but had been above 2017 for May and June,” the chief said. “Both you and the community can see the local crime trends in near real time by going to www.crimereports.com.” Police generally separate crimes into two groups:

  1. Part One, which includes murder and non-negligent homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft, and arson.
  2. Part Two crimes include most of the rest, such as simple assault, loitering, embezzlement, forgery, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, drug offenses, fraud, gambling, including offenses against the family, prostitution, public drunkenness, runaways, sex.
Car theft season “Car thefts usually increase in the fall and winter months,” Boe said, and citizens “can help us to reduce the incidents by not warming up their cars in the driveways, leaving their cars running when they run into the store and locking their cars when parked overnight, that would be helpful. As you know, both opportunity and intent are required for crime to occur. The community can help by reducing the number of opportunities available to those who intend to commit such crimes.” He said that Burien Police and the King County Sheriff’s Office are “currently analyzing the auto theft data, as usually a spike in those numbers is attributed to a small number of active car thieves. “Our detectives have identified suspects and charged on several cases recently, but the suspects don’t appear to be connected on the charged cases.” More visible police The Burien Police’s “current proactive efforts” include bike patrols in the downtown area, partnering with service providers to address chronic issues in the community, the ones that “are not crime specific” and continue, when time permits, what some Councilmembers have called “smiling police” proactive patrol efforts. The chief said his officers “depend on the community to be our eyes and ears and report suspicious behavior and activity so officers can respond.” “We respond to all requests for an officer, but often have more calls than officers so there can be a time delay,” Boe said. “We don’t want to miss an opportunity to prevent a crime from occurring, or address behavior that may compromise public safety.”]]>

Senior Reporter Jack Mayne passed away in December, 2021. In his honor we have created the Jack Mayne Journalism Scholarship.