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Snohomish is getting hit with a considerable increase in crime compared to the previous year. The city just published its annual report that looked at 2020, and saw increases in commercial burglaries, car prowling, and vehicle theft. So what explains this rising crime, and what is the plan to address it?

joined the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH to discuss the crime as it relates to COVID, as well as approaches to policing.

“Obviously, residential burglary is going to be down. It’s down from 2019. People are home, right? Commercial burglary is way up, … vehicle problems are up, theft of all types are up considerably,” Kartak said, reviewing the city’s crime statistics.

“But now, overall violent crime, that’s a big one, and that one is down. It’s down from 2019, and considerably down from 2018, although armed robbery — I’m looking at this from 2019, we had three, and in 2020 there was six; unarmed robbery,” he added.

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While this might seem like a small change, it can feel like a big difference in a small community. As Jason asked: “With the social shift in the way we treat officers and talk about policing, do you think that that has anything to do with people feeling a little bit more empowered to commit these kinds of crimes?”

“I believe strongly that punishment deters crime, and so we need to prioritize our correctional system. I’ve got a prosecution and indigent defense. They can be overwhelmed at times and it has to do with, well, where do we want to put our funding?” Mayor Kartak responded. “And if somebody wants to speak about their priorities, I’ll ask them, ‘Well, what do you spend your money on? Because you show me your budget and I’ll tell you what your priorities are.'”

“You know, there’s jails, there’s associated medical and mental health services that are becoming more and more important these days. I’m a big fan of alternative type courts, family courts and drug courts, treatment programs, but that’s on the back end of everything. And that does deter. When you prioritize the corrections system, then that does detour crime,” he said.

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The mayor hopes to build relationships with local businesses and organizations in order to help identify the conditions leading to the uptick in crime.

“We have our 2021 goals in our police agency and certainly among these goals is to increase public and employee safety. And as far as crime goes, one of the things that we’ve identified — and this is an ongoing thing — is to proactively seek out criminal activity and the conditions that lead to crime,” he said.

“And so a lot of this has to do with relationships,” Kartak said. “Our chief is building relationships with various business groups, neighborhood watch groups, and with our community. And this includes our homeless, by the way. Relationships are key.”

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3 – 6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.