Port Townsend Police Chief Thomas Olson presented the 2024 Annual Crime Report and provided an update on the state of the police department to council members and the public at the March 3 city council meeting.

The report found that crime was down 8% from 2023. 

Before diving into the crime data, Olson addressed department staffing. While four commissioned officers resigned from the department in 2024, another four were hired, keeping staffing levels steady for the year and up from nine officers in 2023. Three officers are in training, and once they complete training, the department will be fully staffed. That hasn’t been the case for at least a decade.

Olson said the department had received over 912 hours of training in 2024 and had acquired new resources, including two new patrol vehicles, a new drone and critical incident equipment, including ballistic helmets and shields for crisis situations.

“All of these things are very valuable when it comes to recruiting, retention and morale,” he said. 

The department’s proactive policing efforts, including traffic stops and DUIs, were up 18% from 2023. Traffic stops were up 15% from 1,074 in 2023 to 1,259 in 2024, while traffic stops with issued tickets increased 27% from 2023. Criminal traffic stops were up 66%, and DUIs were down from 21 in 2023 to nine in 2024. 

“I think having more staff has helped with that as well, having proactive time to be out there and be acting in the community,” Olson said. “One of the best ways to reduce crime is to go out and be in those areas where crime may have occurred, or data has identified areas and times, and be there before the crime happens.” 

Collision data showed collisions were up 12% from the previous year, with the top three locations for collisions being on Water Street and West Sims Way at Haines Place and Kearney Street. 

Olson then showed a breakdown of crime data.  

Calls for service were up from 8,506 in 2023 to 8,921 in 2024, equivalent to 24.4 calls per day. Friday remains to be the department’s busiest day of the week, with 2 p.m. being their busiest hour, he said. 

Part 1 crimes, which include the most serious offenses, were down this year, according to the report.

There were three more robberies and five more assaults reported in 2024 than in 2023. Reports of burglary, arson, larceny and sex offenses were down, while motor vehicle theft remained the same, with 11 cases reported in both years. 

“[Robberies and assaults] are a real challenge for us because they are crimes of opportunity,” Olson said. “We can’t really predict where they’re going to happen; assaults happen in parking lots, they happen in bars, they happen in homes. Those are not necessarily areas where we proactively patrol.”

Olson then mentioned the department’s goals for 2025, which include creating a strategic plan, accreditation, increasing proactive policing by 10% and improving community engagement. Proactive policing is a law enforcement strategy that aims to prevent crime rather than responding to it after it happens.

He concluded the presentation by speaking about the department’s role in immigration. 

“These are some of the things we will not do as a police department: provide non-public personal information about an individual to federal immigration authorities in a non-criminal matter, give federal Immigration authorities access to interview individuals about a non-criminal matter while in our custody,” Olson said, citing a statement from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.

He went on to say that the immigration status of criminals is not important to the department. 

“We don’t ask those questions. We’re not allowed to, and we just don’t do it,” Olson said. “We don’t notify Immigration, we don’t contact them on anything. We don’t notify anybody at the jail of anybody’s status because we don’t know, because we don’t ask.”