ARLINGTON — A year and a half after its official launch, Arlington’s “All-In” crime prevention campaign has seen reductions in almost all major categories of property crimes.
From 2013-15, Arlington has seen reductions in burglary by 40 percent, robbery by 46 percent, fraud by 11 percent and vehicle theft by 26 percent.
The one area that’s seen an increase has been other types of theft by 24 percent, but deputy police chief Jonathan Ventura estimated that shoplifting accounts for 16 percent.
To combat shoplifting, Arlington has joined the Organized Retail Crime Alliance, which includes law enforcement agencies and retail establishments’ asset protection and loss prevention personnel.
“Not just anyone can be a member,” Ventura said. “You have to be vetted, because we share a lot of sensitive intelligence between us. If someone walks into a Rite Aid to shoplift some things, and the security cameras get a good shot, we can share it instantly. It’s a powerful tool.”
Not only does ORCA allow Arlington to network with the Marysville Police Department and stores such as Walmart, Safeway and Fred Meyer, but it also aids them in connecting local crimes to more geographically distant incidents.
“We’ve found that some folks just go up and down the I-5 corridor, from here to California and back, hitting all the same stores along the way,” Ventura said. “ORCA lets us share information about cases that might be coming our way.”
Indeed, Ventura credited the monthly ORCA meetings with solving a significant number of cases on the spot, just from sharing surveillance snapshots and booking photos between stores and police departments.
Stedman cited the 2015 addition of two K-9 drug detection dogs to the Arlington Police Department as evidence of the collaboration between all segments of the community, from the officers who volunteered for more training to the City Council members who approved bringing K-9s Oso and Tara on board.
“Our citizens and businesses even helped foot the bill through the ‘Pennies For Puppies’ program,” Stedman said.
Oso and Tara were deployed 87 times over eight months in 2015, seizing 6.75 pounds of heroin and methamphetamine, while Arlington police seized almost $40,000 in cash from drug arrests, along with three vehicles and seven firearms. Stedman underscored the importance of these busts by estimating that 95 percent of all crimes in Arlington are drug-related.
“All-In” was so named because its goal was to engage all segments of the community in crime prevention, from citizens and businesses to city staff, elected officials and police.
“It was based on developing our relationship with the community,” public safety director Bruce Stedman said. “By building trust, we’ve fostered partnerships that have paid dividends.”
A key aspect of that collaboration has been the slogan, “If you see something, say something,” which encourages everyone to report anything they find suspicious to police.
