PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — In Oregon’s six largest cities, violent crime and property crime decreased overall from 2021 to 2022, according to the FBI’s preliminary Uniform Crime Report. However, of those six cities with populations over 100,000, Hillsboro was the only one that saw an increase in both violent crime and property crime.
In 2022, data from the FBI shows there were 304 violent crimes committed in Hillsboro in 2022, a 7.8% increase from the year before. Violent crime increased by 17.9%.
Police Chief Jim Coleman said his department is aware of the increase, but pointed out that these violent crime levels aren’t too out of the ordinary for the past several years. According to the FBI’s data, since 2016, violent crime reports have been between 257 and 312 per year.
Property crime, however, has been rising since 2020.
Coleman said theft is a major part of the property crimes they report and it has been a growing problem in the city. Investigators have been trying to figure out what’s causing the spike.
“For instance, is it economics? Does it have to do with pricing inflation versus what people’s income has been in reaction to that? Is it related to the addiction epidemic?” he said. “Sometimes for our folks that engage in shoplifting, it’s a form of a behavioral outcome.”
Whatever’s causing it, Coleman said his department has been working on ways to prevent it and to apprehend suspects.
The police department has been strategically placing patrols in certain locations, like near garages and storage areas, to deter criminals or watch for suspects.
“We have seen in both auto theft and in I believe it was retail theft, where when we arrested certain individuals, we saw a dramatic decrease in the areas where they were committing their crimes,” Coleman said.
Optimistically, the police chief hopes that part of the reason more crimes were reported in the city in 2022 is that the police department has worked to make crime reporting easier for citizens.
People can now report crimes online in both English and Spanish and Coleman said the police department has been working to build trust in the community.
Another program the police department has been developing is its security camera partnership. This allows businesses and residents to voluntarily share information about their video security systems with police, so that if a crime occurs nearby, investigators know whom to contact to request surveillance video.
In addressing the increased violent crime, Coleman said a major contributor in Hillsboro is family violence. He said about 36% of violent crimes committed in the city are related to family violence.
This is something the city is also working to address. He said seven new volunteers are about to join the Hillsboro Domestic Violence Response Team. There are already about 40-50 volunteers on the team who provide 24-hour on-scene crisis intervention for situations involving domestic violence, sexual assault, teen dating violence and stalking.
This team provides victims with information about their rights, how to report crimes and helps them create a safety plan.
“We always want crime to go down. But we are looking closely at — are some of the increases reflective of the outreach and the availability of services in both our city and our county?” Coleman said.
Other measures the police department is taking to crack down on crime include adding another analyst in 2023 to better track crime. This person will help feed information to investigators on where crime is occurring and the peak times of the week when crimes occur.
Coleman is also sending his investigators to classes to better understand violent crime and said the Hillsboro Police Department is working with law enforcement up and down Interstate 5 to learn more about organized crime and how to target it.
One thing Coleman pointed out is that although Hillsboro’s crime went up in 2022, it still remains low among Oregon’s most populated cities when it comes to crimes per capita.
Of Oregon’s six largest cities — Bend, Eugene, Gresham, Hillsboro, Portland and Gresham — Hillsboro’s violent crime per capita and property crime per capita rates are only higher than Bend’s.
“It’s a very safe community,” Coleman said. “We want to make sure that we can continue that trend over a long time.”