Category Archives: Studies

Washington State Ranked Among Top 10 Most Dangerous

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Washington named eighth most dangerous state in 2024 study - Lynnwood Times

SOURCE: The Safest and Most Dangerous States in America 2024 – Simmrin Law Group

Apparently, crime rates in Washington State have been increasing. This comes despite the overall decrease in violent crime in the country.

THE SIMMRIN LAW GROUP STUDY

A new study by the Simmrin Law Group analyzed crime data from the FBI and NIFRS to rank the safest and most dangerous states in the country.  Apparently, between 2020 and 2022, the rate of violent crime in the U.S. decreased from 398.5 incidents per 100,000 people to 380.7 incidents per 100,000 people, while the rate of violent crime in Washington has increased from 293.7 incidents to 375.6 incidents, an 81.9 rate increase. The study examined the frequency of various types of offenses, including assault, homicide, kidnapping, sex offenses, burglary, destruction/vandalism, theft, and robbery.

HOW DANGEROUS IS WASHINGTON STATE?

Although Washington is known for its picturesque natural beauty and for being a booming tech hub, the rise in crime hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Washington ranked eighth, with the highest larceny and theft rate and kidnapping and abduction rate. According to the study, the state has a larceny/theft rate of 2133.6 per 100,000 residents. In 2022, there were 1,327 kidnapping/abduction incidents and 1,454 offenses reported in Washington.

“Washington state, known for its tech industry and natural beauty, surprisingly contrasts with its efforts to become a safer place. The state sadly has a larceny/theft rate of 2133.6 per 100,000, among the highest on this list, indicating the need for continued focus on crime prevention.”

“Its Kidnapping/Abduction Rate of 16.3 per 100,000 indicates another area in much need of targeted interventions. These statistics underscore the importance of community-based safety programs and proactive law enforcement measures, which Washington cannot ignore any longer if they want to keep their good reputation.” ~Simrin Law Group Study

Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with a crime. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.

Most Americans Cannot Believe Violent Crime is Decreasing

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Reported violent crime rate in the U.S. 2022 | Statista

In an article from NPR, journalists , and report that Americans can’t believe that violent crime is decreasing.

In 2020, the United States experienced one of its most dangerous years in decades. According to FBI statistics, the number of murders across the country surged by nearly 30% between 2019 and 2020, The overall violent crime rate, which includes murder, assault, robbery and rape, inched up around 5% in the same period.

But in 2023, crime in America looked very different.

VIOLENCE HAS DROPPED

“At some point in 2022 — at the end of 2022 or through 2023 — there was just a tipping point where violence started to fall and it just continued to fall . . . The national picture shows that murder is falling. We have data from over 200 cities showing a 12.2% decline in 2023 relative to 2022.” ~Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and co-founder of AH Datalytics.

Citing his own analysis of public data, Mr. Asher also found instances of rape, robbery and aggravated assault were all down too. Yet when you ask people about crime in the country, the perception is it’s getting a lot worse.

THE GALLUP POLL

A Gallup poll released in November found 77% of Americans believed there was more crime in the country than the year before. And 63% felt there was either a “very” or “extremely” serious crime problem — the highest in the poll’s history going back to 2000. So what’s going on?

WHY IS VIOLENT CRIME DECREASING?

For cities like San Francisco, Baltimore and Minneapolis, there may be different factors at play. And in some instances, it comes as the number of police officers declines, too.

Baltimore police are chronically short of their recruitment goal, and as of last September had more than 750 vacant positions, according to a state audit report. In Minneapolis, police staffing has plummeted. According to the Star Tribune, there are about 560 active officers — down from nearly 900 in 2019.

In Minneapolis, the city is putting more financial resources into nontraditional policing initiatives. The Department of Neighborhood Safety, which addresses violence through a public health lens, received $22 million in the 2024 budget. And in San Francisco, police there say they’ve been better at making arrests.

Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with a violent crime. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.

Prison: No Country For Old Men

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These are the 20 oldest prisoners doing time in New Jersey - nj.com

Excellent article in NPR by journalist Meg Anderson reports that the proportion of state and federal prisoners who are 55 or older is about five times what it was three decades ago. In 2022, that was more than 186,000 people.

In Oklahoma, the geriatric population has quadrupled in the past two decades. In Virginia, a quarter of the state’s prisoners will be geriatric by 2030. And in Texas, geriatric inmates are the fastest-growing demographic in the entire system.

More elderly people in prison is largely a sentencing problem, says Marta Nelson, the director of sentencing reform at the Vera Institute of Justice, a criminal justice research organization.

“It all stems from the longer sentences and the longer length of time that people have had to spend serving sentences in the United States, really starting from the ’70s and ’80s, but which became quite well known in the ’90s . . . People who went in as young people then are now aging. So it’s really a story of how we choose to punish people.” ~Marta Nelson, Director of Sentencing Reform at the Vera Institute of Justice

For instance, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, commonly known as the 1994 crime bill, incentivized states to build more prisons and keep people in those prisons for a longer percentage of their sentences. Other tough-on-crime policies — like mandatory minimum sentences and “three strikes” laws, in which the punishments for repeat offenders severely ratchet up — also contributed to why many people who went to prison decades ago are still there.

Today, there are more people serving a life sentence in prison than there were people in prison at all in 1970, according to a 2021 report from the Sentencing Project, an advocacy organization.

Caring for aging prisoners is expensive, but the data on just how expensive is murky. A 2013 study estimated it could be anywhere from three to nine times more expensive than for younger prisoners. And a 2015 report from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General found that federal prisons with the highest percentage of elderly prisoners spent five times more per person on medical care than those with the lowest percentage of aging prisoners.

My opinion? The idea of releasing elderly prisoners is certainly controversial. As a society, we must be careful about who we incarcerate. Sometimes, prisons don’t make people better. They make people worse.

Prison is a terrible place. Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with a crime. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.

Gallup Poll Says More Americans Believe Crime is Becoming Extremely Serious

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Is Crime on the Rise? - Point of View - Point of View

Informative article from the Hill journalist Nick Robertson discussed a Gallup poll showing nearly two-thirds of Americans believe crime is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the U.S. The 63 percent rate is the highest collected by Gallup, with the previous high of 60 percent found in 2000, 2010 and 2016.

Nationally, about three-quarters of Americans believe crime has gone up. This perspective underlines the tough-on-crime political narrative of conservative politicians. Republicans were significantly more likely to believe that crime is going up nationally. In fact, 92 percent of Republicans hold that belief compared to 58 percent of Democrats. Republican respondents also believed national crime was a more serious issue, 78 percent to 51 percent of Democrats.

Gallup’s self-reporting of crime victimhood has also increased. A fifth of respondents said someone in their household was a victim of a crime this year, near a record high. Most of those reported crimes were vandalism and car break-ins, according to the poll.

But the increase in crime perception could also be a result of frequent messaging about crime through politics and the increase in murders in some cities, which draws attention in media, Gallup said.

Despite an increase in attention, crime is still only the most important issue to 3 percent of Americans, according to a separate Gallup poll, a stark contrast to 1994, when crime was the top issue for more than 40 percent of respondents. The figure hasn’t crossed 10 percent since the recession.

IS IT CRIME OR POVERTY?

It sounds unreal, farfetched, or even crazy to say that “poverty is illegal.” However, the prosecution of poverty is an ongoing issue in our country. When you look at the frequency people are incarcerated because they can’t pay fees for speeding tickets and other small infractions, it’s heartbreaking. There are 2.2 million people locked up on any given day in the U.S. according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

Countless people living in poverty are forced to plead guilty when they are, in fact, innocent. The injustice happens because they simply cannot afford the legal fees to fight the case against them. Forty-three states charge for a public defender. Fines for less than $200 might keep someone in jail due to the “pay or stay” system. Courts rarely ask if a defendant has the ability to pay rather than their willingness to pay. Overuse of incarceration is negatively impacting families, causes job loss and a myriad of other problems.

Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with a crime. Criminal convictions and incarceration are terrible consequences that deeply affect one’s livelihood and family. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.

America is Experiencing a Police Officer Shortage

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Why is There a Shortage of Police Officers? | National Police Support Fund

Informative article from the Associated Press reports that America is in a police officer shortage. Many in law enforcement blame the coronavirus pandemic and criticism of police that boiled over with the murder of George Floyd by a police officer.

From Minnesota to Maine, Ohio to Texas, small towns unable to fill jobs are eliminating their police departments. They’re turning over police work to their county sheriff, a neighboring town or state police.

At least 521 U.S. towns and cities with populations of 1,000 to 200,000 disbanded policing between 1972 and 2017, according to a peer-reviewed 2022 paper by Rice University Professor of Economics Richard T. Boylan. Interestingly, crime rates were unchanged in towns that dropped their departments, the Rice University study found.

At the heart of the problem is the exodus from law enforcement. Officer resignations were up 47% last year compared to 2019 — the year before the pandemic and Floyd’s killing — and retirements are up 19%. That’s all according to a survey of nearly 200 police agencies by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, DC.-based think tank.

Though the survey represents only agencies affiliated with PERF, a fraction of the more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide and is not representative of all departments, it’s one of the few efforts to examine police hiring and retention and compare it with the time before Floyd’s killing.

Compounding the exodus of veteran officers, young people are increasingly unwilling to go through the months of training necessary to become a police officer, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum.

“Fewer people are applying to be police officers, and more officers are retiring or resigning at a tremendous rate . . . There’s a shortage of police officers across the country.” ~Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum.

Agencies of all sizes are struggling to fill open positions. But the problem is especially dire in smaller communities that can’t match the pay and incentives offered by bigger places.

Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with a crime. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.

New Study Recommends Police Pursuits be Limited to Violent Crimes

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New study recommends police pursuits be limited to violent crimes | KOMO

According to a new study, police pursuits should be rare and limited to violent criminals who pose an imminent threat.

The research by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a think tank on law enforcement standards, references Washington state and the pursuit law changes adopted here as part of its research. In its report, “Vehicular Pursuits: A Guide for Law Enforcement Executives on Managing the Associated Risks,” PERF recommends that a pursuit should only be initiated under two conditions: (1) If a violent crime has already occurred and (2) if there is an immediate risk that the suspect will commit another violent crime.

According to PERF, pursuits pose dangers to officers, unsuspecting bystanders, suspects, and the community at large. The latest national data on police vehicle pursuits revealed that for every 100 pursuits, there were two severe injuries and 10 minor injuries. Of these serious injuries, suspects accounted for 76%, non-involved persons accounted for 21%, and law enforcement officers made up 3%.

The report showed statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, revealing that in 2020, the number of fatal crashes related to police pursuits reached a peak of 455. This was the highest number since 2007 when the fatalities stood at 372. Several police departments have reported a significant increase in the number of individuals attempting to evade law enforcement during traffic stops.

The report is broken up into six sections:

  • Agency philosophy and policy standards
  • Initiating and discontinuing the pursuit – the role of a supervisor
  • Pursuit interventions/alternatives and technology for managing pursuits
  • Post-pursuit reporting
  • Vehicle pursuit training
  • Community engagement.

Under Washington law, police are allowed to chase suspects involved in violent offenses, sex offenses, vehicular assaults and domestic violence assaults. There is also a provision that would require officers engaging in pursuit to have emergency vehicle operator training and be certified in at least one pursuit intervention option, such as spike strips.

The study recommends that chasing a suspect should only be allowed if they are both a violent criminal and pose an imminent threat. Washington allows pursuits in some non-violent situations, such as DUI or to catch an escapee.

The PERF study also advises that pursuits should not be a routine part of law enforcement work. Researchers said the safety of fleeing suspects, their passengers, pursuing officers and community members is too important to risk on a regular basis.

Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with a crime. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.

Let’s Not Forget – There’s Actually Less Crime

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What the public thinks – and data shows – about violent crime in U.S. | Pew Research Center

Excellent article in USA Today from Adam Gelb, the President and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice. According to crime and justice trends, there is positive news in the realm of crime and punishment.

VIOLENT CRIME

Even after three years of increases, the rate of reported violent crime in America is half what it was at its peak in 1991, while burglaries and other property crimes are 63% lower than its peak in 1980. And the most recent data shows murder and other trend lines bending back down.

ARRESTS & INCARCERATIONS

In the mid-1990s, police arrested more than 15 million people a year. By 2019, arrests had dropped by a third, to about 10 million, and they fell even further during the pandemic. The U.S. incarceration rate remains among the highest in the world, but it, too, has declined, falling from its peak of more than 1 in every 100 adults in 2008 to 1 in 147 in 2021, a decline of a third. That translates to about a half million fewer people behind bars on any given day.

RECIDIVISM

Recidivism is the rate at which people on parole are sent back to prison for committing new crimes or violating the rules of their release. According to Gelb, that has dropped as well. The three-year prison return rate – the most commonly used measure – fell from 50% among people released from state prisons in 2005 to 39% among those released in 2012. And in juvenile justice, the number of youth removed from their homes for delinquency has plummeted by two-thirds, from more than 100,000 in 2000 to fewer than 37,000 in 2019.

RACIAL DISPARITIES

While troubling racial disparities in imprisonment persist, we’ve also seen some progress here. From 2000 to 2020, the disparity between Black and white adults in state prisons fell by 40%, from 8-to-1 to 5-to-1, and for drug offenses, it shrank by 75%. Black women remain nearly twice as likely to be held in prison as white women. However, they were over five times more likely at the turn of the century.

Taken together, the overall “footprint” of the justice system has shrunk substantially. In 2008, The Pew Charitable Trusts found that a whopping 1 out of every 31 American adults was in prison or jail or on probation or parole. According to new data from the Justice Department, that rate of correctional control had dropped to 1 in 48 by the end of 2021, a decline of a third.

Crime remains a serious and urgent concern. During the early days of the pandemic, as protests against police killings spread and gun sales spiked, homicide and other violent crimes rose. But as troubling as these recent increases are, it’s important to recognize that they occurred in the wake of significant improvements in safety.

STUDY THE GOOD NEWS AS WELL AS THE BAD ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

Gelb emphasizes that despite positive gains, the shrinking criminal justice footprint is rarely acknowledged or discussed. This leaves everyday Americans to conclude that nothing is improving.

“That’s understandable, but we ignore progress at our peril,” writes Gelb. Furthermore, pessimism leads to defeatist attitudes and clouds sober analysis of what is and isn’t working. It chases away elected officials, candidates and philanthropists who don’t want to hitch their wagons to perpetually losing causes. It burns out talented leaders and staff. And it feeds a cycle of cynicism that sows deeper and deeper distrust of the criminal justice system, of American institutions and of democracy itself.

“It’s crucial to face our ugly history. Justice demands that we identify and fix our problems. But to accelerate America’s march toward a safer and more just society, we also must recognize, examine and learn from what’s gone right.” ~Adam Gelb, the President and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice. 

Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with a crime. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.

National Public Defense Workload Study

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With no public defender system, Maine's poor are often represented by private attorneys with criminal backgrounds

In a first of its kind report from the RAND Corporation, the National Public Defense Workload Study says that public defender caseloads are too heavy and unmanageable.

Also, today’s standards for the number of cases that public defenders handle are no longer working, with these caseloads leading to an exodus from the profession. The study recommends new standards be adopted to address the issue and protect the public’s fundamental right to effective legal representation in criminal court.

Researchers conducted a comprehensive review and analysis of 17 state-level public defense workload studies conducted between 2005 and 2022. The research then employed the Delphi method to facilitate the efforts of a panel of 33 expert criminal defense attorneys from across the country. The data quantified the average amount of time needed to provide constitutionally appropriate representation for adult criminal cases.

KEY FINDINGS

  • High-severity felony cases required the most time, on average: cases with a possible sentence of life without parole, 286 hours; murder cases, 248 hours; sex crimes cases, 167 hours; and other high-severity felony cases, 99 hours.
  • Mid- and low-severity felony cases required an average of 57 and 35 hours, respectively.
  • High- and low-severity cases for driving under the influence required 33 and 19 hours, respectively.
  • High- and low-severity misdemeanor cases required an average of 22.3 and 13.8 hours, respectively.
  • Probation or parole violation cases required an average of 13.5 hours.

EXISTING NATIONAL PUBLIC DEFENSE WORKLOAD STANDARDS ARE OUTDATED, NOT EMPIRICALLY BASED, AND INADEQUATE.

  • The 1973 National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals (NAC) standards fail to differentiate among types of felonies, giving equal weight to a burglary, a sexual assault, and a homicide.
  • Using the 1973 NAC standards creates a risk of excessive workloads.

NEW NATIONAL WORKLOAD STANDARDS BETTER REFLECT MODERN CRIMINAL DEFENSE PRACTICE AND PROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES.

  • The new standards reflect expert attorneys’ experiences with current criminal defense practice, including digital discovery and forensic evidence, as well as the expanded scope of a criminal defense lawyer’s obligations, including advising clients on collateral consequences.
  • The new workload standards can be used to assist public defense agencies, policymakers, and other stakeholders in evaluating defender workloads.

My opinion? Excellent study by the Rand Corporation. Many of my colleagues are highly-trained and extremely capable public defenders. However, public defense attorneys with excessive caseloads cannot simply give appropriate time and attention to each client.

Excessive caseloads violate ethics rules and inevitably cause harm. Overburdened attorneys are forced to choose cases or activities to focus on, such that many cases are resolved without appropriate diligence. A justice system burdened by triage risks unreliability, denying all people who rely on it — victims, witnesses, defendants, and their families and communities — efficient, equal, and accurate justice.

Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with a crime. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.

Traffic-Related Deaths Are on the Rise

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These States Have The Most Summer Driving Fatalities

This year is becoming an increasingly deadly year for traffic-related deaths on Washington roads, according to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) and Washington State Patrol (WSP).

The worsening traffic safety crisis is leading to more deaths at this point in 2023 than the year before, the agencies reported on Aug. 30.

As of July, Washington saw 417 traffic-related fatalities, compared to 413 fatalities in July 2022. According to WTSC, 2022 marked the deadliest year on Washington roads since 1990.

“We have seen more multi-fatality crashes in 2023, which is making this a historically deadly year . . . We are announcing these very preliminary figures because we need everyone’s help right now. Driving sober, driving focused, respecting speed limits, and buckling up are the four best ways to save a life.” ~Shelly Baldwin, Director of WTSC

Officials note the “fatal four” common causes of traffic crashes and deaths as impairment, distraction, speeding and not wearing seat belts. Among the 750 people who died on Washington roads in 2022, approximately 75% of those deaths (565 deaths) involved one or more of the fatal four behaviors, according to WTSC.

While more lives have been lost so far in 2023, WTSC says there have been fewer deadly crashes in total – which means crashes are resulting in more losses of life per crash.

“Saving lives on our highways involves everyone’s participation – and that includes passengers. Driver decisions are an obvious factor in fatal collisions, but passengers have a duty to ensure their own safety by always choosing to buckle up. We need this disheartening trend to turn around, and we cannot do that without everyone’s participation.” ~WSP Chief John R. Batiste

The 90 Dangerous Days of Summer, a campaign educating the public, has found that summer months often are the deadliest stretch of time for drivers in Washington. Throughout Labor Day Weekend, state and local law enforcement officials will increase their presence on the roadways as a safety reminder.

“The power to save lives is in the hands of every driver on our roads,” Baldwin said. “Going into Labor Day and the final four months of 2023, we still have time to change this trend. Please get a sober ride if you have used drugs or alcohol. Higher speeds endanger the lives of everyone, so please respect the speed limit. If we practice these simple safety behaviors each day, we can save hundreds of lives so that they will be here to enjoy the holidays with their family and friends.”

WSP also urges bicyclists to always wear helmets and protective gear while all motorists should always keep a cautionary eye out for pedestrians, bicyclists and other roadway users.

Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with DUI, Reckless Driving or any other crime. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.

Washington State Ranked 23rd In The Nation For Drug Use

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Cities begin forming drug possession laws after Washington bill failed to pass legislature | KOMO

Insightful article in The Center Square by journalist Brett Davis shows reveals Washington ranks at No. 23 in the nation for drug use. The article follows on the heels of a WalletHub study.

To compile its rankings, WalletHub compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 21 key metrics, including arrests, overdose rates, opioid prescriptions, and employee drug testing laws.

Washington came in at No. 3 – just behind Vermont and Oregon, respectively – in terms of the highest percentage of adult drug users. The Evergreen State also took the No. 3 ranking, behind Oregon and Colorado, in terms of the highest percentage of adults with unmet drug-treatment needs.

Per WalletHub’s report, Washington ranked 51st in the nation – dead last – with the fewest people receiving substance abuse treatment per 1,000 drug users.

It wasn’t all bad news for Washington, however, which accounts for the state’s overall in-between ranking.

“Washington ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of drug use . . . On the downside, the state has a large share of adults who used illicit drugs in the past month, almost 22%, and does not consider substance abuse during pregnancy a crime. It also has the third largest share of adults who couldn’t get treatment for illicit drug use in the past year, 8.5%.” ~WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez

WalletHub’s study notes America’s war against drug abuse has “a long and storied history in the United States.

“Yet despite the country’s best efforts to fight it, the problem is getting worse, and is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report states. “There were over 100,000 drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending in April 2021, up 28.5% from the previous year. It’s crucial for the government to address this issue and prevent it from getting any worse.”

The top 10 states and state designates in terms of drug use:

1. West Virginia

2. District of Columbia

3. Arkansas

4. Missouri

5. New Mexico

6. Nevada

7. Colorado

8. Michigan

9. Oregon

10. Tennessee

The bottom 10 states in terms of drug use:

51. Minnesota

50. Hawaii

49. Utah

48. Idaho

47. Iowa

46. North Dakota

45. Nebraska

44. Virginia

43. South Dakota

42. Georgia

Dozens of cities in Washington state are considering new bans on possession or public use of illegal drugs. That’s after state legislators failed to reach an agreement on a new drug law in the final hours of the 2023 legislative session.

Please contact my office if you, a friend or family member are charged with a Drug Offense or any other crime. Hiring an effective and competent defense attorney is the first and best step toward justice.