Only four out of ten Renton residents feel safe in their own neighborhoods after dark

Renton’s latest official survey results are in, and concerns about crime are the highest I’ve ever seen– after decades of reviewing Renton survey results.  The results were officially presented to Renton Council’s Committee of the Whole at their August 7 meeting.

Only one out of ten residents feels safe in downtown Renton after dark.  Only four out of ten feel safe in their own neighborhood after dark.  This is completely unacceptable, especially for our northwest city where wintertime sunsets happen as early as 4:25 PM.

When residents were asked to rate the MOST important thing the city should be working on out of fifteen choices,  “safe and secure community” far-and-away  topped the list, with 70% saying it was most important.  The next highest category came in only one-tenth as high, with 7% saying “quality housing choices” was the most important.

As I covered in  a May blog entry,  Renton needs to refocus on Priority 1 police response times (for the most urgent threats), and add the officers needed to get these response times back to 60-90 seconds.  We must not go the way of Seattle, which now has ten-minute priority one response times.  We also must insist the legislature give more authority back to our police officers, so they may once again reasonably pursue burglars, drug dealers, stolen cars, and dangerous reckless drivers when conditions allow for it.

We also need additional detectives to help work down the backlog of unsolved crimes.  We can’t let some council members’ fears of police,  and fear of “over-policing,” prevent us from hiring the officers and detectives needed to make residents feel safe again in their neighborhoods. And we need to have a safe downtown, that generates commerce in the evening and makes us feel like visiting our businesses there.  Our downtown not only entertains and serves us, but it also generates the tax revenues needed to fund vital city services.  Downtown is like our living room, and  9 out of 10 of us are afraid to go there.

Beyond adding the officers needed to maintain lightning fast response times, there’s other steps we need to take as a community; I’ll cover them in future blog entries.

Survey results showed that Renton residents still find much to love about Renton, so the results are not all bad. Many of the positives, like our parks, amenities, and overall sense of community, have been an important focus for our city for decades.  But the crime trends must be brought under control to preserve those qualities we like so much about our city.  The full survey results can be found here.