Serious crime in Des Moines decreased by 37 percent during the last two years, Police Chief Roger Baker informed city council members in a report submitted late last month.

A 23 percent reduction in "Part I Crime" was recorded in 2007, following a 14 percent drop off the previous year. Baker added that police received 10 percent fewer calls for service last year.

Part I crimes are murder, arson, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, and auto theft.

"Gang and drug related issues continue to persist, but are being addressed and we are already seeing positive results from the Crime Task Force," the chief added.

"Progress is being made in the reduction of crime and the fear of crime in the Pacific Ridge neighborhoods" along Pacific Highway South north of Kent-Des Moines Road.

Baker said this sharp decline in criminal activity began with the adoption of the police department's strategic plan in 2005, which "reorganized and redirected the talents and efforts of the staff....

"This more focused and directed utilization of personnel and technical resources established public confidence and support for the passage of the [2006 property tax] Levy Lid Lift."

The six-year levy lid lift is generating additional funding to restore 12 police personnel positions that were cut due to revenue shortfalls beginning in 1999, "and to date we have been able to fill eight of the 12 restored positions," he continued.

By June, the police department "had achieved sufficient increases in staffing, training and equipment levels to field three police officers of [the] designated five police officer levy lid lift-funded crime task force."

Baker told city lawmakers, "We expect to fill the remaining two positions this year. This is essentially ... the same proactive team concept that had reduced criminal activity in that area prior to the start of police department staffing reductions."

The task force, which will provide data-driven, directed enforcement activities in the Pacific Ridge area, "is working with our own city departments, neighboring city agencies, and King County to multiply the effectiveness of our efforts," he said.

In addition to increased staffing, Baker noted, "Several key city ordinances [also] have been instrumental in the restoration of the police department and the significant reduction in crime and the fear of crime in our community."

One is the Crime Free Rental Housing Ordinance, enacted in 2005, which provides skilled assistance to property owners and managers to help them better manage their property and resolve public safety issues.

This program requires rental-housing owners and managers to have a business license, attend a crime free housing class ("Landlord 101"), and conduct a safety survey of their property.

Currently Des Moines has almost 3,000 rental units whose owners and managers participate in the crime-free program, with 408 of them in the Pacific Ridge community.

"We will continue to work closely with the property owners and managers of Pacific Ridge and we hope that they will work closely with the Des Moines Police Department," Baker pledged.

The city also "provides a very effective voluntary criminal trespass program to owners and managers of commercial and residential property," he said, which allows police officers "to remove, from participating private properties, those people who are there for no legitimate purpose."