Earlier this week the Seattle Police Department released crime statistics for Seattle in 2010.

In general, the numbers revealed a citywide drop (from 2009) in major crime of six percent. Burglaries dropped four percent, robberies dropped 20 percent, property crimes dropped five percent and there was a five percent increase in vehicle thefts. There were 19 homicides in 2010, the lowest since 1956, according to Seattle police.

The report (which you can find here also broke down the numbers for specific precincts, including West Seattle’s Southwest region. You can see a map of how police break the city into precincts here.

Southwest Precinct police often mention car prowls and home burglaries as the most common crimes in West Seattle. Although burglaries have their own category, car prowls are clumped together with all thefts so specific numbers were not available.

Robbery
Robberies in West Seattle were down 11.5 percent from 2009. January and June 2010 shared the highest monthly robbery totals at 13 each.

Assault
There was a 1.4 percent decrease in West Seattle assaults from 2009. July 2010 had the highest number of assaults at 96.

Burglary
Burglaries were down 16.5 percent from 2009 – the most significant drop of all categories and a major focus of Southwest Precinct police. January 2010 had the most burglaries with 95.

Burglars “know that people do have new things in their house and that’s when they go and do their best stealing really,” Southwest Precinct Operations Lt. Pierre Davis said of the January uptick in burglaries after people load up on new items during the holiday season.

Vehicle Theft
In the one area of rising crime, West Seattle had a five percent increase in vehicle thefts from 2009. The worst 2010 month was May with 50 cars reported stolen.

Lt. Davis said whenever police see a drastic rise in a particular crime (such as 95 burglaries in January), one of the first things they do is investigate the jail registry to find out if any repeat offenders have made it out of jail and are back to committing crime. If they find offenders are back on the streets, that information is passed on to street patrol, he said.

Lt. Davis said there are a number of factors behind the overall decrease in West Seattle crime.

“The more we can link them (serial criminals) to, the more time they get for these crimes and the prosecutor’s office has been working very diligently getting these guys some exceptional sentences solely based on the number of crimes that they are committing,” Lt. Davis said. “So that could be part of the reason why (we are seeing a decrease), some of these individuals around here are getting some exceptional time, therefore they can’t be in the neighborhoods capering.”

Lt. Davis said part of linking criminals to several crimes comes down to good detective work by Southwest Precinct officers responding to calls and getting fingerprints, “which is good police work, we like to see that happen.”

An active community full of tipsters is another reason West Seattle is seeing drops in crime, according to Lt. Davis.

“They (West Seattleites) really want to rid themselves of a lot of the crime problems around here and I can’t blame them,” he said, commending the public for the amount of tips they send to police.

Lt. Davis said local media is also an important factor in reducing crime.

“I can’t say enough for you guys, when you talk about getting the information out to a massive amount of people in a hurried fashion,” he said.