Apartment Crimes: What's Going On Where You Live?

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By Holly Zuluaga

Summary

Where you live matters. Action News knows that you want to know what's going on in your neighborhood, so we did the research and uncovered the apartment complexes in the Tri-Cities with the most calls to report a crime, compared to the number who live there.

Story Published: May 10, 2010 at 5:39 PM PST

TRI-CITIES--Where you live matters.

Action News knows that you want to know what's going on in your neighborhood, so we did the research and uncovered the apartment complexes in the Tri-Cities with the most calls to report a crime, compared to the number who live there.

“I feel safe. I mean it doesn't look like a bad neighborhood,” Maria Moreno said.

Maria Moreno moved into the Silver Creek Apartments in Pasco just a few weeks ago. She says she hasn't seen any crime since then.

“It's very important, especially with four kids. It's very important to me when I have my 10 year old son who walks over to his cousin’s house,” Maria Moreno said.

Action News uncovered the real reports on just what's going on where you live.

We dug through dozens of records to expose where the highest number of calls to police and reports on crime are coming from.

We used 6 specific crimes to compare Richland, Pasco and Kennewick.

These include Theft, Burglary, Assault, Sex Crimes, Drugs, and Malicious Mischief.

We also focused exclusively on the crimes happening in larger apartment complexes, ones with 50 or more units.

Action News pulled the calls for service logs for all of last year.

In Pasco, we found the Silver Creek Apartments off Road 100 had the most calls reporting these crimes, per unit.

It's the same complex Maria Moreno just moved into.

For those 6 crimes, an average of 11.6% of units were affected.

“Wow, I had no idea. I mean I guess I should have researched a little better,” Maria Moreno said.

Silver Creek had 15 calls for theft, 5 burglaries, 1 assault, 1 sex crime, 1 drug call, and 5 for malicious mischief. Malicious mischief can be something like graffiti or vandalism.

“That's why I picked West Pasco was because this side seemed side seemed to have less crime,” Maria Moreno said.

Pasco Police say they aren't surprised, it's low income housing and they're constantly called out to Silver Creek.

On the opposite end of town, The Pinecrest Apartments off Jay St in Pasco had no calls for crime, making it one of the safest by these stats alone.

In Richland, Action News discovered the Columbia Park Apartments had by far the highest percentage of calls for these crimes in the city. The complex off Jadwin has nearly a quarter of its apartments affected by crime calls.

Action News asked residence if they were surprised.

“Yeah, it really does because I don't see any of that,” Kristina Middleton said.

Kristina Middleton has lived at Columbia Park for 2 years. She has four kids and lets them play outside all the time because it's safe.

The numbers show Columbia Park had 9 calls for theft, 10 reports of drugs, and 8 for malicious mischief.

Also in Richland, two apartment complexes made no calls to report those crimes in 2009, Northpoint off Stevens and Washington Square 1 on George Washington Way.

In Kennewick, two apartment complexes led the pack with the most crime calls. Heatherstone off of West 10th had about a quarter of its apartments affected by crime calls.

Right across the street, Hawaiian Village had roughly the same.

This is the breakdown for the Heatherstone complex. The most calls came for theft and burglary, drugs and malicious mischief.

Results are similar in the Hawaiian Village, where theft, drugs and malicious mischief also brought police to this complex more than anything else.

“I think it’s gotten better,” Debbie Lueth said.

Kennewick has a dozen apartments that are fully certified, for their Crime Resistant Community Living Program.

Heatherstone and Hawaiian Village are on that list, but police say they aren't surprised to see these apartments with the highest numbers, they know they're out their frequently.

Kennewick Police say they have made significant improvements. If they weren't part of the program the numbers would be double. To be certified apartment managers must attend a landlord seminar, allow police to do a security survey and make improvements, they also have to set up two community meetings a year.

Also in Kennewick, we found there was 1 apartment with no crime calls for 2009: Cambridge Station Apartments.

Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco all have Crime Prevention Programs for Apartment Complexes. It's up the Apartments if they want to participate, but police say it makes a big difference.

Managers are notified when the police are called so they know what's going on and can take action.

Police say that when looking to move into an apartment, you should check to see if the complex is part of the crime free rental housing program.

Also, you can tell a lot about a property by the general maintenance. Also police suggest visiting the property during the day and night to see what you observe going down.