FY21 PSN Project - Eastern Washington

Applicant Name: Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs
Recipient City and State: City of Yakima Police Department, Washington
Total Funding Requested: $107,630

USAO/PSN: The City of Yakima is a priority location for the Eastern District of Washington United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) and has actively participated in PSN since 2017.

Project Neighborhood: The east region of the City of Yakima is 7.55 square miles and supports approximately 41,000 persons, or 44% of the city’s population (Zip code: 98901). This region is comprised of eight census tracts, all with over 20 percent of poverty:

Summary of Goals/Activities: The YPD proposes to continue their PSN Subcommittee efforts to address persistent crime and disorder in the east region of the city. The continued funding for PSN will support the following:

Gang Investigation Subcommittee efforts to develop person-based intervention strategies collaborating with the USAO and community-based services to suppress criminal activity and divert at- risk persons to community violence intervention (CVI) efforts.
Domestic Violence Subcommittee efforts to improve community and system responses to repeat domestic victimization. Initial data analysis indicates strong correlation between offenders of gang and gun violence and prior domestic violence cases.
Building Analytical Capacity Subcommittee efforts to improve YPD access to data sources in support of advanced analytical processes to inform data driven programs (e.g., DDACTs) or investigation methods (e.g., social network analysis)

Summary of Data Plan: The YPD and their PSN partner has evaluated five years of city data (e.g., calls for service, reported crime, code violations) to identify patterns of crime and disorder within the east region of the City. The PSN Data Plan will build on this information with a neighborhood survey of adults and youth, environmental surveys, and business interviews to further identify needs and map responses.

Specific Crime Issues: Yakima rates of all violent crimes are three to five times higher than national rates (See Fig. 2 and 3). Specific to gang and gun violence, YPD has experienced an increase of aggravated assaults and attempted shootings (shots fired) in the east region due to conflicts among Latinx groups.