A sharp spike of murders in Kent means the number of people killed in the city so far this year has already nearly doubled the number of people murdered in all of 2022.
Thursday morning, a woman was shot in the head at the Phoenix Court Apartments in the East Hill neighborhood. She is still fighting for her life. That’s the same spot where a man was shot and killed on July 15. (There were also shootings at those apartments on: June 22 and on May 17.)
Police Chief Rafael Padilla presented in a report to Kent City Council that so far this year, there have been 17 homicides as of the end of June (two of them not considered crimes – an officer-involved shooting, and an incident where a man died after being restrained by a security guard.) That’s compared to just nine homicides in all of last year.
In a one-on-one interview with KIRO 7, Chief Padilla shared insight behind the alarming sharp rise in homicides.
“In my 31 years now, this is as bad as I’ve ever seen it. We want people to know we’re extremely concerned and we’re maximizing what we can do,” said Chief Rafael Padilla, Kent Police Chief. Padilla said the problem is two-fold, with the worsening fentanyl crisis playing one big role.
“It’s crystal clear - I can say with all confidence that a major driver for violent crime in our city is drugs. Drug use, drug trafficking,” Padilla said. He said emerging intel shows gangs are fighting over territories.
“There are a lot of informal battles – literal gun battles to control the fentanyl trade,” Padilla said.
But the chief says the other big problem is staffing.
Kent has one of the fewest officers per capita for Puget Sound cities, coming in toward the bottom of the list. For example, Kent has 1.2 officers per 1,000 people, compared to 1.8 for Everett, 1.6 for Seattle, and 1.5 for Tacoma.
Chief Padilla says it means the department is forced to react to problems instead of having resources to prevent crimes. He says one frequent complaint he hears from the community is why neighborhoods see less police presence.
“We simply don’t have the resources to do the preventative patrols, presence,” Padilla said. “Right now we’re just keeping up with 911 calls,” he said.
Padilla is hoping for funding sources to expand the department by at least 22 officers, which would bring Kent in line with the Washington State per capita average.
“Right now my community is afraid. Right now in parts of my community, people legitimately have to be afraid where they go, where they allow their kids to play. That’s not the city we want, and it’s not the city we were until recently,” Padilla said.
The chief made sure to point out – that he is very grateful for the Kent City Council and Mayor, both of whom have been deeply supportive of the police department. However, Padilla said expanding the department size will likely need to come from another source of funding.
Kent has filled 50 officer positions over the last few years because of attrition and officers leaving for other reasons during the pandemic. It currently has 166 officers.
New new drug laws in Washington State for public drug use take effect August 15th and that could once again impact how crimes play out in Kent and statewide.
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