Kenmore ranked one of safest mid-size cities nationwide

KENMORE, Wash. — Washington State has the fourth-highest property crime rate in the country, but the 12th lowest violent crime rate.

This is according to new numbers from Safewise, which lists Kenmore as one of its safest mid-size cities.

KIRO7 talked with the Kenmore police chief and asked what they are doing different.

Kenmore Police Chief Brandon Moen says it’s really a number of things. He says the mission they have is to find long-term solutions so recidivism is low.

“It feel it’s safe for me, yeah,” said Kenmore resident David Deddo.

“When it comes to crime, I don’t think so, I’ve not had any issues. It’s going to be two years so I haven’t had any issues, I haven’t had any experiences where I feel it should be better,” said Kenmore resident Daphanie Iglehart.

Moen says it’s nice to see his department’s hard work pay off.

“In reality, one of the bigger reasons is that we’re a midrange city population-wise, that’s highly residential and that helps us,” said Moen.

Moen says the less commercialized areas tend to have less crime.

He also says community partnerships are a huge help.

“There’s a lot of people just always around, and so if there’s anything they see is probably a problem, they would call it out, I’ve heard it a couple times,” said Iglehart.

“From what I’ve seen online, people are very vocal when they have something to say,” said Deddo.

Programs like RADAR also help — it stands for Response Awareness De-escalation and Referral.

“Currently as it stands we have mental-health professionals that are available to officers, to assist officers on calls involving a crisis, someone in crisis, someone that needs additional assistance, so we have a civilian mental-health professional who is there to assist the officers,” said Moen.

The city of Kenmore implemented RADAR back in 2020 and Moen says initiatives like this help slow the revolving door of repeat offenders.

KIRO 7 asked what the biggest challenge is.

“In terms of the more common crimes here, it is the property crimes we see the most, it is the mail theft, the package theft, the catalytic converter — things of that sort. You’d see regionally the same trends,” explained Moen.

Moen says the least common is violent crime, and says when it does happen, they are able to hold people accountable.

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