Sunnyside police report year-to-date drops in burglaries and vehicle thefts, attribute gains to Flock cameras and street crimes unit

Sunnyside Police Chief (unnamed) presented year-to-date crime statistics to the City Council covering Jan. 1 through Feb. 27 and compared those figures to the same period in 2024.

The chief reported the department’s year-to-date figures show aggravated assaults down about 40%, burglaries (breaking and entering) down 71%, and motor vehicle thefts down 84% compared with last year. He attributed at least part of the improvement in vehicle-related crimes to the city’s use of the Flock license-plate camera system and the reactivation of the street crimes unit. “When we got the flock cameras in about 2023. And so that made a big difference,” the chief said.

The chief said weapons-law violations are up about 83% and attributed some of that rise to proactive work by the street crimes unit, which digs deeper during stops and investigations than routine patrol might. “Weapons law violation could be as simple as pulling a car over for a DUI, and then they see a weapon in there… where street crimes does and that's their specialty,” he said.

The chief described how dispatch and patrol receive near-instant alerts from the Flock system, noting an example in which a partial plate from a theft at a retail store produced a Flock hit and led to an arrest. He also said multiple Flock hits on sequential cameras help officers track a vehicle’s direction and intercept suspects.

Councilors praised the technology and the department’s data access, and one councilor asked whether the increase in simple assaults reflected repeat offenders or prosecution limits; the chief said simple assaults were still near historic lows and the increase was small and not clearly attributable to prosecution changes.

Ending: Chief summarized that Flock cameras and targeted enforcement have improved the department’s ability to identify and apprehend suspects; no policy changes or votes were taken.