Auburn police highlight reductions in larceny, Flock cameras and $200,000 shell‑casing grant; juvenile homicides increased

A senior Auburn Police Department speaker presented crime and technology updates at the city forum, summarizing recent trends and regional partnerships.

Police officials said overall call volume fell nearly 10% year over year and that larceny and other nonviolent crimes showed double‑digit declines in several categories. The department reported a drop in auto thefts from just over 1,500 to just over 900 incidents in the past year, a change the speaker attributed in part to legislative changes and to deployment of license‑plate capture cameras (Flock cameras).

The department said it deployed 20 initial Flock cameras that generate alerts when a plate matches regional stolen‑vehicle, missing‑person or Silver Alert entries; officers receive alerts on mobile devices and can respond. The city council subsequently approved 20 additional cameras to expand coverage, and speakers noted the regional data‑sharing arrangement allows tracking of suspect vehicles across multiple jurisdictions.

On forensic capacity, police said they received a grant of “a little over $200,000” from the state attorney general’s office to purchase a machine that analyzes shell casings to help link firearms to multiple shootings; the speaker said that machine would be available to regional partners and that currently only one such machine exists in the county.

Police acknowledged a troubling change in juvenile homicide numbers — rising from one in 2023 to three in 2024 — while other juvenile metrics were broadly similar year to year. The department stressed that juvenile violent incidents remain a small subset of overall calls but said it is using data to target prevention and prosecution resources.

Speakers described regional coordination with neighboring cities, King County Sheriff’s Office and the King County Prosecutor’s Office to improve prosecution decisions and investigative capacity; officials said they had successfully advocated for prosecutors to revise guidelines affecting custody and bail decisions in some cases.

The department also said the city approved funding to hire 10 additional police officers in the most recent budget; officials noted it takes roughly a year for an entry‑level recruit to complete training and be fully deployable on patrol, while lateral hires can sometimes be operational sooner.

Ending: Police officials framed technology and regional partnerships as instruments to reduce property and violent crime, while acknowledging gaps remain on juvenile violence and staffing timelines for new officers.