Shoreline hears 2024 police services report citing lower burglaries, more traffic enforcement and eight vacancies

Shoreline — The Shoreline City Council on March 17 heard the Shoreline Police Department's 2024 Police Services Report, with Chief Tommy Collins summarizing staffing, crime trends and new programs.

Chief Collins said the department is made up of 53 full-time employees, including 50 commissioned positions when fully staffed, and that “as of today” the department carried eight vacancies distributed across the traffic unit, detectives and patrol. He said the department expects staffing to improve in coming weeks as officers in training finish. "My hope is by April…that number will go from 8 to 6," Collins said.

The report showed several shifts in activity and outcomes. Self-initiated police activity (on-views) rose by about 24%, which Chief Collins said equated to roughly 3,000 additional officer-initiated contacts compared with the prior year. Traffic citations increased substantially; Collins noted DUI-related citations rose by about 15. Shoreline's response time for the highest-priority life-safety calls improved by almost one minute, a figure the chief flagged as meaningful for urgent incidents.

Councilmembers and the chief highlighted declines in some crime categories. Collins reported commercial burglaries were down by about 30 and residential burglaries were down by 12 from the previous year. Hate-crime reports logged in the department’s reporting system fell from 11 the prior year to five in 2024; Collins clarified that those numbers reflect internal reporting categories and that a separate legal determination under the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) may differ.

Use-of-force incidents were low: Collins said the department recorded 16 use-of-force events out of 2,007 total contacts, a rate he described as about 1.5 percent. He added the department had “no excessive force or unnecessary use of force” complaints in 2024.

Collins described several programmatic priorities for 2025: team training to align officers and detectives, restarting a Shoreline Police Explorers post (with an initial meeting scheduled next week), expanded traffic enforcement including additional DUI-focused patrols, and reestablishing a retail theft program led by a newly assigned detective. He said Detective Feeley is already working with federal marshals on chronic shoplifting cases and that the program aims to reduce patrol responses and increase accountability for repeat offenders.

Fraud and senior outreach drew council attention. Collins said the department has a community outreach detective who specializes in fraud and recovery investigations; he singled out Detective Joe Monstrode for recovering “over a half million dollars” in scammed funds for local residents last year. The chief said the department plans more targeted fraud-prevention outreach to seniors through neighborhood groups and the senior center.

Councilmembers asked about complaints and the body-worn camera rollout. Collins said every patrol officer received an eye-level body-worn camera in August, which he called a “cost-saving tool” because video evidence speeds complaint adjudication. He noted a training issue: officers sometimes forget to activate cameras, though devices include a 30-second pre-event buffer that captures video (but not audio) when an officer subsequently activates the device.

Addressing community concerns about graffiti, Collins said his special-emphasis team coordinates with the city’s code-enforcement staff and that detectives are taking on graffiti and blight as a targeted project. He asked residents who witness graffiti in progress to call 911 so the incident becomes a call-for-service and can be responded to immediately rather than entered later through SeeClickFix.

Councilmembers praised increased proactive policing and outreach. Several asked that the department continue to monitor and address public-disorder hot spots with a multidisciplinary approach, including lighting, maintenance and homeless outreach where relevant.

Collins closed by urging continued community reporting and partnerships with neighborhood associations and businesses to support prevention and investigation efforts.