Police brief: most reported simple assaults were inside two DSHS facilities, city told
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Summary
A police/sheriff representative told council that two Department of Social and Health Services facilities accounted for a majority of Medical Lake—s reported simple assaults this year, and described steps to coordinate with Eastern State Hospital security.
A representative from the sheriff's office presented Medical Lake—s October crime statistics and told councilors that a notable share of reported assaults occurred inside two Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) facilities.
"When you flip back to page 2, the total, aggravated assaults for Medical Lake in 2025 were 4. So only 2 of those happened outside the facilities. 80 total within Medical Lake for simple assaults, of which ... 53 were at one of the facilities," the law-enforcement speaker said. The speaker reiterated that those facility incidents are concentrated within institutional settings.
The speaker said he has been meeting with Ken Raines, security director at Eastern State Hospital, to seek greater on‑campus law-enforcement presence and better communications access. "We're working to try and get a greater presence on their grounds and ... collaborate with them," he said.
Council members pressed for a breakdown of assaults that are domestic violence and where incidents are occurring (e.g., parks, schools, in-town locations). The sheriff—s representative agreed to provide a year-to-date breakdown indicating what proportion of assaults are domestic-violence related.
The briefing also summarized the typical timeline for officer-involved investigations, including toxicology and ballistics testing, and explained that completed investigations are reviewed by prosecutors before release to the public.
No policy action or vote resulted from the briefing; councilors requested follow-up data to better understand the underlying causes and locations of assaults.
