Camas police chief touts low crime rates, discusses 2024 statistics

Although it’s often touted as one of the safest cities in Washington, Camas still grapples with crime. In 2024, the Camas Police Department responded to about 13,000 calls for service, including 5,000 traffic stops and more than 300 reports of high-priority calls, such as assaults, burglaries, sex crimes, death investigations and robberies, Chief Tina Jones told the Camas City Council on Monday. “We continue to have an incredibly low crime rate in our city, and my staff is doing a good job investigating and holding offenders accountable when we do have crime,” Jones told city officials. Jones added that her department continues to struggle with adequate staffing levels. To keep pace with the city council’s goal of having 1.5 police officers for every 1,000 residents, her department would need to increase its staffing from 30 sworn members to 40.5, Jones told city leaders in November. Jones said this week that being understaffed contributes to delayed response times in certain parts of the city. “We’re having to go a farther distance, and there are more pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles to navigate. These are indicators, red flags that our system is stressed and that we don’t have enough resources,” Jones said. The police department strives to keep response times under six minutes for its highest priority calls. In 2024, the department met its response-time goals in areas of Camas near the city’s downtown, Lacamas Lake and Camas High School, with an average response time of five minutes and 25 seconds for priority 1 calls and four minutes and 40 seconds for priority 2 calls. Average police response times in the city’s western and northern areas, however, failed to meet the department’s goals, with average response times of six minutes and 57 seconds for priority 1 calls and six minutes and 33 seconds for priority 2 calls. “We’re continuing to see more demand for our services, which is driving up our response times,” Jones told The Columbian on Tuesday. “Given our current staffing, that’s something we’re going to continue to see exacerbate over time. “It is really critical for our community to understand that, if we don’t appropriately resource and grow our department as the community grows, then our service levels will drop, and response times will drop. And we won’t be able to get there as quickly,” Jones said. In February, Camas voters rejected a ballot measure that would have increased the city’s utility taxes by 4 percent to fund a police staffing increase. In response, Jones has looked for efficiencies in her department. “We are not able to increase staffing to meet demands, so we have to be innovative and use technology,” Jones said. “Finding ways to leverage technology to increase efficiencies and improve our service to the community has been a key goal for us.” Jones said she was able to fully staff her detective division in 2024 following a retirement and a promotion in that department in 2023. In 2024, Camas detectives worked on 411 reports, investigated 146 cases, completed 56 search warrants, assisted with three police shooting investigations, took on 58 Adult Protective Services and 26 Child Protective Services cases, did 26 sex offender registration checks, and referred 26 arrests or charges to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. “They handled an extraordinary caseload on top of attending over 200 hours of critical training,” Jones said. “And some of the cases we’ve had have been shocking as far as some sex crimes and abuse of juveniles — really difficult and complex cases both emotionally and technically.” Other 2024 police department statistics show code enforcement officers responded to 102 calls for everything from overgrown vegetation to abandoned vehicles; parking enforcement officers issued 1,529 parking tickets downtown and at Heritage Park; school resource officers handled 470 calls and made three arrests; and the records department conducted 290 background checks, 711 public records requests and handled 3,297 police reports. Jones told The Columbian on Tuesday that it is humbling to look at what her department accomplished in 2024. “This report is kind of a distillation of our team’s really incredible work,” Jones said. “It’s hard to highlight everything.”

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