Marysville Police Department serves community

Over the course of 2019, Marysville residents saw a nearly 9 percent reduction in crime. Over the course of the past four years, crime in the city has gone down 19.45 percent.

Marysville Police Commander Mark Thomas described 2019 as "busy" as officers’ efforts to address specific crime issues and repeat offenders helped with the reduction in crime. He also cited the efforts of the department's crime analyst who helped in finding geographic trends in specific areas of the city.

In 2019, officers initiated or responded to more than 71,000 cases. Thomas highlighted the efforts of the department's Pro-Act team that consists of one sergeant and three officers that proactively works to reduce crime and target repeat offenders.

He said a lot of crime comes back to narcotics and the team seized 419 grams of methamphetamine, around 40 grams of cocaine and 1,400 pills. The team also made 413 arrests in 2019, according to information from the city of Marysville.

In addition, the Marysville Police Department participates in the North Snohomish County Property Crimes Unit in partnership with the Sheriff’s Office. The unit made 633 arrests with 394 in Marysville and recovered $174,000 worth property, according to information from the city of Marysville.

The Marysville Police Department instituted an Embedded Social Worker Team that pairs an officer with a social worker to go out into the community to try to connect with the homeless and people who have addictions and mental health issues.

“It is continuing with its success,” Thomas said.

Starting in 2018, officer Mike Buell and county social worker Rochelle Long work to build relationships with people they meet on the streets, in homeless camps and in the jail. In 2019, 89 people completed dependency assessment, 13 completed mental health evaluations, 31 completed treatment and 67 people secured housing, Thomas said.

“It’s exceeded expectations in terms of results,” Thomas said.

Since the program started in 2018, 207 assessments have been completed, 55 have completed detox, 19 mental health evaluations have been performed, 55 people have graduated from treatment and 114 people have secured housing, according to information from the city of Marysville.

Thomas said the program has helped homeless people who are often struggling with addiction and breaking into homes and businesses.

“We saw a dramatic decrease in crime reports and loss of property,” Thomas said.

The police department also has a School Resource Officer program in the middle and high schools. Officials continue to work with anti-bullying and suicide awareness initiatives with youth and they conducted their third successful police youth academy.

Thomas noted that nationally known inspirational speaker Mark Mero also made presentations to students within the school district in 2019.

Officials are continuing to expand on such community engagement programs as Coffee with a Cop, where people have a chance to meet and talk with an officer.

“We’re always looking at ways to do a better job at that,” Thomas said of the department’s community engagement efforts.

The Marysville Police Department is in a time of transition. As of press time, police leaders were in the process of finding a new chief to replace Rick Smith who retired after 12 years with the department.

“There are a lot of great things that are his legacy,” Thomas said of Chief Smith. The police department is looking to hire five new officers in 2020 in addition to the four officers, two custody officers and one records unit specialist hired in 2019, according to information from the city of Marysville.

The city recently broke ground on a new civic center that will include space for a new jail, police department, municipal court as well as city offices, according to information on the city of Marysville website.

The new facility will be located on a six-acre site located on Delta Avenue between Fifth and Eighth streets.

Construction on the $47.6 million project began in January and will take several years to complete.

“We’re super excited for the new building to open in early 2022,” Thomas said.