PORT TOWNSEND — With Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and Port Townsend Police Department responding to strings of property crimes, both agencies have reported spikes in burglaries in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2005.
“The spike was just recently,” said Jefferson County Undersheriff Tim Perry.
“We had a huge rash of burglaries in the last two months.”
The number of reported burglaries in Jefferson County — not including Port Townsend — soared from 94 in the first half of 2005 to 137 between Jan. 1 and June 30 this year.
Port Townsend Police Department reported 34 burglaries in the first half of last year, soaring to 85 in the same period this year.
“It’s really tough to attribute it to this or that,” said Port Townsend Police Chief Conner Daily.
“It’s the changing face of the community.”
Recent arrests
About 50 burglaries occurring in Port Ludlow, Port Townsend, Quilcene and Cape George are believed to be cleared by the arrests of five people in the past month, Perry said.
“They were busy little bees,” said Perry.
Despite the increase in burglaries throughout Jefferson County, Perry said statistics show that other crimes are going down.
Larceny cases numbered 177 in the first half of 2005 and 158 the first half of 2006.
“Part of that is we’ve been trying to do education about locking stuff up,” the undersheriff said.
