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January 25, 2019
T he C olumbia P ress
Crime: Shoplifting has risen in Warrenton
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A request seeking comment
from Walmart was not suc-
cessful.
The police chief’s annual
report, which was presented
to the City Commission on
Tuesday, showed a 58 per-
cent increase in arrests and
criminal citations last year
over the previous year. War-
renton made 1,731 arrests in
2018 and 1,098 in 2017.
“This increase was aided
by being full-staffed for half
of the year and the increased
activity from Walmart,” the
report states.
Overall, calls for service
rose 26 percent to 9,986 in
2018 versus 7,982 in 2017.
Traffic stops were up 48
percent.
“The increase in traffic
events had a direct relation
to being full-staffed for the
first half of the year,” accord-
ing to the report. “More of-
ficers mean more proactive
enforcement stats like traffic
stops, DUIIs, and more time
to do proactive activity.”
In 2017, the department be-
gan a concerted effort to stop
impaired driving and that
effort continued into 2018.
There were 55 arrests last
year for driving under the
influence of intoxicants, a 6
percent increase from 2017,
Walmart’s high-tech surveil-
lance equipment helped police
catch these two identity theft
suspects last year.
but a huge jump from 2015,
when Warrenton’s officers
made just 14 DUII arrests.
Narcotics-related
crimes
were up 37 percent, from 79
in 2017 to 108 last year.
“K9 Gabe and his partner’s
work helps with this stat,”
Workman wrote.
Property crimes, which
include burglary, larceny,
arson, shoplifting and van-
dalism, rose 32 percent last
year, from 902 to 1,187.
The increase was due to
calls in the second half of the
year after Walmart opened
and an increase in crime calls
involving homeless people,
according to the report.
“Any time you grow as a city
population-wise and busi-
ness-wise, your crime statis-
tics will go up,” Workman told
the City Commission. “It’s not
that there’s more crime. There
are more targets. We have
homelessness, a transient
population, gypsies panhan-
dling. There’s even a group
out of Washington state that
stages women and children at
intersections.”
There was a spot of good
news in the police report.
Mid-year, Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation im-
proved the Ensign Lane in-
tersection on Highway 101,
eliminating left turns without
a dedicated green light.
“We’ve had no major acci-
dents – none in the last few
months -- after removing the
flashing yellow sign at En-
sign,” the chief said.
Levees:
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“They just had done Pend-
leton’s system of levees and
found 30 points of discrepan-
cy,” Kujala said. “We had 300.
It’s certainly a more complicat-
ed system than most.”
Regardless,
Warrenton’s
dikes and levees are expected
to remain “minimally accept-
able,” he said.
City Engineer Collin Stelzig is
working with utility and prop-
erty owners to manage or re-
move encroachments.
The Oregon National Guard
helped the city rehabilitate a
section of levee that had set-
tled, bringing it back to its
original elevation. The city also
has been working with Clatsop
County Diking District No. 11,
which is outside city limits but
part of the flood protection sys-
tem, in hopes of annexing it.
A formal report is expected in
April with a final report from
the Corps in September.