Sheriff’s office’s new crime dashboard shows increase in vandalism, burglaries in Birch Bay

The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office launched an interactive crime dashboard that organizes criminal activity in eight unincorporated areas of Whatcom County, including Birch Bay.

The crime data is aggregated in seven categories: accidents, burglary, robbery, stolen vehicle, theft, vandalism, and vehicle prowl. The data can then be selected by time period, which includes comparison by year, six-month period or 30-day period.

Once the information is chosen, it appears in a bar graph comparison and then can be selected to appear on a Google Map. The data can then be broken down by the day of the week and time of day the crime occurred.

Vehicle prowls, vandalism and burglaries increased in Birch Bay during the year-to-year data available before press time, which was between August 26, 2018 to August 25, 2019 and August 26, 2019 and August 25, 2020.

Vehicle prowls in Birch Bay increased 75 percent from 24 to 42 prowls between the two comparison years. Vandalism in Birch Bay increased 57 percent from 28 to 44 incidents from the previous year. Burglaries increased 16 percent from 36 to 42, as well. Stolen vehicles also increased 80 percent from five to nine in the year-to-year data for Birch Bay, although the small sample size creates a large percent increase.

While these crimes increased, accidents in Birch Bay decreased 42 percent from 21 to 12 accidents between the two years. Robbery and theft also decreased in Birch Bay.

In Birch Bay’s data comparing two six month periods, August 2019 to February 2020 and February to August, burglaries, theft and vandalism increased, while accidents, stolen vehicles and vehicle prowls decreased.

Burglaries in Birch Bay were the largest increase in the six-month data, which climbed 56 percent from 16 to 25 burglaries. The largest decrease was vehicle prowls, at 64 percent, as prowls decreased from 31 to 11.

“Having access to this information will enable residents to have a better understanding of what is happening in their communities,” said Whatcom County sheriff Bill Elfo in a news release on the dashboard. “The sheriff’s office utilizes this type of information to identify emerging crime trends and historical patterns of criminal activity to allocate resources and provide targeted patrols.”

The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Records Management System provides data for the dashboard, which is updated every 24 hours. Visit whatcomcounty.us/3442/Crime-Stats to view the crime dashboard.