Experience with Police officers and to Departments in the Tri-Cities are (Spokane: apartment, low crime)

[A1Rangel]

Hello, I am a police officer in the south and am very interested in moving closer to my home Mountains and family and have an interview with a department in the area in the next week and was curious what experiences anyone in the are has had with the police. I am open to good and bad experiences because I am trying to get a full picture of the are and the choices I am making. I have already made up my mind that the area I'm looking at has considerably less crime then where I'm coming form which is what I want to raise my family in
Thank you in advance for your comments.

[M3 Mitch]

Of the 3 Tri Cities as such, my general impression is that the Kennewick PD is the most professional of the 3, I'm a bit biased as I took a "ride like a cop" motorcycle course from one of their officers, Mike Gaines.

Beyond PD's as such, each county has a Sheriff, could get on with them. Then there is Washington State Patrol.

If you want to do something different, and are in excellent physical shape, you could try to get on with Hanford Patrol.

There are nearby small towns with their own PD, like Grandview and Prosser. Prosser is more upscale, Grandview is a bit grittier, particularly after sundown. I'm friends with one of Grandview's officers, we were having coffee one day and talking about how differently we each see the town, I come in during weekend days when things are calm, he described some pretty bad gang-related things going on when I am not around.

Hope this helps.

[dAqS6R0gRQet]

the crime ratings of this area much like OP has researched also played a big factor on me as well along with the weather, it was one of the key points that pushed it over Spokane and is also much lower than the gangland areas of Bradenton/Sarasota FL i just lived in for the last 5 yrs

its been pretty quiet for the 2 months living in north Richland, and being a night owl with the windows open almost every night so far till the 1-2 AC months start Ive yet to hear any police activity and usually the only time i see it is someone stopped for speeding on George Washington which is a 35MPH that runs onto the 60+MPH highways

im willing to bet the majority of police work is vagrant-related cause you'll see them outside of some of the shopping centers, never any issues with them tho.

Kennewick ive only been during the day for shopping and stuff and mostly near the Toyota Ctr area seemed no different.

Pasco so far is the only place with an "area" that i've physically been to that seems like somewhere you wouldnt want to break down at night in, where I work on the south east end of Pasco south of the airport down N 4th Ave off of 182 to be exact...looking at Google Maps if you search "downtown pasco" it'll take you to that area where 4th and W Lewis St connect so i guess much like the stereotype of most cities, that's to be expected to be the "worst" area. even tho theres a really nice corporate area around the corner with a nice park and speedbumps an stuff, so its really "one wrong turn" off the main road.


that being said i havent seen or heard any police activity during the day while over there tho and I cant really speak for much of the rest of Pasco to the west of that area since Ive only used 182, I might start getting off of 182 at Broadmoor Blvd and taking W Court St to see if i get better gas mileage with my prius using the electric mode rather than all gas on the highway, then i could speak more on the rest of Pasco

but again it could also be just be general lower-income related housing appearance without any crime, cause when you use the data like this site and others have for specifically Pasco the crime rating isnt any higher than the other 2 cities or when you look at the "tri-cities metro area" combined crime ratings.

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by dAqS6R0gRQet

the crime ratings of this area much like OP has researched also played a big factor on me as well along with the weather, it was one of the key points that pushed it over Spokane and is also much lower than the gangland areas of Bradenton/Sarasota FL i just lived in for the last 5 yrs

its been pretty quiet for the 2 months living in north Richland, and being a night owl with the windows open almost every night so far till the 1-2 AC months start Ive yet to hear any police activity and usually the only time i see it is someone stopped for speeding on George Washington which is a 35MPH that runs onto the 60+MPH highways

im willing to bet the majority of police work is vagrant-related cause you'll see them outside of some of the shopping centers, never any issues with them tho.

Kennewick ive only been during the day for shopping and stuff and mostly near the Toyota Ctr area seemed no different.

Pasco so far is the only place with an "area" that i've physically been to that seems like somewhere you wouldnt want to break down at night in, where I work on the south east end of Pasco south of the airport down N 4th Ave off of 182 to be exact...looking at Google Maps if you search "downtown pasco" it'll take you to that area where 4th and W Lewis St connect so i guess much like the stereotype of most cities, that's to be expected to be the "worst" area. even tho theres a really nice corporate area around the corner with a nice park and speedbumps an stuff, so its really "one wrong turn" off the main road.


that being said i havent seen or heard any police activity during the day while over there tho and I cant really speak for much of the rest of Pasco to the west of that area since Ive only used 182, I might start getting off of 182 at Broadmoor Blvd and taking W Court St to see if i get better gas mileage with my prius using the electric mode rather than all gas on the highway, then i could speak more on the rest of Pasco

but again it could also be just be general lower-income related housing appearance without any crime, cause when you use the data like this site and others have for specifically Pasco the crime rating isnt any higher than the other 2 cities or when you look at the "tri-cities metro area" combined crime ratings.

North Richland is generally not a high crime area. I also live in this area, and sirens are rare.

As for the AC, this June has been cooler than normal. Last year was much hotter. But I, too, enjoy opening up the windows this time of year. It is not the norm.

[A1Rangel]

thank you

[j_k_k]

Living in the TC, I always felt there was an unfair emphasis on revenue policing. I also resented very much being followed at night just for being on Columbia Drive, because just driving down the damn street isn't probable cause to think me a lawbreaker. However, I did meet the Kennewick and Richland PD chiefs, and both impressed me. They put on a course for landlords and potential landlords that I found extremely helpful and proactive in addressing apartment building crime. And overall, crime is pretty low. I am far to the side of the spectrum of general distrust for the police, but to fail to give them some credit for the low crime would take such bias to absurd levels. Fair's fair; it's a pretty safe area, so something they are doing is working.

There is definitely a DWH (that'd be Driving While Hispanic) vibe in this area, especially Kennewick and Richland, which I have seen to mean in some cases uneven treatment based upon race. You should also know that Richland and Kennewick used to be sundown towns (though handled in very different ways, since Richland was a company town), with some lasting legacies of past segregation. Speaking Spanish as a police officer in the TC would be very helpful. Would be necessary on the Pasco force, and might nowadays be required for Kennewick and the Benton and Franklin County Sheriffs.

Good luck. Wish where I now live had better cops--first shakedown happened one week into living here. I miss the TC in many ways.

[pnwguy2]

As I understand it local Police need new recruits due to a high retirement rate occurring now. So I doubt bi-lingual is required, though it might be preferred. Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems for police departments is finding those who can pass a drug/criminal and or fitness test. Sad.

[A1Rangel]

thank you again to the new posts, very helpful information

[dAqS6R0gRQet]

how hilarious that the first time I actually heard sirens was July 4th