The end of the year once again brought “good news” when it comes to crime rates in the city of Kent.
The number of crimes plunged for the second consecutive year in 2025 across the seven major categories tracked by the Kent Police Department.
Commercial burglaries dropped 60% (501 to 201), vehicle thefts 59% (1,256 to 516) and shootings 50% (138 to 69) in 2025 compared to 2024, according to Kent Police statistics. The numbers are through November of each year as reported by Police Chief Rafael Padilla to the City Council in early December during his Public Safety Report.
“It’s good news,” said Padilla, who reports end-of-year crime stats each December to the council.
Other declines were robberies down 39% (188 to 115), vehicle prowls 38% (836 to 521), residential burglaries 38% (188 to 117), aggravated assaults 37% (182 to 115) and homicides 28% (11 to 8).
“It’s a substantial decrease across the board,” Padilla said. “This is pretty incredible. We have sustained this for two years.”
From 2023 to 2025, vehicle thefts are down 75%, commercial burglaries 70%, shootings 57%, robberies 52% homicides 50%, residential burglaries 45% and vehicle prowls 39%. Shootings are shots fired incidents reported whether anybody is shot or not. Vehicle prowls are when items are taken from inside a vehicle, but a vehicle isn’t stolen.
Padilla liked seeing the number of vehicle thefts sharply decline.
“Vehicle thefts is a big deal,” he said. “We haven’t heard from the Kia Boys anytime recently and that’s a good thing. We’ve cut that by more than half.”
A group of young teens became known as the Kia Boys after watching TikTok videos that showed how to steal vulnerable Hyundai and Kia models. Renton Police arrested two Kia Boys in 2024 for stealing vehicles.
Aggravated assaults are another key category decline. Those type of assaults are when there’s significant injury or someone is armed with a deadly weapon during the attack, Padilla said.
The chief said that the numbers are down to 2019 levels, before the pandemic and police reform issues caused the numbers to rise over the next few years.
“These are real numbers,” Padilla said.
Why the drop?
Padilla pointed to several factors for the decline in crime numbers.
One is the ability to conduct police vehicle pursuits, he said. A 2021 state law restricted when police could use their vehicles to chase suspects. In 2024, voters changed that law with approval of an initiative and the Legislature backed it to pretty much allow vehicle pursuits whenever police consider it safe to chase.
“We have seen a reverse in the numbers going down steadily,” Padilla said. “There’s a strong correlation with the laws.”
Padilla said stabilized staffing of the police force also has lowered crime. The department had a lot of officers leave and retire that left a lot of positions vacant a few years ago. But the council approved higher salaries and bonuses to help boost staffing to the 170 budgeted positions.
The force will grow larger in 2026 after the council in September unanimously approved raising the sales tax 0.1% (1 cent on $10 purchase, 10 cents on $100 purchase) on Jan. 1 to pay for 10 more police officers and four support positions.
Padilla said full staffing allowed him to begin a five-member Crime Reduction Unit in 2024 to focus on specific crimes, such as drug trafficking and vehicle theft.
Specialty units also enabled the department to conduct an undercover operation that led to the arrest and charges against the owners of the Golden Steer restaurant for allegedly buying stolen alcohol and reselling it.
“We are doing more than just answering 911 calls,” said Padilla, who added data-driven patrols help put resources in the right places to reduce crime.
Padilla said the use of technology, including Flock Safety cameras placed at intersections across town to capture vehicle license plate numbers, looms as another reason for the drop in crime.
“That’s been huge,” said Padilla, who thanked the council for its support of the camera program that captures stolen vehicles and vehicles potentially connected to other crimes.
The chief said a force with “exceptional people” is yet another reason for declining crime numbers.
“I want to be careful,” Padilla said about the numbers. “We are not declaring victory. We are not done. There’s
lots of work to do, but we are making a good turnaround. The trend is in the right direction.”
Council President Satwinder Kaur told Padilla it’s good to see the numbers and data and she was “not taking thunder away” from his report, but she wondered if crime was declining in neighboring cities as well.
Padilla didn’t have specific numbers, but responded that other cities are seeing crime reduced for similar reasons with the change in state laws, better staffing and the use of technology, such as the Flock Safety cameras.
“But our numbers are really, really good,” Padilla said.
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