Crime rates down in Basin, FBI report suggests
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 months, 1 week AGO
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | August 5, 2026 3:40 AM
EPHRATA — The Columbia Basin saw significant decreases in certain types of crimes over the last year, according to data from the FBI National Incident Based Reporting System released Tuesday.
The report compared the number of reported instances of different crimes from 2024 to 2025, for the Grant County and Adams County sheriff’s offices as well as those municipalities which have their own police forces. The report also covered crime statistics for Washington state as a whole.
In addition, the GCSO released a report that includes 2023 figures for the same crime trends.
“We can use (the data) to analyze deeper, to find out where our efforts are working and where we need to apply more effort, or if there's more encouragement needed to be given to the public for reporting crimes,” said Grant County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Kyle Foreman.
Most property-related crimes decreased in Grant County between 2023 and 2025 according to the FBI data.
Burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft dropped by 49.5%, 38.5% and 36.4% respectively. Destruction of property and fraud also significantly decreased.
The ACSO reported drops in property crimes as well. Burglary was down 53.7% from 2024 to 2025, larceny 12.5% and motor vehicle theft 39.3%.
The larger cities in the Basin also reported decreases in property crimes overall from 2024 to 2025, with the exception of Othello, which held fairly steady in burglary and showed an increase in vehicle theft. Quincy in particular showed a decrease in property crime. Burglary was down 84%, larceny 83% and vehicle theft 91%.
With violent crimes, as well as many other less-common offenses, the percentage change can skew the perception of the extent of the problem, Foreman said. For animal cruelty, for instance, there was one reported case in 2023, five in 2024 and four in 2025 in Grant County.
“Statistically, (the report) says that animal cruelty is up 300%, but the total number of those is 10 animal cruelty crimes that were recorded (from 2023 to 2025),” Foreman said. “The actual number is still very low, but the percentage makes it look like it's a huge increase.”
Most agencies posted only a few cases of murder or manslaughter per year if there were any at all. Moses lake had four murders in 2024 and three in 2025, and Ephrata had one in 2025.
“We're always concerned about murder and homicide,” Foreman said. “The numbers show that (GCSO) had two in 2023, two in 2024 and three in 2025. We certainly would like to see those numbers always be zero. But also, most of the time we're not able to predict when a homicide is going to happen, so they're difficult to stop.”
Not everything law enforcement deals with was reflected in the report, Foreman said.
“Some numbers that aren't on the crime statistics but are definitely within our responsibility are traffic collisions,” he said. “We'd like to see those. Once we have those yearly stats, we'll know what efforts can be applied to reduce traffic fatalities and injury collisions.”
Foreman also cautioned that statistics can measure how often something occurs and how much it changes, but not the reason for it.
“It doesn't give us perspective,” he said. “If numbers are down, is that because crime is down or because people aren't reporting crime? If there's an increase in crime, is that because there's a true increase in crime, or because through different investigations, deputies finish up cases that are categorized (a particular crime)? They are raw numbers without any context, but we can use them to analyze deeper to find out where our efforts are working and where we need to apply more effort, or if there's more encouragement needed to be given to the public for reporting crimes.”
The 2023-2025 Grant County statistical report can be found at https://bit.ly/GCCrime23-25. For statewide and city-specific figures for 2024-25, go to https://bit.ly/WAcrime24-25.
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”