Major crimes down 21% in Federal Way
Published 10:15 am Wednesday, July 15, 2026
The Federal Way Police Department has released its first half of the 2026 crime data, which shows a major crime reduction of 21% compared to data from last year.
When looking at the numbers from January to June of 2025 to numbers from January to June of 2026, there are many areas of major crimes reported within that city of Federal Way that have decreased, including motor vehicle thefts, drug and narcotic offenses, burglaries and murder.
“More specific to Federal Way, we have taken a proactive approach with some of the open-air drug use in the city. We have some people actively go out and look for people using drugs out in the public, and we arrest them, and we send them the Prosecutor’s Office for referrals and for treatment and stuff like that, and I don’t think that’s done in a lot of other cities, so it’s something specific to Federal Way that we’re doing in order to try to lower crime,” said Kyle Buchanan, Federal Way Police Department’s Administrative Commander.
The number of the first half of 2025 crimes totaled 2,770, with comparable dates for 2026 have come in at 2,188 which is a decrease of 21%.
Specific crime decreases for the first half of 2026
• Human Trafficking: From one in 2025, to zero in 2026, a decrease of 100%
• Motor Vehicle Theft: From 272 in 2025, to 126 in 2026, a decrease of 54%
• Residential Burglary: From 45 in 2025, to 22 in 2026, a decrease of 51%
• Drug/Narcotic Offenses: From 146 in 2025, to 76 in 2026, a decrease of 48%
• Murder: From seven in 2025, to four in 2026, a decrease of 43%
• Weapon Law Violations: From 73 in 2025, to 48 in 2026, a decrease of 34%
• Kidnapping: From 12 in 2025, to 8 in 2026, a decrease of 33%
• Commercial Burglary: From 70 in 2025, to 47 in 2026, a decrease of 33%
• Damage/Vandalism: From 312 in 2025, to 226 in 2026, a decrease of 28%
• Larceny: From 898 in 2025, to 654 in 2026, a decrease of 27%
• Pornography: From 9 in 2025, to 7 in 2026, a decrease of 22%
• Robbery: From 33 in 2025, to 26 in 2026, a decrease of 21%
• Counterfeit/Forgery: From 11 in 2025, to 9 in 2026, a decrease of 18%
• Violate No Contact Order: From 157 in 2025, to 133 in 2026, a decrease of 15%
Major crime reductions since 2023 show that motor vehicle thefts are down 80% in Federal Way, while robberies and burglaries are down 71% and 60%.
“We saw a huge increase during the COVID years and part of that increase was because some of the legislative changes that happened with stolen cars and some of the other changes that we experienced during that time,” said Buchanan, referencing a 2021 state law that limited law enforcement’s ability to pursue vehicles which added amendments in 2024. “We have seen a significant decrease since some of those legislative changes were kind of put back to the old ways that they were before those changes happened. So some of those changes of repealing some of those new laws that came in, but especially the stolen cars.”
Compared to the first six months of 2025, there were decreases in 14 different areas of major crimes in Federal Way, and there were also an increases in 10 different areas of crime, including forcible sex offenses (45% increase), animal cruelty (38% increase) and intimidation (34% increase).
Increases in crime
• Forcible Sex Offenses: From 38 in 2025, to 55 in 2026, an increase of 45%
• Animal Cruelty: From eight in 2025, to 11 in 2026, an increase of 38%
• Intimidation: From 86 in 2025, to 115 in 2026, an increase of 34%
• Non-Forcible Sex Offenses: From three in 2025, to four in 2026, an increase of 33%
• Stolen Property Offenses: From 16 in 2025, to 20 in 2026, an increase of 25%
• Arson: From five in 2025, to six in 2026, an increase of 20%
• Extortion/Blackmail: From five in 2025, to six in 2026, an increase of 20%
• Aggravated Assault: From 90 in 2025, to 99 in 2026, an increase of 10%
• Fraud: From 131 in 2025, to 138 in 2026, an increase of 5%
• Simple Assault: From 340 in 2025, to 346 in 2026, an increase of 2%
