WASHOUGAL — With Chief Zane Freschette settling into his new place, the Washougal Police Division will endure some modifications in 2025.
Freschette, who assumed the function from retired police Chief Wendi Steinbronn in January, just lately instructed the Washougal Metropolis Council that the division will expertise a “minor restructuring” later this 12 months.
“This is going to sound worse than what it is, I suppose, but there are a few areas of the department that haven’t necessarily had direct supervision, historically,” Freschette stated, “so we’ve added a second captain that will be helping with some of that.”
Freschette stated the police division additionally wants a extra well timed gear substitute schedule.
“That’s not an insignificant undertaking,” he stated.
Freschette is placing collectively a fleet research to find out how the division can change its autos quicker and extra effectively. The division presently replaces its autos each six to eight years, “a very long time for the use that they get,” Freschette stated.
“We’re going to try to figure out what the best way is for us to maintain vehicles for a longer life, in a way that’s the most economical for the city,” he stated.
Freschette instructed metropolis officers that his division is in search of to realize accreditation from the Washington Affiliation of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. The Washougal Police Division first acquired accreditation in 2022 and should present the state affiliation each 4 years the way it has been following accreditation requirements.
“It’s proving to be difficult with having that occur so close after I became chief,” Freschette stated.
Calls spike in 2024
Freschette stated Washougal police responded to 12,472 requires service final 12 months, a 17.18 p.c enhance in comparison with 2023. Freschette attributed the rise to town’s almost 4 p.c inhabitants enhance in addition to state legislative modifications that, he stated, allowed officers to reply to sure sorts of calls once more.
“In any case, our workload went up quite a bit in 2024,” Freschette stated, “and I would expect that to continue to increase in 2025 and moving forward.”
Nearly all of the circumstances investigated by the division in 2024 concerned larceny or theft (21.41 p.c), assault (22.63 p.c), vandalism (12.32 p.c), violation of safety orders (7.88 p.c) and fraud (6.87 p.c).
Washougal’s requires extra important crimes decreased from 29 per 1,000 residents in 2023 to 25 in 2024, however Freschette stated “those numbers are within an expected range.”
In 2024, the division had common response occasions of three minutes, 41 seconds on Precedence 1 crimes; 4 minutes, 57 seconds on Precedence 2 crimes; 9 minutes, 36 seconds on Precedence 3 crimes, and 26 minutes, 25 seconds for Precedence 4 crimes.
Freschette stated his division’s purpose is to reach on the scene of upper precedence crimes in 5 minutes or much less.
“That’s a high bar, but it’s one that’s important,” he stated. “We want our community to understand that when a bad thing happens, an officer is going to be there as quickly as they can.”
The division acquired 856 requires animal management service in 2024, a rise from 603 in 2023, and impounded 80 animals in 2024, a 23 p.c enhance over the earlier 12 months.
“We have two animal control officers that are shared between the two cities,” Freschette stated, including that Washougal tends to get extra animal-control calls than Camas.
The police division acquired 23 public file requests from its body-worn digicam program in 2024, this system’s first full 12 months.
“Body-worn camera public records requests are a very significant undertaking,” Freschette stated. “They’re extraordinarily time consuming.”
The Washougal police division employees consists of 22 sworn, three nonsworn and two animal management officers, Freschette stated.
“We currently have one nonsworn vacancy and one animal control vacancy. We’ll be filling those soon, we hope,” he stated. “When all allotted positions are filled, I think we’ll be adequately staffed into 2026. I foresee a need to potentially add sworn and nonsworn staff during 2026 or 2027.”
