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Seattle Crime Stats by Neighborhood and Block in a Spreadsheet

2024-12-10 // Mark Tressler

Explore Seattle Crime by Neighborhood in a Spreadsheet seattle neighborhood crime statistics Seattle PD offers robust datasets of Seattle crime statistics available for download. Since these datasets are more than 1 million rows, they are too big too open in Excel or Google Sheets. Row Zero is a next-gen spreadsheet specifically engineered for big data that makes it easy to work with the Seattle crime data in a powerful online spreadsheet.

Using Row Zero, we've built a dynamic analysis of Seattle crime data by neighborhood, city block, and specific offense. In this post we'll share interesting findings and show how to build, use, and update this analysis as new data is available.

Explore the Seattle Crime Spreadsheet

Table of Contents:

How to get Seattle Crime data into a spreadsheet

Step 1: Download the latest file: You can access the latest Seattle Crime dataset from the Seattle Police Department here. Click the Export button in the top right corner.

Step 2: Open a New Workbook: Login or sign up for free and open a workbook.

Step 3: Import the CSV file: Click Data in the top navigation to import a file and then select the CSV you downloaded and click Import. import seattle crime data seattle crime spreadsheet

Row Zero works like Excel and Google Sheets so once the data is imported you can use familiar spreadsheet functions and features to analyze the data. View how to update the spreadsheet with the latest data.

Analyzing Seattle Crime Data

There are a lot of ways to analyze Seattle crime data. One great thing about viewing data like this in Row Zero is that spreadsheets let you easily browse the raw data and filter, sort, pivot, chart, and search for interesting insights. Spreadsheets are great for open-ended analysis when you don't necessarily know what questions to ask. The dataset includes every reported offense since 2008 in the city of Seattle. Each row includes:

  • Time - Includes the time of the offense and the time it was reported
  • Offense - Includes each specific crime as well as groupings of related crimes
  • Crime Against Category - High level categorization that lets you filter to crimes against people vs property
  • Location - Includes the neighborhood, city block, and specific coordinates with longitude and latitude of each crime. Note, certain crimes like Rape and Murder do not include city block or longitude/latitute data.

Disclaimer with Reported Seattle Crime Statistics

It's important to note that all of this data is reported crime. Changes over time can be a result of 1) actual changes in crime rates 2) changes in how crimes are classified and recorded 3) changes in enforcement and reporting. There are some clear errors in the source data. For example, some crimes have a Report date after 2008, but an Offense Start date several decades earlier that were clearly entered in error. We've filtered this data out for our analysis.

Seattle Crime Trends

There are both positive and negative trends in the Seattle crime data. While total reported Seattle crime is decreasing, violent crime is up. And one thing is very clear - the pandemic clearly had a significant impact on crime and enforcement and those trends continue today. View Total Crime by Offense over time.

Below are some noteworthy examples. Keep in mind that the Seattle city population decreased slightly during the pandemic and has since recovered, up about 5% from pre-pandemic levels. So small increases in crime would be expected due to population growth.

Total Reported Crime Rate Is Decreasing

Total reported Seattle crime has decreased compared to pre-pandemic with notable drops in 2023 and 2024, even as the population has increased. seattle crime rates are falling

Big increases in some types of violent crime

  • Homicides are up significantly over the last 5 years. The last 5 years are the 5 worst years in the data, with reported homicides up more than 75% in the last 5 years.
  • Reported Rapes are up significantly in 2024 specifically.
  • Aggravated Assault is up more than 20% vs pre-pandemic and is on an upward trend seattle violent crime statistics

seattle car theft

  • Motor Vehicle Theft has nearly doubled since pre-pandemic with 2023 seeing a sharp spike in Seattle car theft.
  • Theft of Motor Vehicle parts saw a huge spike in 2020 and while it has come down, 2024 will still be nearly double pre-pandemic levels.
  • Theft from Motor Vehicles is down ~35% vs pre-pandemic.
  • DUIs are down ~20% vs pre-pandemic.

seattle drug crime statistics

  • Reported Drug Violations began dropping in 2018 and fell dramatically in 2020.
  • Drug Offenses are up significantly in 2024, possibly reflecting stricter enforcement. However, they're still well below pre-pandemic numbers.

Shoplifting has not increased

Despite national media reports of increased shoplifting, reported shoplifting crimes continue to be well below pre-pandemic levels, down more than 20% vs pre-pandemic. seattle shoplifting statistics However, it's possible these crimes are just not getting reported or enforced at the same rate.

Significant increase in Kidnappings and Abductions

Reported Kidnapping and Abductions are up more than 100% in the last 5 years but the spike did not happen until 2021 so it's likely not COVID related.

This is just scratching the surface. You can view 5 Year Crime Trends to compare each offense before and after the pandemic.

Seattle Crime by Hour

View Crimes by Hour. With a few pivot tables we can explore crimes by hour. Generally, crime is lowest in the morning between 5 and 7am and then rises throughout the day. Total crime peaks around 6pm while more violent crime peaks later in the night. seattle crime by time of day Note: Hours 0 and 12 are filtered out of this chart, since these appear to be defaults when a specific time is not available and appear to be inflated in the data.

View Crimes by Day. Creating a pivot table that looks at the median reported crimes by day since 2008 reveals some noteworthy daily crime trends, albeit not unexpected.

  • New Year's is the most dangerous day of year - New Year's day (and eve) appear to be the most dangerous day in Seattle, according to reported crimes. January 1st has the most reported crimes with 20% more crimes reported than any other day of the year. January 1st is also the worst day for reported Rapes, Aggravated Assault, and DUI.
  • DUIs around the holidays - January 1st is the day with the most DUIs. July 4th is second most DUIs and much of the other top 10 days are in December. Unsurprisingly, January 1st and July 4th are also number 1 for Aggravated Assaults, reflecting the relationship between alcohol and crime.
  • Most burglaries on Christmas Eve - December 24th is the day with the most Burglaries.

Seattle Neighborhood Crime Statistics

The Seattle PD crime data includes the MCPP where the crime occurred. MCPP stands for Micro-Community Policing Plans and roughly corresponds to recognizable Seattle neighborhoods. Since 2021 the data also includes the city block where the crime occurred, which gives very granular insight into Seattle crime statistics.

Seattle Crime by Neighborhood

View Crimes by Neighborhood. We've created a few pivot tables to look at total crimes by neighborhood over time as well as specific crimes by neighborhood. Keep in mind, this data is NOT normalized by population or neighborhood area size so comparisons should not be considered definitive. In general, more densely populated areas would expect to have more crime.

seattle neighborhood crime statistics

Crime is down across most Seattle neighborhoods with the biggest drop in crime in Downtown. The Seattle neighborhood with the most crime is Capitol Hill which is not entirely surprising given that it is a popular nightlife destination. Capitol Hill was the worst Seattle neighborhood for crimes reported across many categories including Murder, Robbery, Rape, DUI, Burglary, and Aggravated Assault. The 14xx Block of Broadway was the worst block in Capitol Hill and the 4th worst city block in Seattle.

Lookup Neighborhoods by Specific Crimes

On the Crimes by Neighborhood sheet, scroll down to look up specific crimes by neighborhood over time. Here we can see car theft increasing in Queen Anne. seattle queen anne crime statistics

Seattle Crime by City Block

View Crimes by City Block. We can repeat the process and create pivot tables for crimes by city block. While city block crimes also are not normalized by population, the data should be better normalized for area size compared to the neighborhood crime data. It's important to note that certain crimes like Rape and Murder do not include city block data. For the list below, we've also excluded Shoplifting which skews data in commercial districts:

City Blocks with the Most Crime:

With most common crime in that block

  1. DOWNTOWN COMMERCIAL - 14XX BLOCK OF 2ND AVE (Burglary)
  2. NORTHGATE - 3XX BLOCK OF NE NORTHGATE WAY (Burglary)
  3. FIRST HILL - 3XX BLOCK OF 9TH AVE (Simple Assault)
  4. CAPITOL HILL - 14XX BLOCK OF BROADWAY (Robbery)
  5. MOUNT BAKER - 38XX BLOCK OF RAINIER AVE S (Burglary)
  6. NORTHGATE - 5XX BLOCK OF NE NORTHGATE WAY (Burglary)
  7. NORTHGATE - 122XX BLOCK OF AURORA AVE N (Theft from Motor Vehicle)
  8. ROXHILL/WESTWOOD/ARBOR HEIGHTS - 26XX BLOCK OF SW BARTON ST (Robbery)
  9. SODO - 27XX BLOCK OF 4TH AVE S (Fraud)
  10. DOWNTOWN COMMERCIAL - 7XX BLOCK OF 1ST AVE (Theft from Motor Vehicle)

City Blocks with the Most Robberies

  1. MOUNT BAKER - 38XX BLOCK OF RAINIER AVE S
  2. NORTHGATE - 3XX BLOCK OF NE NORTHGATE WAY (also #1 for Motor Vehicle Theft)
  3. CENTRAL AREA/SQUIRE PARK - 22XX BLOCK OF E MADISON ST
  4. ROXHILL/WESTWOOD/ARBOR HEIGHTS - 26XX BLOCK OF SW BARTON ST
  5. CAPITOL HILL - 14XX BLOCK OF BROADWAY
  6. CAPITOL HILL - 14XX BLOCK OF E JOHN ST
  7. QUEEN ANNE - 5XX BLOCK OF 1ST AVE W
  8. RAINIER BEACH - 92XX BLOCK OF RAINIER AVE S
  9. NEW HOLLY - 39XX BLOCK OF S OTHELLO ST
  10. RAINIER BEACH - 90XX BLOCK OF RAINIER AVE S

Rank Seattle Neighborhoods by Specific Crimes

View Neighborhood Crime Rankings. We can filter and sort the data to see Seattle crime rankings by neighborhood, city block, and offense since January 1 2023. Again, this data is NOT normalized by population or neighborhood area size so comparisons should not be considered definitive.

Most likely to get your car broken into:

Top 5 Worst Seattle Neighborhoods

  1. QUEEN ANNE (50% more car break-ins than any other neighborhood)
  2. DOWNTOWN COMMERCIAL
  3. UNIVERSITY
  4. SLU/CASCADE
  5. ROOSEVELT/RAVENNA

Top 5 Worst Seattle Blocks

  1. DOWNTOWN COMMERCIAL - 7XX BLOCK OF 1ST AVE (30% worse than any other block)
  2. RAINIER VIEW - 98XX BLOCK OF 55TH AVE S
  3. MAGNOLIA - 38XX BLOCK OF DISCOVERY PARK BLVD
  4. BELLTOWN - 20XX BLOCK OF 1ST AVE
  5. NORTHGATE - 122XX BLOCK OF AURORA AVE N
  6. SANDPOINT - 74XX BLOCK OF SAND POINT WAY NE

Most likely to get your car stolen:

Top 5 Worst Seattle Neighborhoods

  1. NORTHGATE
  2. CAPITOL HILL
  3. ROOSEVELT/RAVENNA
  4. UNIVERSITY
  5. QUEEN ANNE

Top 5 Worst Seattle Blocks

  1. NORTH BEACON HILL - 25XX BLOCK OF RAINIER AVE S
  2. NORTHGATE - 122XX BLOCK OF AURORA AVE N
  3. NORTHGATE - 5XX BLOCK OF NE NORTHGATE WAY
  4. RAINIER BEACH - 90XX BLOCK OF SEWARD PARK AVE S
  5. BRIGHTON/DUNLAP - 42XX BLOCK OF S OTHELLO ST

Nearly all Prostitution Offenses Occurred on Aurora Avenue

Aurora Ave N in Bitterlake and Northgate is where most Prostitution offenses occurred with most occurring on th 125XX block of Aurora Ave N.

How to Update the Seattle Crime Spreadsheet

It's easy to update the Seattle Crime Spreadsheet used in this analysis with the latest data. Simply download the latest file from Seattle.gov and import directly into the Raw Data sheet, overwriting the existing data:

  1. Click on the Raw Data sheet and click in cell A1
  2. Go to Data, Import from file in the navigation
  3. In the file preview, make sure Destination is set to Existing Sheet and A1
  4. Click Import When done correctly, all other sheets should dynamically update with the latest data, other than the 5 Year Crime Trend tab which is not connected to the Raw Data sheet.

Other resources for Crime Statistics

The Seattle Police Department offers an interactive crime dashboard where you can find a wealth of additional Seattle crime statistics and datasets. If you'd like to look up crime statistics by neighborhood in another city, many cities and counties also offer transparent crime statistics that you can download and open in a Row Zero spreadsheet. To compare cities nationwide, you can explore the FBI uniform crime reports datasets.

Conclusion

You can download a robust dataset of Seattle crime data on Seattle.gov and easily explore the data in Row Zero. Row Zero is a next-gen spreadsheet built for big data. You can explore our Seattle Crime Stats Spreadsheet for free to analyze Seattle crime data by neighborhood and city block.

Explore the Seattle Crime Spreadsheet

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