When the mayor of Tacoma is personally affected by a crime, it suddenly gets addressed.
A memoir.
Some in the Tacoma area may remember the video of a Tacoma police officer running over multiple people at an illegal street racing event at S 9th and Pacific Ave. on Jan. 22 2021. The involved officer was cleared of any wrongdoing on July 15th 2022. Street racing had been ramping up for several months at that point. One member of city leadership told me that he had independently begun compiling data on the street racers for months before this incident due to the increasing severity; although no further action was taken due to short staffing. After the incident, a meeting was held with the mayor, city manager, city council, and interim police chief at the time Mike Ake. This was not accessible to the public. However the public statement made by the city council both posted on the city website, and emailed to Tacoma police personnel did not appear particularly supportive of the officer involved- or frankly the police in general. Mayor Woodards made a statement of her own, in which she had called on the city manager and police chief to make sure that “everyone involved is held accountable”. No arrests were ever made of the illegal street racers involved in that incident. Officer Khan Phan was investigated for 20 months before being cleared. He retired shortly thereafter.
After this incident, the Tacoma Police Department requested the help of six other jurisdictions to assist on shutting down the street racing. On Feb. 2 2021 they all went to key areas of the city and seemed to have great success with that. Unfortunately, this success did not last.
As the weeks went by, the Tacoma Police Department was hemorrhaging employees, and the newly approved House Bill 1310 made arresting suspects more difficult. Police patrol and leadership knew that street racing continued to be a problem in the city, but calls for armed robberies, rape and homicide had to take priority. 32 homicides took place in both 2020 and 2021; almost breaking the city homicide record of 34. (For the curious here in 2022 , we are set to break that record this year).
Meanwhile, emails were being sent out informing personnel of large groups of street racers “taking over” intersections of the city. On 03/27/21- “as many as 100 vehicles” were reportedly scattered outside the city. Puyallup PD reported a large group throwing smoke bombs and subsequently requested backup from other jurisdictions. On 04/03/21- “200+ street racers descended into the city” and officers were reportedly able to make arrests and shut down displays. On 01/14/22- street racers came back to S 9th and Pacific Ave., “took over the intersection and engaged in reckless driving”. A stabbing took place at that intersection shortly thereafter involving the street racers.
Apparently in March of 2021, the city council created a new law designed to curb these street racing events. Honestly, I did not even know about this until writing this article. There were no departmental announcements that I recall. I can tell you personally that this did nothing on the street. Assistant Chief Ed Wade said there was a 114% increase in street racing related 911 calls between 2020 to 2022. That seems accurate from my anecdotal experience.
Until March of 2022, I did not hear anything related to street racing from city leadership. Then suddenly in late March the Tacoma city council was holding an emergency televised meeting regarding the dangers of street racing. I and others thought it was weird that suddenly city leadership was taking an interest in this very specific problem after the past 2 years we had endured. A few hours later I heard a rumor going around that Mayor Victoria Woodard had been personally affected by a street racing event a week before, and that’s why swift action had seemingly come out of nowhere to address this problem. Rumor had it that Mayor Woodards had been caught up in a “takeover”, panicked, and called Assistant Chief Ed Wade on his personal phone asking for his help. Chief Wade called around, but had to call the Mayor back and tell her what had been told to citizens for the last two years. ‘Sorry, but there’s not much we can do. The department is too short staffed, and the crowds have a propensity for violence.’ The unspoken end of the statement is “and if officers do intervene and get caught in a dangerous situation- for instance a mob of people surrounding their patrol car and beating their windows- the city will not support them in their actions and will in fact jump at the opportunity to condemn that officer”. I would like to think that in that moment Victoria Woodard harkened back to officer Khan Phan, but due to recent events related to a private apology at a homicide scene, I doubt it.
This rumor was later confirmed by the Mayor herself.
Since then, city council created much stricter laws about street racing and spectators, the jail made an exception to accept street racers (although they still do not take people found in stolen cars with felony warrants and 40 fentanyl pills), and task forces were created to specifically tackle this problem.