TACOMA, Wash. — Tukwila police said Thursday a teen caught multiple times for property crimes was released because the juvenile detention center did not take him.
Police said in a Facebook post that a 16-year-old male tried to damage a parked Tukwila Police Department patrol car on Sunday. The teen was detained and police requested he should be taken to the youth detention center. The detention center declined to accept the teen, police said, and he was released at the scene because his parent refused to pick him up.
Several hours later police said the teen was caught prowling vehicles again. Officers said the teen was taken to the hospital for treatment after he injured his hand while prowling vehicles.
In the Facebook post, the Tukwila Police Department said they are "being set up for failure" when it comes to handling cases involving juveniles. According to police, juvenile offenders are unable to be booked into juvenile detection unless they meet specific criteria involving serious violent crime.
"The last thing any officer or community wants is for an avoidable tragedy to occur," the police department said in its Facebook post. "However as we continue to see these situations play out, we continue to see more and more juveniles reoffending, becoming bolder and becoming more violent with every additional crime they commit. They are causing millions of dollars in damage to the cars they are stealing, businesses and properties they are burglarizing and more importantly, leaving victims of their crimes traumatized and in fear following these repeat incidents. There needs to be hard conversations as to why this is happening, what can be done to slow these occurrences down and long-term changes following these discussions to keep these things from happening in the first place."
The Lake Forest Park Police Department echoed the same sentiment, saying it lacks the tools to investigate.
"I think as a society, we understand that children are still learning – they need to have the ability to make mistakes and be corrected – but at a certain point, they're not making those corrections," said LFPD Detective Jason Czebotar. "It's up to society to step up and correct them to get on the right path."
In Lake Forest Park, officers responded to reports of reckless driving – discovered the car was stolen, and detained one of the two teens inside.
One was taken into custody and released to his parents – the second got away, and police say the teen in custody could not be questioned, citing a 2021 law that prohibits questioning a minor without an attorney present – that's a right that an adult can waive.
When the law passed, the ACLU of Washington said it put the state "at the forefront of a national movement to protecting youth rights," -- arguing that children are "particularly vulnerable to coercive police tactics."
Felony juvenile crime rates are on the rise in King County. Data released this year showed cases returned to pre-pandemic levels.
"Sometimes, with some of the laws that we have now, it's really restrictive on what we can do when we can do it in order to make these good investigations," Czebotar said.
Data from the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office showed vehicle theft skyrocketed in 2023 and is up compared to pre-pandemic numbers. In 2019, there were 70 cases. That total dropped to 27 in 2022 but shot up to 159 last year.
Juveniles with guns are also increasing in King County. In 2019, there were 36 unlawful firearm possession cases. These instances went down to 26 in 2022, and back up to 48 in 2023.
Data from the Renton Police Department (RPD) showed juvenile property and violent crimes increased sharply from 2022 to 2023, mirroring the region-wide trend.