YAKIMA, Wash. – The Yakima Police Department continued its community town hall series at the Harman Center, where Chief Shawn Boyle addressed roughly a dozen community members.

During Tuesday’s session, Chief Boyle shared key statistics about the department’s staffing in 2024. He noted that despite Yakima’s population growing to over 100,000, the department’s staffing has not kept pace.

“Back in 2010, there was a population of 85,000 and we had 141 police officers. This year we just broke 100,000 as a city. And we’re we have 137 police officers if all our positions were full,” said Chief Boyle.

Boyle highlighted the comparison to national averages, stating that cities typically have 2.4 officers per 1,000 residents, while Yakima operates with approximately 1.1 deployable officers per

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