Crimes against persons concern Edmiston

By Terry Murry on Monday, February 22nd, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

HERMISTON – Crime statistics show that murders in Hermiston went up in 2020 by 300 percent. There were three murders reported, but Police Chief Jason Edmiston said that’s slightly misleading.

“We had two homicides and then we had an attempted homicide,” he said. “According to the state of Oregon and according to Crime Statistics, you have to count an attempted homicide as a homicide.”

Edmiston thinks the pandemic might have played a role in some of the statistics, including a decrease in property crimes and an increase in sexual assaults as people were kept in close quarters. Hermiston had eight rapes reported in 2020, compared to three in 2019.

“Obviously one rape is one rape too many, but eight is outside the normal range of what we would experience over the course of a 10-year window,” Edmiston said.

The complete report on crime and other department actions in 2020 is at https://www.hermiston.or.us/police/page/2020-annual-report.