Seattle’s crimes against society, July 2026
Seattle police recorded 600 crimes against society in July 2026, up 24.5% from a year earlier. This is NIBRS’s third category: drug and narcotics offences, weapons violations, prostitution, gambling — offences with no individual complainant.
That absence is what makes the series different from the other two, and it is why it belongs in its own post. Nobody calls 911 to report a drug offence against themselves, so this line measures enforcement, not incidence. It rises when a unit is staffed or a directive changes and falls when attention moves elsewhere, largely independent of how much of the underlying activity is happening. Read it as a record of what the department chose to do.
Reported offences, not incidents; recent months revise upward; chart starts in 2020 for the records-system change.
Source: Seattle Police Department, SPD Crime Data 2008-Present, via data.seattle.gov (Socrata tazs-3rd5), NIBRS crimes-against-society category. Auto-generated each build.