A call for service means someone asked the Arlington Police Department for help, or an officer started work while on patrol. It is a record of police activity, not proof that a crime happened. That one distinction makes the rest of Civic Informer much easier to read.
What creates a call
A call can begin with 911, the non-emergency line, an alarm, another agency asking for help, or an officer noticing something during patrol. Dispatch records what was reported, the time, the general location, and how the call ended.
Arlington calls are handled through SNO911, the regional dispatch center for Snohomish County. The labels you see on the site come from that dispatch record.
What a call does not tell you
A call does not confirm that the first report was accurate. It does not identify a victim or suspect, and it does not say that anyone was charged or found guilty.
For example, a call for service listed as a “Suspicious Event” refers to an individual reporting something that looked out of place. In response to the call for service, an officer may check the scene and find nothing criminal. A 911 Hang Up may be a pocket dial. An Alarm may be a false trip.
Remember: A call count shows where police time was requested. It is not a crime count.
Arlington's most common call types
From June 1 through September 16, 2026, Arlington recorded 6,897 calls, about 64 a day. These were the 15 most common call types:
- Suspicious Event - 963
- Traffic - 813
- Follow-Up - 633
- 911 Hang Up - 486
- Assist - 313
- Public Contact/Assist - 290
- Welfare Check - 204
- Civil - 201
- Collision - 200
- Alarm - 188
- Animal Complaint - 184
- Behavior Health Contact - 175
- Trespass - 164
- Security Check - 156
- Parking Enforcement - 154
Together, those call types made up about 74% of all activity in the period.
The four largest categories show why calls and crimes are not the same thing. Suspicious Event starts with an observation. Traffic is usually patrol work. Follow-Up records work on an earlier matter. A 911 Hang Up is checked because dispatch cannot assume the caller is safe.
How a call ends
When a call closes, the Department records an outcome, called a disposition. Common outcomes include:
- Settled by Contact - an officer made contact and handled the matter.
- Gone on Arrival - the person, vehicle, or activity was no longer there.
- Warning - the officer gave a verbal or written warning.
- Patrol Information - the information was logged for patrol.
- Unfounded - officers checked and the event did not happen as reported.
- Case Report - an officer wrote an incident report.
- Arrest or Booking - someone was taken into custody.
A call for service can have more than one outcome. For example, an officer may write a report and also make an arrest.
Calls, reports, and arrests
Of Arlington's 6,897 calls in this period, 905 became incident reports, about 13%. Another 28 reports came through the online reporting system, and arrest or booking appeared on 223 calls.
Those numbers fit inside one another: every arrest-related call is also an incident, and every incident began as a call for service. The majority of calls for service never become reports.
An arrest is a police action, not a finding of guilt. Charging decisions and court outcomes happen later and are not part of this data.
How to read a call on Civic Informer
On the Arlington hub, the top numbers show calls for service, incident reports, and arrest-related calls separately. The latest daily report lists every call from the most recent published day. The live map shows the locations where calls for service were reported.
Locations stop at the hundred block, with the exception of domestic violence and suicide-related calls, which are shown only at the neighborhood level. Names, dates of birth, or other PII revealing information are never included.
What the data can and cannot show
Use Civic Informer to understand police workload, the kinds of calls officers answer, how activity changes over time, and where calls are concentrated.
Do not use Civic Informer for information on crime rates, or verdicts about a person, block, or neighborhood. The site runs one day behind any given day. For anything happening now, call 911.
Explore Arlington: start at the hub, read the latest daily report, browse the neighborhoods, or open the live map.