Hi, I’m an admitted student and Whitman is my top choice, but I’m not from the area and my parents were told by a friend that Walla Walla is full of meth addicts and criminals. I didn’t get this feeling from any of my research, but I would like to hear from someone more familiar with the area if this is really an issue. Any insights appreciated!
Note: We are visiting soon!
I don’t think Walla Walla is any worse than other places (apart, of course, from the state penitentiary, but those criminals are locked up). Campus is pretty safe; my daughter doesn’t feel at all nervous. If you go to the Facebook page for the Walla Walla Union Bulletin newspaper, you can find links to the Emergency Services reports. Lots of calls to nursing homes for falls; yes, some drug issues, and those wax and wane.
Edited to add: if you do an online search of “crime Walla Walla” you can find some data. Then compare those numbers to other places, including your home community.
My son graduated from Whitman in 2014 and loved his time there, we all developed a real affection for Walla Walla. He did have a bike stolen, but the crime seemed to be opportunistic thefts of easily accessible property, just like in lots of places. He never encountered meth or break-ins or hold ups. There are some neighborhoods that are poor and run down in the outer areas, but campus and surrounding neighborhoods are well maintained and very charming. My son never felt unsafe.
This kind of reminds me of the conversation I had recently with a guy I know who is house hunting in San Francisco. I recommended the neighborhood where my family and I had lived for 25 years. He said, “oh no, they’re having a crime wave there”. Shocked that I hadn’t heard about it, I called our old next door neighbor and asked about the crime wave. His answer was: “What crime wave?”
Any parent who would be concerned about leaving their kid in Walla Walla probably needs to keep them home; it doesn’t get too much safer. It’s a pretty low key place. The wine travelers don’t tend to cause too much trouble.
Full of meth addicts … where does this crap start? I honestly wonder … does someone with an axe to grind wake up one day and say, “I know; I’ll start telling everyone that a paradigmatically bucolic town in the middle of nowhere in southeast Washington is a meth haven.”
Wrong town. Yakima? Maybe. Not WW.
WesmoreDad, I think paradigmatically is my new favorite word, and paradigmatically bucolic is a great description of WW. 
@WesmoreDad every place is full of meth addicts…and opiate addicts…and pot heads. Not sure about Walla Walla but virtually any rural area that I have seen has a good supply of meth.
We visited the Whitman campus and stayed briefly in Walla Walla. Hard to gauge the meth issue from a drive through but I thought Walla Walla was a nice town - more likely to find a wine tasting than a meth lab. We live in a rural area in WI, a similar sized college town, and we have lots of problems with meth. However I have not encountered a single issue with meth and college students in 15 years.
I’m sure there are statistics out there to alarm or calm every nervous parent, but fwiw…this 2015 report might be worth checking out: