The Federal Way City Council unanimously approved the formation of a Youth Support and Violence Prevention Coalition at its regular meeting on Tuesday.

The idea for the coalition came after the community was shocked by three Federal Way murders last week, a murder in April and the murder of a 16-year-old in February.

“This has been, as you all know, a while coming after the first murder months ago,” said Councilwoman Kelly Maloney. “Three community members started a movement that has hundreds of people behind it now.”

Council members Susan Honda, Mark Koppang and Deputy Mayor Jeanne Burbidge thanked Maloney for bringing the community’s ideas forward.

“It’s a great first step of many that we’ll take as a council,” Koppang said.

But Councilman Martin Moore warned that forming a coalition “isn’t the only answer.”

Moore said he will be interested in the results and actions of what comes from the coalition and suggested city officials add a page to their new website that makes it easier to access information.

The first meeting for the Youth Support and Violence Prevention Coalition, which doesn’t yet have members, is tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m., June 2, at the Federal Way Community Center. Mayor Jim Ferrell said the city is still in the process of reaching out to all of the stakeholders and community members who attended the public safety meeting, and more details will be provided in the near future.

Additionally, the city announced at a special public safety meeting last Thursday that it would beef up police presence in the wake of the murders. At the Tuesday meeting, Federal Way Police Chief Andy Hwang told the council that the visibility increase was well underway.

Hwang said they’ve restructured the police department so that there’s a minimum of five additional officers on patrol during the evening, up to a maximum of 15 additional officers on overlap days. They’ve also shifted some traffic officers to patrols and patrol officers to field operations – partially funded by overtime, which the mayor and council have approved.

“Sometimes you can crack these cases very quickly; sometimes it takes some time to develop the evidence to make an arrest,” Hwang said.

Already, the emphasis on patrols has led to more than 50 contacts with “suspicious individuals,” and those contacts have resulted in multiple arrests.

“Just last night we arrested an individual,” Hwang said. “He had two additional accomplices that had committed two strong-arm robberies in Tacoma, and somehow they ended up here in Federal Way.”

Hwang said police pursued the suspect’s vehicle in Tacoma, where the driver crashed. In the vehicle, officers found drugs and a gun.

“So this is a perfect example of having additional patrols that’s made a difference,” he said.

Police will treat each unsolved Federal Way murder, going back to April, with “equal resources” in an effort to solve the crimes, Hwang added.