In an odd half-day conversation with participants in the social media forum Nextdoor, Seattle’s new police chief said:
* “It’s no surprise that your concerns again reflect what I’ve heard consistently from residents throughout the city. Property crime, 911 response, and homelessness are top of your lists.”
Today I’d like to take this opportunity to hear directly from you. Let me know what we’re doing right, where we can improve and what questions you have. Simply reply to this post with your questions by 3:00 PM today and I’ll try to answer as many as possible with a post by 6:00 PM this evening.
She got 311 replies. Here’s her entire response:
Thank You | Town Hall | Ask the Chief 17h ago
Chief Kathleen O’Toole from Seattle Police Department
Thank you everyone for taking the time to submit questions, concerns and feedback to SPD’s first ever Nextdoor Town Hall. I’ve heard from all corners of Seattle, from Rainier Valley, South Delridge, Belltown, Queen Anne, Bitter Lake and all points between. In the near future we’ll host a similar event on other digital platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Reddit.
I was able to read most of your replies and it’s no surprise that your concerns again reflect what I’ve heard consistently from residents throughout the city. Property crime, 911 response, and homelessness are top of your lists. While I won’t be able to respond to each of your replies directly, I’d like to let you know what we’re doing to tackle these issues of concern.
PROPERTY CRIME
Mary Beth from Mount Baker, Marty M. from Ballard and Julie S. of Jackson Place, like many of you in the Town Hall, expressed concerns about property crime and what we plan to do about it.
Crime overall decreased by 7 percent citywide in 2015 including a 20 percent drop in crime in Southeast Seattle. Approximately 2,000 fewer cars were stolen and 1,600 fewer cars were prowled last year. But that’s no consolation if you’ve had your car prowled, house broken into or packages stolen from your doorstep as some of you shared today.
This week we established a Property Crimes Task Force to focus exclusively on these crimes. This team will use strategies similar to those that have proven effective in addressing chronic crime and drug dealing downtown and in other neighborhoods in the city. I will share the early results soon, but do know we’re working diligently to address your concerns.
911 RESPONSE + MORE OFFICERS
Thank you, Cheri H. of Broadview, Jessica H. in North Arbor Heights and Elizabeth H. of Delridge for sharing your frustrations about delayed 911 response times and the need for additional officers in your neighborhood. These are concerns that a number of you raised in your replies. Here’s how we plan to improve 911 customer service and add more officers.
As our city continues to grow, so must our police service. In order to be more visible and engaged in our community, we simply need more officers. Mayor Ed Murray has pledged to hire 200 officers incrementally by 2019. We genuinely appreciate his support.
Our delayed 911 response times are completely unacceptable. Mayor Murray has directed me to take a hard look at our 911 response and modernize our 911 system. Calling 911 is often the first time many of you will engage with the SPD and we owe it to you to provide the best service possible. You have my commitment that we will work very hard to improve the system.
HOMELESSNESS / RV’s + ENCAMPMENTS
Don W. of Wedgewood, Jill S. in Greenlake and Brendan in Ballard, like most of you want to know what we’re doing to handle homelessness and illegally parked recreational vehicles. Last fall, Mayor Murray declared a State of Emergency in response to the homeless crisis impacting our region.
The city is working in partnership with the King County Executive and the State on a multidisciplinary strategy to address this complicated issue. The SPD will continue to work collaboratively to get services to those in need. Being homeless is not a crime. At the same time, we will absolutely hold those engaged in criminal activity accountable. We will continue to keep you informed of our enforcement efforts.
Again sincere thanks for taking the time to participate in our Town Hall. Your feedback and suggestions are valuable and appreciated. We hope to continue to the conversation in your precincts going forward. This format is a work in progress and I appreciate your patience as we expand our digital outreach.
Stay tuned…
This happened a few days ago at the Northgate Mall. A victim asked for police assistance to recover stolen property. The police would not respond to repeated requests so the victim had to do it herself and it almost became deadly for the victim. Of course, the Seattle Police chastised the victim for trying to do what the Seattle Police refused to do – confront the thief and get her property back.
Is the Seattle Police so poorly staffed that it could not send one police officer? It’s no wonder criminals don’t fear the Seattle Police as a property crime deterrent force when they continually display their “we don’t care” attitude to its citizens.
I bet the victim is now getting her own concealed weapons permit since it’s apparent that it’s every citizen for him or herself since the police won’t help.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/crime/article/SPD-Theft-investigation-escalates-to-violent-6843410.php
Not only do these same people you are talking about empowering the criminals but they are disarming the victims and blaming them. If crime was low many folks would be out of a job, but we need more government, so pay more taxes, to pay more government, so we can pay more taxes…
When my garage was burglarized, not only did the police not show up, they refused to take a report by never answering the phone. Of course crime is “down” when nobody reports it anymore.
The city leaders continue to be focused on pseudo-justice instead of doing their basic jobs ensuring public safety and adequate transportation. Don’t complain about crime because we have repeatedly chosen leaders who focus on empowering the worst and the lowest while mainlining sales tax revenue from completely out of control development.
I don’t believe that crime dropped. I think it was artificially deflated through their lack of care for making reports. In north Seattle people were not even reporting car prowls and thefts because SPD is so lax in doing their job anyway (and I have heard many instances of the police not even making reports of burglaries). Undoubtedly the buffoons at the SPD and city level purposely did this so they could pat themselves on the back.
“Response?” That implies they eventually answer your call. Try calling the non emergent number some time just for kicks-don’t worry, you won’t have to come up with an excuse because you will be greeted with, “we are experiencing an extremely high number of 911 calls. if this is truly a non emergent matter please hang up and call later.” (and Repeat). If it is a 911 call you are making, you will get just the first sentence of this recording over and over. No wonder SPD says crime is down in our city…because they dont bother answering the phone