Revamping public safety requires evolution not revolution
As the City Council recesses for two weeks, the future of the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and public safety remain in limbo. After last week’s budget cuts, two downtown resident and business groups met with West Precinct Captain Matt Allen asking for help and answers.
Residential neighbors and business owners described life amid open drug dealing, a midday shooting at 4th and Pine and scores of people on the street suffering from substance abuse and mental health issues.
One commercial property manager said, “Our tenants and vendors want to feel safe. There’s increasing anxiety from being accosted, hit and spit on. Companies are telling their people to go in twos on the street. We’re seeing a shift in perception and reality downtown. How can the police make people feel and actually keep safe?”
That question may be better posed to our Council leaders who in a few short weeks will resume their scrutiny of police functions and budget in a process that has to-date favored revolution over evolution.
We agree with the Council that more housing, employment and social service programs will reduce the need for armed officers. But in the coming months and years as existing and new programs are built to scale, what happens in the meantime?
Taking money from the police and putting it toward those goals won’t solve the immediate dire situation on our streets. Eliminating critical police functions without a ’24-7’ replacement puts all of us at risk.
Right or wrong, modern policing has moved beyond preventing and protecting against crime to being first responders to societal crises of homelessness, drug addiction and mental health.
At one meeting Captain Allen read off calls to the West Precinct received over 2 hours that morning. Incidents included a man harassing a garage security guard and threatening to jump from the building, another for someone smashing bottles in a store and one for a man disrobed at a major intersection.
Captain Allen said, “I encourage all Council members to go on a ride-along once a month to say in touch with what’s happening on the streets. You can see the volume and intricacies of calls. Police have become ‘jacks of all trades.’ We’re proud how we navigate these calls and use conflict resolution skills.”
So far, Council Members have by-passed working directly with SPD and based their cuts on spread sheets, call logs and nights of angry protests.
Just as some council members stood with citizens on the protest lines, it would be valuable for them to witness the full scope of daily law enforcement as they seek to reimagine it. District 7’s Andrew Lewis did a ride-along recently and called it eye-opening.
Before another cut is made, we call on all Council Members, especially citywide representatives Gonzales and Mosqueda, to experience what downtown beat officers, residents and business owners navigate daily and let that experience help inform their decisions.
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