If you've attended a community meeting it's possible you've met or at least seen Sonja Richter. She worked as a crime prevention coordinator for the Seattle Police Department. She would often be the one speaking to community groups about a broad range of topics from the obvious, like keeping your doors locked and calling 911, to the more complicated, like how to navigate through various police and city departments.
Sonja retired last month after 18 years on the job, 13 of which were at the East Precinct, including the last five. Her replacement has not been named.
Hers was a difficult job. A crime prevention coordinator is not a sworn police officer. Sonja didn't wear a uniform or carry a gun. Speaking on police issues, crime issues and department logistics often proved challenging because she was not employing the more obvious tools of the trade.
"I was limited as to what I could do because, yes, things are a befuddling mess at times. But it was rewarding knowing that some good things wouldn't have been attended to without us. There were some positive changes," she said.
Almost a mantra with her, Sonja was often encouraging people to believe that positive change was possible, though change may take a very long time. She would plead with people to write letters, make calls, cc elected officials and department heads, then repeat. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but you have to squeak loudly and often.
"People need to learn how to make themselves heard with the city. I felt like I was helping people do things that needed to be done," she said. "Change can happen. It won't be easy and it won't be fast, but things can be done."
Sonja was never one to shy away from expressing herself. An example: About three-and-a-half years ago, Sonja called and said she wanted to talk to me about an important topic. A day or two later we met at her office on the second floor of the East Precinct. An article appearing in print a few days later recounted her displeasure with the fact that most of the city's community service officers would be eliminated in a cost-cutting move.
It wasn't a rabble-rousing piece, but the article earned her a 15-day suspension without pay. I did feel a little bad about that. It had been her idea, but still.
"It was worth it," she later said with a wry smile and a little laugh when telling me about it at a community meeting some months later. "But they really weren't very happy with me."
The job certainly had its moments of the absurd. Pythoesque moments, quite literally. She received a call recently from a person complaining that a python was coming through his fence. Another caller said he'd found a live ferret in the street and wondered what he should do. (Call Animal Control was her first response.)
There was also the social service element. Richter helped connect people to various city and social services. She had to know the city, know how it worked or didn't, know who can help with what. Sonja had to respond to real people's problems, issues that were both challenging and mundane but very real to those experiencing them.
She retires out of choice. The position finally took its toll. It's a
draining job, emotionally taxing, filled with frustrations. She said she felt she was banging her head against many walls. Entrenched procedures, large city bureaucracies... some usual characteristics of a large city, others specific to Seattle's own brand of institutional lethargy.
But the straw that broke the camel's proverbial back involved a dog.
Sonja received a call about a white pit bull who was being abused and neglected. She went to see it, and what she saw turned her stomach, enough so that I'll spare the unnecessary gory details. She called Animal Control. But it took two months before the animal was removed from the house, during which time she would often go by and see the animal's condition getting worse.
"I knew it was time," she said. "The problems relating to crime are so complex. This job needs a creative person, someone willing to step out of the box. It's a lot more than just block watches. The job was always fascinating and I learned so much."
She has great praise for the officers on the street, those patrolling the neighborhoods, the cops doing the working of policing. As for the upper echelons the of police department...not so much. But Sonja worked closely with people, with neighborhoods. The personal touch was why she went to work.
"I really enjoyed people," she said. "And I learned that people are mostly really good. It's nice to be able to say that after having seen so many terrible things. But people are good, I'm absolutely convinced."
Indeed.
Doug Schwartz is the editor of the Capitol Hill Times. He can be reached at editor@capitolhilltimes.com or 461-1308.
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