Last month, the City Council sponsored a Citywide Neighborhood Crime Summit and Public Hearing, where a packed council chamber heard each of the police precinct commanders explain how they deployed their police officers in their respective precincts in response to citizen concerns about crime. The chair of each Precinct Advisory Council also lead meetings for each of the precinct caucuses during a breakout session and then reported back to the full group.
From research that I initiated, for the first time since I've been on the council, the actual number of police officers on patrol per precinct and per watch was determined. The final numbers are still being reviewed by the Seattle Police Department and the Seattle Police Officers Guild, but I believe that they are fairly accurate.
Besides educating citizens about crime levels and patrol staffing priorities, the crime summit also provided a venue for people to talk about their public safety priorities and the ideas they have about effective strategies to address those.
Many of the specific recommendations varied from precinct to precinct, but there were shared themes across all precincts:
1) Citizens in all precincts feel that the number of beat patrols needs to be increased and they want to understand more about how patrol-staffing levels are planned for each precinct (precinct size, population, etc).
2) Citizens in all precincts feel that we are most successful addressing crime when the Seattle Police Department works to share information, identify problems and create solutions in collaboration with citizens and other relevant institutions (e.g. schools, non-profit organizations, and other city/county agencies and departments).
3) Citizens in all precincts agree that to be successful we need to create a comprehensive approach that recognizes that to effectively fight crime we must augment law enforcement by addressing some of the human needs that give rise to crime.
In order to actively follow up on these themes I introduced Resolution 30773, which supported funding the mayor's proposed 25 new Seattle Police Department officers, while also requesting that the mayor submit to the City Council in the 2006 budget measures that support the public safety recommendations that were identified from the public.
Lastly, it also supported continued council deliberations for a November 2005 public safety levy. This last element of the resolution will allow the City Council to formally and publicly follow up on the proposal I had floated last year for a Civil Streets Initiative that proposes to combine law enforcement with emergency services and human services.
This approach has been shown to be effective for dealing with repeat offenders. The city departments providing these services will coordinate their efforts and focus them on altering the behavior of drug addicts, alcoholics and the mentally ill by providing them drug treatment, counseling and job opportunities. But these services are accompanied by tight supervision until an offender can take responsibility for their actions.
Even if the city does not pursue a specific levy for funding additional police and social services to address street crimes, it can frame the public policy discussion by identifying some new strategies for achieving more effective law enforcement. With the intended result that those arrested are not soon back on the street being arrested once again for the same activity.
The resolution will come up for discussion and possible vote at my committee meeting on May 17 [after this issue has gone to press]. The City Council will discuss a possible November public safety ballot initiative in the Council Chambers on May 31 at 2:30 p.m.
Seattle City Councilmember Nick Licata chairs the council's Public Safety committee. This column was taken from his electronic newsletter Urban Politics. He can be reached at nick.licata@seattle.gov.[[In-content Ad]]
