On Nov. 18 over 150 North Seattle residents flooded a small room at the Loyal Height Community Center to ask about the latest rise in crime in North Seattle.
The meeting was called by Whittier Heights Involved Neighbors (WHIN) to address concerns for Seattle Police Department short staffing, chronic property crime and long wait times.
Seven representatives from the SPD North Precinct attending the meeting along with representatives from City Council, including our Council President, Tim Burgess. City Attorney Liaison Brendan Brophy was also there to answer questions.
Members of the SPD included Community Police Team members Mike Cruzan and Sgt. Dianne Newsom, Crime Prevention Coordinator Elizabeth Scott, 911 Communications Section Operations officer Lt. George Bray and Sgt. James Arata.
The tone of the meeting was urgent, and space was scare priming many attendees to ask their questions.
According to WHIN crime has become so bad that many neighbors have taken it upon themselves to patrol the neighborhood, getting up at odd hours of the night to drive the streets and alleys. Residents are using security cameras and some footage has captured young adults and leisure criminals casually walking the streets and breaking into cars. Whole streets have had cars burglarized.
Indeed, a recent leaked SPD memo reported crime cases have spiked up to 1,500 a month, while investigations have fell on the shoulders of only two detectives. Furthermore, based on statistics found on data.seattle.gov, WHIN says that by their calculations there has been a 26 percent increase in property crime in the North Precinct area in the past two years.
With that in mind, the bulk of the meeting was spent with SPD staff addressing questions on how they operate in given crimes scenarios and how the public could take steps to prevent crime.
Bray explained that SPD officers use a priority system when determining a response. The system mainly uses urgency and severity of crime (violence or not) to determine which call they respond to.
• Priority 1 – Violent crimes in progress.
• Priority 2 – Recent property crimes where the apprehension of suspect is possible.
• Priority 3 – Investigative calls for crimes that previously occurred where officers need to make a report.
• Priority 4 (rarely used) – Noise complaints with property disturbance.
Bray also said that there are ways for the public to reduce times when reporting a crime. He said to use the Community Online Reporting Program and report less severe crimes outside of “rush periods” – early morning and later afternoon.
So why the long wait times?
Audience members were shocked to find out there are between three to seven officers on patrol in the Ballard sector (“Boy”) at any given time, varying on shift changes.
However, did report that the City has a plan to phase in 100 officers in the next three years.
A WHIN representative found that the main nerve of the problem is lack of resources for the North Precinct.
“While the SPD was very responsive to our questions, with the bulk of the meeting being open discussion, it became clear that they need more resources in order to respond to the public safety needs of the public.”
With little SPD can do but try and inform the public of better reporting strategies, and ways to prevent crime, WHIN says they plan to take action.
“Our focus will turn to improving community based initiatives such as reviving block watch as well as lobbying the government to provide the resources the SPD requires to respond appropriately to the rise in property crime in North Seattle.”
“A "block walk" [will] show our presence in the community, and we will continue to pressure for more police resources on a government level as well as collaborate with the SPD.”
In addition WHIN plans to set up a follow-up meeting immediately and hopes for it to occur in early 2015.
“We will continue to demand change, so follow up meetings will certainly occur.”
