Dear Editor:

I am writing in response to Councilmember Lisa Herbold's "2020 Budget rebalancing deliberations; No call for SW precinct closure" piece that was published on Friday, 7.17.2020.

Specifically, where she stated:

"Finally, I want to address the size of our police force. A recent report by the Vera Institute of Justice titled What Policing Costs compiled data from fiscal year 2020 adopted budgets from 72 of the largest cities in the US. There are two data points I want to highlight:

• Seattle has one officer for every 340 residents, more officers per population than most West Coast cities. Under Public Safety Civil Service Commission rules we use seven comparative cities on the West Coast (Long Beach, Oakland, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose) as a benchmark for wages, hours, and conditions of employment. For instance, Portland has one officer for every 501 people, Sacramento, one officer for every 475 people, San Diego, one officer for every 537 people, and San Jose one officer for every 609 people."

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These important conversations need to be based on facts. Seattle has 1 officer (including students and recruits) for every 528 residents or 1 for every 566 (including only full officers). Ranking Seattle 21st (or 33rd) out of the 50 largest U.S. cities, behind San Francisco and many others. These calculations use U.S. Census estimates and Sworn Employee data reported to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting system (2018, the most recent year published, as well as current SPD staffing data).
And, as noted in the Seattle Times (link) and the Seattle City Council Insight (link) “choosing” who to lay off as a result of council actions is not simple.  Let us commit to working honestly, together, with Seattle data and experts that we know and trust.

Respectfully, 

 

Sergeant Lauren Truscott

Seattle PD Public Affairs Unit