Carkeek Park is a 216 acre green space between Blue Ridge, Broadview and Shilshole Bay. It is one of the woolliest parks in Seattle. Within its boundaries are ravines, creeks, steep hillsides, beach front access and six miles of trails, all bordered by thick foliage. Residents in the area have become concerned about something growing around the park beyond sword ferns and lichen.

Neighbors are raising awareness about an increase of crime around the park's borders, and held a meeting last Wednesday, March 8, with Seattle City Council President Nick Licata, Police Chief R. Gil Kerlikowske and Lieutenant Dick Reed from the city's North Seattle police precinct.

"We're of the perception that crime has increased but the presence of police has stayed the same. We don't have a police presence in our neighborhood and we find that unsettling," said John Heavner, the moderator for the evening and a member of Carkeek Area Neighbors, the group organizing the event.

The meeting was held at Carkeek Park's Environmental Learning Center and about sixty neighbors had the opportunity to share their experiences with crime and ask the city how it could help. Residents said they had observed incidents of prostitution, drug dealing, burglary and at least one mugging. Two neighbors had their cars burglarized the night before the meeting. Another neighbor had a detailed plat map of the neighborhoods around the park, highlighting criminal incidents witnessed by neighbors. One man was concerned enough that he asked that his name not be used in this story, for fear of criminal reprisals.

Kerlikowske said that while property crime is up slightly in the city for 2005 - about 1.5 percent from last year - generally crime has been in declining in Seattle for the last several years and statistically, Seattle is safer than most other urban centers of similar size.

"But that [statistic] is kind of irrelevant if you've had your car stolen," he said.

A good portion of the meeting was spent with Kerlikowske and Reed describing police processes, to dispel misconceptions about police beats, and provide some context for later discussions about the correlation between numbers of cops and crime rates.

One neighbor asked why police couldn't be redeployed at the north precinct, because of the larger population and geographic area it must serve. Kerlikowske said that precincts were manned to maintain a baseline emergency response; roughly, an average of seven minutes to respond to a call, from any part of the city. He said deployment based on population density would lead to a disparity in response times depending on where people lived.

The discussion became more heated during the discussion of how many police to hire. Kerlikowske said that 55 to 63 officers would be hired this year and staffing levels at the department will be as high as they have been in three years. Kerlikowske said that Seattle currently has about 1200 officers. He also said that the city could not hire its way to neighborhood safety - that simply putting cops on the street wasn't by itself an effective solution for crime.

"If you equate seeing a police officer with less crime, that's a mistake," Kerlikowske said, while explaining the sometimes fuzzy relationship between numbers of police and crime rates.

But the answer was unpopular. Monica Oxford, a co-founder of Greenwood Aurora Involved Neighbors, or GAIN, a sort of mega block-watch, responded briskly.

"We're saying we need your help, and you're saying they [more police] aren't going to make a dramatic difference, so what's your plan to make a dramatic effect," she said to Kerlikowske.

Council President Licata answered the question, saying that he wasn't entirely in agreement with Kerlikowse on that point.

"There has been a recognition that we need more police officers. Then the debate is how many," he said.

But Licata also reinforced the police chief's point that the cops-equal-safety concept was an oversimplification:

"Some of it is counter-intuitive but adding police officers doesn't necessarily bring crime down," he said.

He and Kerlikowske both expressed a desire to be more effective in how to deploy police resources. Kerlikowske said getting police to interact in the neighborhood, talk about prevention and, in effect, enhancing police visibility was one strategy. He also said his task was getting concessions from the police guild in provisioning officer shifts in greater alignment with hours where crime rates tend to rise, instead of the flat-rate police deployment currently in effect.

While there wasn't any specific agreement on solutions between the speakers and the audience, there was an acknowledgement of shared purpose between many audience members and the City Council president, about where the city's fiscal priorities should be. Licata said he was critical about what he saw as a confused approach to lobbying legislators in Olympia for financial support.

"We talk about transportation and money for the Sonics [pro basketball team] but we need to talk about a coherent public safety strategy," Licata said.

At that point, Brad Warren, one of the founding members of the community group spoke up.

"Then how can we make the point that we'd rather have police officers than pro basketball players?"

Licata's suggestion of banging the drums and getting the word out that more police resources were needed was essentially a validation of the meeting that evening.

One member of the audience expressed doubt that such efforts would generate more than platitudes from elected officials but the moderator, John Heavner rejected the idea.

"I'm an optimist - if we keep this energy up, we'll make these people understand," he said.