Do you feel safe in your home?

By Peter Steinbrueck

The Charter of the City of Seattle states that "there shall be maintained adequate police protection in each district of the City."

Do you feel we have enough police officers keeping our neighborhoods safe?

In September of this year, Mayor Nickels' delivered his proposed budget to the City Council. Despite a strong local economy and budget revenue forecast with millions of dollars in new revenue, the package did not include funding for one new sworn position in the Seattle Police Department.

We must be safe, right?

The growing numbers of crime victims in Seattle neighborhoods tell another story.

Last year in Seattle there were 47,600 serious crimes reported to police, including 25 murders, 139 rapes, 558 armed robberies, 2,344 aggravated assaults, 9,558 auto thefts, 6,756 burglaries and 155 arsons. Yet sadly, only 15 percent of these crimes resulted in arrests according to the Police Department's own 2005 statistics. This means that thousands of serious crimes went unchecked and without consequences for the criminals, who remain free to go on perpetrating more crimes against citizens all over Seattle.

For property crimes in particular, including burglaries and auto thefts, arrests are falling below 10 percent. Recently Chief Gil Kerlikowske reported that, "In comparison with the 25 largest U.S. jurisdictions (including four of the West Coast cities), the property crime rate (burglary, auto theft, and theft of property) in Seattle ranks second only to Memphis, Tenn." Even worse is that, according to Kerlikowske, "Aggravated assaults with a firearm increased by 25 percent in 2005. Aggravated assaults with a firearm through September of 2006 are up 26 percent compared with last year. Robberies are up 5 percent this year."

The problem is not that the police are not doing their jobs. They are. However, our police are seeing more and more of their time devoted to responding to the ever-increasing number of emergency 911 calls. To make an arrest, police must have time to investigate. To deter crime from even happening, visible, proactive community policing is needed. Yet after service calls, administrative duties, and court appearances are accounted for, police have only a fracture of their time left (less than 30 percent) for proactive crime prevention efforts.

While the public safety challenges grow, the "thin blue line" is thinner than ever. With only about 2.22 officers per 1000 residents (and dropping as we continue to grow by over 5,000 more residents per year), Seattle ranks on the low end of the scale compared to most other American cities our size and with similar public safety challenges such as a large daytime workforce population, tourism, professional sports, entertainment and a thriving nightlife scene. And the number of sworn officers, currently about 1,275, hasn't changed much in over 35 years despite our growth in population and increasing public safety challenges. As few as 80 officers on active patrol on a given day in Seattle - now does that make you feel safe?

An important part of the solution to increasing public safety must be to add significantly more police patrol officers, which is why I first proposed a plan, beginning with this budget cycle, to add 50 new officers per year, for the next five years for a total of 250 new sworn officers. Even Chief Kerlikowske says we need an increase in new officers. According to a recent statement by the chief: "A comprehensive public safety plan can only be successful if it has a firm foundation comprised of an adequate number of police officers. Providing additional officers will allow (the) Seattle Police Department to stop being reactive and give officers the necessary time during their shifts to prevent crime and respond to neighborhood concerns." Clearly, we cannot achieve our public safety goals without adequate staffing.

Unfortunately we were not able to reach the goal of adding 100 new officers in this budget, but the proposal sparked a citywide debate over how large a police force is needed, now and for the future. The good news is that in addition to the 30 new officers approved for the next two years, the City Council passed a comprehensive public safety funding package that is intended to help reduce crime through prevention and early intervention strategies such as domestic violence prevention, programs to steer young people away from a path of crime before its too late, and more support our neighborhood crime prevention community network. The overall package provides nearly $6 million in new funding directly for public safety.

The council also passed a resolution, which I co-sponsored, that requests the mayor to develop a first ever, five year strategic plan to optimize police staffing, measure policing performance, and improve public safety outcomes. We have asked the mayor to submit this plan to the council by March 31, 2007. We have also asked the Seattle Police Department to begin reporting monthly to the City Council's Public Safety Committee, on crime trends throughout the city, precinct by precinct, and Seattle Police Department's specific efforts to reduce crime.

With these important actions, the City Council has launched a new public safety initiative to guide future policy and budget decisions around accountability, performance and results. It will be up to the mayor now to develop a specific plan of action, and with council approval, begin implementing it to make our city safer in the years ahead.

Seattle cannot claim to be a great city unless it is a truly safe city. Our neighborhoods deserve no less.

Seattle City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck is a member of the Public Safety Committee and can be reached at 684.8804 or peter.steinbrueck@seattle.gov