From left: David Della, Tony Au, Dr. Ming Xiao, and Anna Hau
By David Della, former Seattle City Councilmember
Tony Au, President, Friends of Gee How Oak Tin Family Association
Dr. Ming Xiao, small business owner, Chinatown-ID
Anna Hau, small business owner and Seniors In Action, Chinatown-ID
The Chinatown-International District (CID) is a historic and culturally rich neighborhood of small businesses and residents, many of us immigrants, low-income, and elderly. Sadly, over the past two years, our community has been besieged by sharply escalating rates of violent and property crime and we fear for the safety of our most vulnerable and the viability of the small businesses and cultural spaces that serve them. That is why we urge the City Council to support Councilmember Sara Nelson’s resolution, which calls for a staffing incentives program to accelerate the hiring of new officers and sets the stage to free up unspent funds in the Seattle Police Department (SPD)’s 2022 budget to pay for it.
The deaths, assaults, drug dealing, and robberies associated with the now cleared encampment at 12th and Jackson in Little Saigon were widely reported, but such activity is still widespread and ongoing throughout the neighborhood. Citywide, year-to-date (YTD) homicide events are up 70%, with 17 fatalities compared to 10 YTD last year, and shootings are up 138%, with 62 events YTD compared to 26 YTD in 2021.
There are not enough officers on the street to address our public safety crisis due to the Seattle SPD’s severe staffing shortage. Since January 2022, SPD has lost almost 400 deployable officers representing a 28% reduction of its in-service force. Every other jurisdiction in our region has implemented some form of hiring or retention program and Seattle must do the same in order to compete for a limited pool of applicants.
Councilmember Nelson’s Resolution 32050 establishes the policy direction for robust deliberation of her proposed Council Bill to authorize the use of up to $4.5 million in surplus funds for incentives, such as relocation expenses, hiring bonuses, and professional development. For officers already in the department contemplating leaving Seattle, passage of this resolution will be a signal that this city values them and their service.
Last summer, over 200 community leaders and small business owners in the CID signed on to a letter to City Council expressing our support for improved police accountability and our opposition to additional cuts to SPD’s budget. We now stand together again in support of Councilmember Sara Nelson’s legislation to incentivize the recruitment of enough officers to ensure the safety of our small businesses and residents—in our neighborhood and across Seattle.
Councilmember Nelson’s resolution is scheduled for a vote in the Public Safety and Human Services Committee on May 10. You can email your support to Council@seattle.gov.
Perfect- now we know which businesses to boycott. SPD are useless and giving them more money to escalate violence in the community and fight any measures of accountability or transparency is just pure boot licking.
I agree that accountability and transparency are vital for the police department moving forward, however continuously losing police officers in a city that has saw crime rise and continue to rise in the last 2 years is not rocket-science to understand. Public safety is one of the biggest concerns of Seattlelites, hence why the city overwhelmingly voted for Mayor Harrell. The majority of the city supports increasing police presence to combat the rise in crime. I would agree that making a systemic change in the teaching of policing should change. Minority communities in the CID have largely felt the impact of crime inflicted upon their businesses like many other small business owners in Seattle. You can go ask local small business owners in Seattle, especially in the downtown and Chinatown area how their business is doing. You claim that you want to boycott them and that’s fine, it seems you are either too sheltered from seeing the rise in crime or bias enough in your political realm to have any common sense. Honestly you are nothing more then a internet troll that would rather spew hatred and continue to see the decay of society than to make a positive change in the community.