By Jason Cruz
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Mayor Bruce Harrell
Mayor Bruce Harrell addressed public safety in Seattle on Thursday in the first of several forums to discuss strategies for the future of the city. The public were invited to participate in real-time polling to address issues that most concern them. In addition to enforcement, he addressed preventative measures to keep everyone safe and provide treatment for those in need.
At the Central Public Library, Harrell laid out his plan for improving public safety. Wearing a black sweater in lieu of the usual suit and tie, Harrell gave citizens the realities of the state of the city and what he wanted to do to improve it.
Veteran journalist Enrique Cerna served as the moderator for a discussion on public safety. The forum came a day after two shootings in the Central District neighborhood of Seattle. In one, a Garfield High School student, who was an innocent bystander at a bus stop, was shot in the leg and suffered minor injuries. Later that night in a separate incident, a woman was shot and killed. Cerna lamented the resignation of gun violence of the people of the neighborhood. He posed the question of what the city could do to change the perception.
Harrell called on the state legislative body with respect to curbing gun violence.
“Too many people have too many guns,” Harrell said. He identified issues with the state laws which curb his power to regulate guns. Specifically, he mentioned issues such as establishing stricter background checks or mandating training before people obtain guns. He suggested putting something on the ballot for citizens to vote on or having Washington state lawmakers amend the current laws limiting a mayor’s power.
Harrell discussed his strategy for public safety to the capacity audience and the livestream of people that could not attend.
“I’m data driven, I want to measure what we are doing,” Harrell said. In the almost 90-minute discussion, he said he is looking to the future of technology to help assist public safety and implement technology that will identify when shots are fired. ShotSpotter is an acoustic gunshot detection technology. This would lead to data that could identify areas of need and concern. Harrell believes it may be a step in the right direction, although opponents are concerned with the invasion of privacy and may target minority groups. But, he believes the information can help with staffing decisions on which areas that may be a concern.
Mayor Harrell identified some numbers which showed some improvement with crime. He noted that 1,500 firearms were recovered last year. He stated that 80% of the homicides were with guns. He stated that authorities recovered 5,726 shell cases in 2023, which was more than in 2021 and 2022 combined.
“If this work would be easy, it would be done,” Harrell said of the job of law enforcement. “I have zero tolerance for criminals, people that are hurting other people. I don’t mince words on this, my job is to protect people.”
“My values are to treat people that are sick and arrest people that are bad,” Harrell said bluntly.
A key issue is the lack of police officers. There are less than 1,000 people on the force and the benchmark is 1,400 Seattle police officers. While there are 200 applicants a month per Harrell, there are issues with those that go through the process of becoming an officer.
“We are looking granularly where we are falling off,” explained Harrell. He also stated that police attrition is shrinking.
Those in attendance and watching live online had the opportunity to answer questions. The questions asked included whether people felt safe in their own neighborhood, did they feel safe taking public transit, did they feel safe visiting downtown, and did they feel safe at public social events like sporting events.
“We wanted this to form our discussion with our chiefs and human services department.” He added, “It is not an exact science, but a way of communicating.”
The forum included a panel of several public safety officials, including Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz and Fire Chief Harold Scoggins. In addition, Acting Chief Amy Smith of Community Assisted Response & Engagement was present to discuss data analytics related to the calls received. Smith’s job is to determine how to utilize first responders. Her job is unique to the administration because she is an academic that is implementing empirical data on how to prioritize services. To round out the panel, Seattle Human Services Department Director Tanya Kim discussed how her department connects individuals with services.
Chief Diaz addressed officer-involved shootings. He stated that they have had only one officer involved shooting in 22 months. He indicated that officers have built trust within communities and have de-escalated situations.
Smith noted that “911 is never staffed adequately. We’ve treated it like secretarial work, it’s a high-stress, high turnover job. It’s significant to acknowledge what the work is.”
Kim noted that post-pandemic human service workers are “burned out.” She noted that they are trying to take care of the workers based upon the nature of the job.
While crime was the primary issue related to public safety, drug and mental health concerns were discussed. Scroggins stated that a lot of their work deals with drug overdoses and explained a new program to deal with overdoses called Health 99 (the units known as H99). The team of paramedics and EMTs only deals with drug cases They have additional training in dealing with overdoses and to assist those in persuading them to rehabilitate. He identified a partnership with the University of Washington, which allows a nurse practitioner to work at firehouses to deal with wound care and prescriptions.
Health 99 was a part of an Executive Order signed by Harrell to address the drug epidemic.
The mayor also announced a Downtown Seattle activation plan. He made clear that this program would include the Chinatown-International District up to 12th and Jackson.
“So we’re looking at strategies in activating downtown.” Harrelll recognizes the plight of small businesses that need foot traffic to sustain and the push to keep people in Downtown Seattle while ensuring they are safe.
“If you look at the numbers, our numbers are coming back,” Harrell said of statistics of the number of businesses and people returning to work in person post-Covid. The flexibility to work from home helped keep businesses churning, but the return to work in person in Downtown Seattle has been slow.
Jason can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
Seattle citizens being MURDERED every other day. Come back with a DID , instead of a wanna. Robert