New crime data shows optimistic outlook for downtown Seattle

Seattle’s ever-rising crime statistics, paired with a depleting police pressure and a vacation season that’s drowning in inflating costs, creates a fairly grim outlook for the town’s close to future.

However after Mayor Bruce Harrell “sounded just like the gung-ho soccer participant he as soon as was” when he introduced Seattle is again for the vacation season final week, in keeping with Seattle Occasions’ columnist Danny Westneat, possibly there may be some reality to these phrases.

“For those who had been to go downtown, and I’d really recommend that you simply do, it’s a large change. Huge change from what we had been seeing in the course of the pandemic, and even post-pandemic, when everybody anticipated that there can be a swap he might flip, and all the staff would come again, after which the whole lot would return to regular,” mentioned Mike Lewis, visitor host of The Gee and Ursula Present. “And it turned out to not be the case. Distant work, in some kind, is right here to remain.”

Final Friday, the Downtown Seattle Affiliation (DSA) hosted just a few thousand individuals for the town’s official tree-lighting celebration close to Pike Place Market, kicking off a season of vacation buying that native companies closely depend on.

Gee and Ursula to host Seattle Vacation Tree Lighting Ceremony

The variety of guests downtown continues to be beneath pre-pandemic ranges, in keeping with the DSA, however in October 2022, there have been 2.4 million guests, in comparison with 2.5 million three years earlier, creating room for optimism.

However who can be patrolling and defending the downtown’s development? In line with King 5, the variety of skilled and deployable officers in 2022 was 954 this previous summer season, the bottom mark in additional than 30 years.

“It’s all the time been a staffing subject with regulation enforcement in Seattle, there all the time has been,” Lewis mentioned. “The ratio of cops to residents has by no means actually matched a number of different cities, even at its greatest days … however the different factor that’s taking place there, that we are able to’t actually quantify statistically, is the rise of personal safety in that space. For those who go downtown, it’s stunning how a lot you see it. Not stunning primarily based on what was occurring down there, however stunning primarily based on historic norms.”

However Seattle Police Division (SPD) statistics help Harrell’s affectionate declaration and Westneat’s ensuing column.

In SPD’s knowledge, Seattle just lately recorded the bottom quantity of crime in a month since June 2021, with simply 3,894 crimes logged in September 2022.

Whereas that quantity would solely qualify because the sixth-lowest month of crime within the earlier yr, Seattle has witnessed a 13% drop in crime from January by October, in keeping with SPD statistics.

“It’s a tricky street,” Lewis mentioned on recruiting law enforcement officials to Seattle. “However in the event you take a look at what the town goes to do with its finances, it appears to be like like that’s going to be a spotlight shifting forward. Town council agreed that the mayor goes to get the cash that he desires for the recruitment and retention program. If you wish to put it all the way down to probably the most fundamental numbers, it’s a complete bunch of cash towards protecting officers we now have after which getting extra officers employed each from different companies and from the academy.”

Not like Tacoma, Seattle Police swears by crime knowledge

Earlier this yr, Harrell introduced a plan to rent 500 extra officers by 2027 in an try to stave off a “crisis-level” police staffing state of affairs.

“It’s virtually unattainable to do. There’s only a few regulation enforcement that even have the Human Assets engine that may course of that many workers, particularly in a sophisticated job like this, the place you actually should vet recruits,” Lewis mentioned. “This isn’t like getting employed for a lot of firms. This can be a way more intensive course of. And the {qualifications} are extremely, extremely particular.”

Take heed to Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast right here.