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The Public Safety Committee meeting will come to order.

It's 9.37 a.m., December 9, 2025. I'm Robert Kettle, chair of the Public Safety Committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Council Member Juarez.

Here.

Council President Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Sacca.

Here.

Good morning.

Chair Kettle.

Here.

Chair, there are four members present.

Thank you.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing and seeing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

This morning for chair comment, I wanted to start.

This is our last meeting of the year, and it's also our last meeting of this term of the council, the two years of this term of the council.

And I just wanted to to say thank you, a note of gratitude.

I want to say thank you for this productive term for all involved who helped carry out our strategic framework plan for Safer Seattle to advance our mission and vision of creating a safe base in our city.

I really want to say thank you to our central staff public safety team, starting with Director Noble, Director Ben Noble, but also Mr. Greg Dawes, Mr. Tommaso Johnson, Ms. Karina Bull.

And I also want to give a shout out to Ms. Anne Gorman, who was long-term serving on the public safety team with the central staff.

I respect your contributions to the committee, rooted in the professionalism and excellence that you brought every day.

It definitely made a difference.

I also want to thank our committee clerk, my policy director, Mr. Brent Lowe, who is also aided at times by Ms. Rebecca Duran and Ms. Sarah Hanneman from my office.

and I should note too that this team was ably supported by our city clerk team led by Ms. Shereen Dedman.

So thank you to the city clerks team.

I also want to thank our security team, William, and all those that help us each day here in Public Safety Committee.

As you know, sometimes Public Safety Committee can be, I guess some people would say spicy.

So I really do appreciate the security team.

I also support the administrative help that we also get from Chris Galbraith and Marisa Nolte from the second floor here with the City Council.

I do want to take a note, too, to back to central staff.

I recognize Mr. Director Nobles had some deputy directors over time, but I want to thank them, too, and particularly for their budget support.

We do a lot in Public Safety Committee, but Budget Committee is also very important related to public safety.

and so therefore I want to give a shout out, a thank you to former director Ali Panucci and take the opportunity to congratulate her on being named a new city budget director.

I will never forget my first meeting with Ms. Panucci who was really our budget guru before she left and before now coming back and I remember her asking me if I was going to keep the proviso and SPD salaries and because, you know, I have a reputation working public safety, working with the police department and so forth, and I thought she thought I was going to look to drop it.

And I said, no, probably to the chagrin of the executive team, the mayor's team and the department.

I said, no, we have to keep that proviso.

Hey, that's big money, but here's the big thing.

We have to look out for the equities of the legislative department.

You know, we have divided government.

It's much kind of like our federal government where You know, the executive has its responsibilities, equities, and duties, but we have ours.

And we need to protect that.

And the proviso is an example of that.

And so, yes, I told her that.

And I recounted that my last time, my last assignment in the Navy, I was a legislative liaison to Congress.

So any time that the Navy wanted to move intelligence recontent surveillance program money from one place to another.

I had to coordinate that with the armed services and the intelligence committees of the House and Senate for them to get their permission.

And I'm saying, well, what's good for Congress is what's good for us too.

And that was what we looked at.

So I really want to thank her on the point related to provisos and really respecting each branch of government here in the city.

Lastly, I just also want to thank my Vice Chair, who's traveling in.

He's probably on transit right now.

Councilmember Saka and other committee members, including Council President Nelson, Councilmember Hollingsworth, and Councilmember Juarez.

And I should also add Councilmember Cathy Moore, who is with us for most of this term.

And I do also appreciate the regular visits of Councilmember Rivera, Rink, and others.

Your work is crucial to our council passing 34 pieces of legislation this term.

You know, the majority of these pieces of legislation came out of this committee, but two pieces, the Select Labor Committee, which is led by Council President, but also the Governance Accountability and Economic Development Committee, which also had some pieces of legislation, not to mention parks and public utilities and technology.

The technology, there were some technology bills small ones that were done out of Council Member Hollingsworth Committee and these pieces of legislation coming together are making a difference and this is something that we're going to speak to a little bit today because it's come recently and I have press releases talking about some of the actions taken that really relate to some of the legislation that we've done I also want to say one last thing is, you know, each of us took an oath on the elected side, our colleagues, and this is across all branches of city government, and we took that oath to the Constitution, which I did many times in my naval service, but this time I also and we took an oath to the Washington State Constitution, and importantly to the city charter and the ordinances of the city of Seattle.

I think we should take a moment to reflect on that.

We took an oath to the charter and the ordinances of the City of Seattle.

Okay, that's the end of the chair comment.

Thank you so much, and again, thank you for everyone involved, and to include our newest members in this public safety arena, which we'll hear from today.

Okay, clerk, how many speakers, we'll open public comment period, and they should relate to today's agenda or within the purview of this committee, but clerk, how many members do we have signed up today?

We have 15 in-person and one online.

Okay, well, two minutes under our new rules and let's just run through the in-person.

The public comment period will be monitored in the following manner.

The public comment period is up to 60 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open.

We'll begin with the first speaker on the list.

The first in-person speaker is Ari Einbeinder.

Right up there.

Hello.

Hello.

All right.

Hello, everyone.

Good morning.

My name is Ari Einbinder.

I'm an educator working with Horn of Africa Services together with their youth coordinator, Dahabe Ahsan.

For the past three years, we've run a program for Seattle teens focused on reducing gun violence.

I'm incredibly proud of the work our students have done.

They spent a year focusing on the different forms of gun violence and their impact on families and communities.

The following year, they examined gun laws at both the national and state levels and dug into the root causes of gun violence.

And this year, they've turned to the hardest question of all, how do we actually make change happen, both at the national and local levels?

That is what brings us here today.

As you know, gun violence is an epidemic in America and Seattle is not immune.

For some, gun violence is something they just read about.

For many people in our city, including the students with me today, it is a lived reality.

They attend schools where students have been shot.

One student lives in a home that was riddled with bullets from stray gunfire.

Several new families who lost a loved one.

Many Seattle neighborhoods are spared from this level of risk.

Others, often lower income and often home to immigrant families, are not so fortunate.

These are real people whose lives are being turned upside down.

These are communities my students call home.

We recognize that the city of Seattle faces legal and practical limits on the types of gun regulations it can enact.

But despite those constraints, my students have been working on a number of proposals they believe can make a meaningful difference and which we believe are within the city's reach.

Additionally, they have focused on ideas that uplift our communities through addressing root causes and breaking the fundamentally negative cycles that lead to gun violence.

Soon you'll be hearing from three of our student groups, each working on a policy brief.

Each group has selected a representative to speak on their behalf.

We'll keep our remarks brief out of respect for your time.

Thank you all so much for listening and thank you for considering our ideas.

We hope you'll join us in making Seattle a safer city for all of its students and residents.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, and thank you for bringing the students.

And as coordinated, yes, if you have three students, that would be six minutes.

You can have one person speak within that period of time.

Next up, we have Milka Mojas.

and maybe Rebecca Tesuger and Azar Samatar.

Not sure.

Good morning.

My name is Malcolm Ogis, and on behalf of my teammates, Rebecca, Natai, Ali, and Lowy, we thank you all for having us and allowing us to speak on a life or death issue, this issue being gun violence.

Gun violence continues to be a serious and widespread issue.

It ruins lives, weakens families, and creates an unbearable fear within neighborhoods.

beyond this immediate effect and limits access to education, employment, and community development.

Much of this violence is not random.

It stems from deeper social and economic inequalities.

Seattle specifically continues to experience significant levels of gun violence with a 66% increase in gun violence incidents from 2021 and 2023. and more than 2,800 gun violence incidents recorded in this city during that time period.

Gun violence in many communities is deeply linked to the cycle of poverty, limited job opportunities, and barriers to employment.

These issues produce various economic hardships and a lack of access to sustainable careers, often leaving individuals vulnerable to criminal activity and violence in order to survive.

Although current policies have been enforced, they tend to focus heavily on law enforcement and punitive measures while disregarding these underlying root causes eventually allowing the cycle of poverty to continue.

After researching the root causes of gun violence, we found that gun violence is often concentrated in poorer areas and is a result of the cycle of poverty.

One way we can target this is by opening up free skills training centers for people trapped in the cycle of poverty.

By providing these resources, victims trapped in the cycle will have a chance to learn new skills that will open job opportunities.

Once they're in the workforce, Financial stability increases through steady employment, experience, networking, building a resume, and et cetera.

This boosts financial stability, ultimately breaking the poverty cycle, where regular income covers essentials like housing and food.

It reduces desperation that drives crime, enables family mobility through savings and better education, and cuts conditions like inequality fueling violence.

Thank you all so much for your time.

We hope you consider the problems of gun violence and work towards solutions such as intervening in the cycle of poverty with skills training programs.

Thank you again.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Just list out the names.

Next up, Azhar Samatar.

Give him six minutes.

Give him six minutes.

Or is it two?

OK.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Kenna, and I'm here today with my colleagues Tamnen, Hamza, Azhar, and Beka.

We are a part of gun violence reduction program led by Horn of Africa services as a part of our work.

As a part of our work, we are here today to share concerns and ideas with the local government and growing issues of gun violence in our community.

Before we talk about this issue, I want to ask you to imagine something.

Imagine losing a friend, a family member, or someone you love to gun violence, and then feeling like no one is there to help protect or bring justice.

In that moment, anger and fear can quickly turn into something dangerous.

the belief that the only way to feel safe, again, is to strike back.

For many young people in our city, this isn't imaginary.

Retaliation is a painful reality and is often where the cycle begins.

According to the city of Seattle, between 2013 and 2024, shooting-related incidents rose at an alarming rate at an alarming rate.

Shots fired reports increased by 194%, and the non-fatal shootings by 150%, and the fatal shootings by 220%.

Gun violence in Seattle is often tied to group or gang-related conflicts, with one person, when one person is harmed, others may feel pressured to respond, recreating a cycle of revenge.

And as we know, a bullet does not discriminate.

Innocent people, families, and entire neighborhoods can be impacted at a single act of retaliation.

One strategy to reduce gun violence rooted in retaliations is to invest in community hubs.

These hubs would serve as local accessible centers where young youth and community members can find safety, support, and connection.

Community hubs offer social services, educational resources, and spaces to express emotions and build healthy relationships.

They strengthen community resilience, provide positive outlets, and help prevent isolation.

Community hubs play a critical role in preventing gun violence retaliation by acting as central points for community violence intervention programs, which employ a public health approach to de-escalate conflicts, change social norms surrounding violence, and provide essential support services.

Their effect stems from their deep integration within the community and the use of trusted, credible team.

We appreciate your time and attention today.

We hope that you consider community hubs as a meaningful step towards breaking cycles of retaliations and reducing gun violence in our communities.

Thank you, and we hope you have a good day.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Next up.

Next up we have Howard Gale.

Good morning.

Regarding the police union contract that was discussed here yesterday, when someone has to make straw man arguments and patently false claims, you know that the facts and reason are on another side.

Just a few examples from yesterday.

There was a discussion repeatedly about confidentiality in police labor negotiations.

Repeated statements made that that's a state law.

That is patently false.

It is an SMC code, it is not state law.

Again, statements made about having to have negotiations, that that's the only path forward, not happened in Washington DC, not happened in Newark, not happened in Nashville.

And it didn't happen in 2017 when Mayor Murray actually decided there would be an executive order for body cameras.

In fact, in New York, there's the Taylor Law, which is very similar to the Public Employee Labor Relations Law that we have in Washington State.

And repeatedly, courts have found that it is okay for towns and cities to actually write their own laws without bargaining when it comes specifically to discipline and accountability.

Lastly, I just want to say two things.

Again, the amount of misinformation yesterday was really stunning.

Councilmember Kettle, you talked about subpoenas.

You don't understand why subpoenas were put specifically in the 2017 legislation.

It has to do with getting testimony from people that are not members of the SPD, from family and friends.

So that's a total misunderstanding.

The other thing is there's been a discussion about arbitration and mitigating or moderating the laws that we have or the rules in the contract.

That was not part of 2017. 2017 was about having the Public Safety Civil Service Commission, which would obviate the need to have arbitration, which always favors police.

So again, the amount of disinformation was stunning yesterday.

for everybody to read the article in The Urbanist.

Go to theurbanist.org in which I detail all these things which are quite contrary to the supposed facts that were put out here yesterday.

Thank you, Mr. Gale.

Next up, we have Will O. Hi, all.

My name's Will Obersta.

town drunk and here speaking for the first time.

Long time listener though.

Big fan of everyone.

Happy holidays.

Thanks for all the work you do.

I was researching all of this yesterday.

I was sitting just back here yesterday during the council brief and looking at the SPOG and thinking as a UFCW 3000 member, man, maybe I should quit my job in the grocery store that I work at and join the police because they're being paid a lot better than we are.

We talk about union contracts a lot and the transparency of them and the transparency of government pay and I, you know, have lived in Seattle for about a decade now and I've seen people coming into the city, 23-year-olds making $150 a year in the private sector and I know that's how we is to kind of think about how we pay government employees like COPs, and now that private sector is making a lot less money, and we're thinking about should we be paying COPs $150 a year as 25-year-olds, what they're going to be making on the new SPOG contract.

I don't agree or disagree with the practice, but I am thinking, how are we going to be setting cop pay moving forward in Seattle?

You know, in Boston, in New York, and in Dallas, Texas, they're paying cops about 85 a year.

And they tend to have a lot better relationships with their cops and their city and their government.

And I would love to have that relationship with our cops in this city.

and I appreciate all the work you do.

Thank you and thank you for your first time comment.

Appreciate it.

Next up.

Next up, we have, and I'm not sure who's gone yet, sorry.

Ali Abdi, Hamas Hussain, already gone.

Okay, I'll move on to the next one.

Steve Robstello.

Last time I came here, I'd recently been, I guess, the best term, assaulted, and I still haven't got any straight answers out of the city.

What is the standards for an assault?

And what is the standards for arrest?

They seem to be in the vapor.

I tried OPA, and their response was, I wanted the person arrested.

And they're like, that's just unreasonable.

When people put hands on me, I'm old, I'm not young, I'm not the meanest in the valley anymore, I'm not looking forward to say, you're giving me a bad time, come on, let's go.

Nah, I'm old, I don't heal probably as easy as I did when I'm young.

I'd like to see a civil society in Seattle.

I'd like to get some straight answers.

I'd like to see people who, before they start shooting people, have some consequences.

And I'm not seeing that in Seattle.

The last three times I called the SPD 911, which is, I understand, not run by them right now.

Two out of three times when they actually were there, I flagged down separate officers.

That means two out of three times they didn't show, and I think that's unacceptable.

And one time they did show was in the campaign, so there was no incident report, and God, they really didn't want to talk to me.

They did clear the folks away, but that was it.

So I'd like to see a city where things actually worked.

We need to restore the squads that used to take care of problems with the elderly, problems with rape, problems with car prowls and stealing.

I'd like to see Seattle return.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Bera Jorgo.

Do both of these work?

Yeah, both work.

Hello, everyone.

Good morning.

I'm representing Katyn, Asante, Lebsi, Ansar, who's here with me today, and myself.

We're here to talk to you about a serious issue that needs to be addressed in our community, gun violence.

We wanted to talk about how gun violence impacts the lives of many in the Seattle and King County area.

For the amount of gun violence the city experiences, this topic is not stressed enough.

Seattle has experienced 45 deaths, 147 people shot, and 848 shots fired in King County this year alone.

Gun violence is also the leading cause of death for children in America.

Let me repeat, it's the number one leading cause of death for children in America.

This should be frightening for parents, administrators and especially politicians.

This epidemic can build from less fortunate communities having less access to resources like well-funded schools.

Education provides opportunities and this is very crucial in making places like Seattle a safer environment for us and the next generation.

Our solution, we believe will help reduce gun violence, is providing school-based education programs about gun violence to high schools.

This could look like classes and assembly-styled seminars on gun violence in high schools across Washington.

The topics discussed could range from educating students on the psychological effects gun violence can produce to how to comfort those who have gone through these traumatic experiences.

These classes and systems of specific education are needed because the lack of awareness about gun violence and related issues is an underlying cause.

On this note, we'd like to mention some of the work Dr. Gregory Engel has done, an epidemiologist and local advocate working to reduce gun violence by offering exactly these kinds of lessons.

Myself and others at Horn of Africa Services were fortunate enough to hear from him and have him present on the subject, but most of the kids our age in this area don't get the same opportunity.

In summary, to help resolve the destructive gun violence in our community, root-focused solutions, like the ideas we shared, are necessary for the improvement of our safety and for our lives in the long run.

Thank you all for your time and attention.

I think next up we have Milcoma Guyasa.

Oh, you're all good.

Okay, sorry.

I think that's all we have for in-person, and we have David Haynes.

Can I, before you go on, I just want to double-check.

So everybody has had for the students, so we're good?

All right.

Please remind me of the school.

The Horn of Africa Services Group.

Can you stand up and just explain?

Actually, come to the mic and explain the group again, just for everybody's education and the Seattle Channel.

If you could just say again, your group.

Yes sir, you come up too.

Just explain your organization, your school, and then the program that you're looking to do.

Thank you.

My name is Guy Gabrou.

I'm the Executive Director for Horn of Africa Services.

And first of all, I really want to take this time to thank you, the City of Seattle.

For the past three years, this program is running our community and we educate over 1,000 families in our community and as you can see this is group of young people for this year but we graduate another three group like this who educated themselves research about gun violence and this it means a lot in our community in the neighborhood area so I really thank you to continue to fund other organization as well to educate the young people, especially what they find out in the research.

The friends are the one who really kill other friends.

So if the young people really educated, the family get educated awareness about gun violence, I think we can be in good state.

So thank you so much.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Chair.

Yes, Council Member Juarez.

Thank you.

Can I do a point of privilege here just briefly?

Yes.

I very seldom do this, but I just want to thank these students and the teacher, the six students, because they just gave us a master class in public comment.

It was clear.

It was concise.

It was informative.

It was authentic, intelligent, respectful, kind.

And I learned so much today from those students and their powerful, powerful public comment today.

What really stuck out to me was talking about the protection and justice for their community.

and the fact that they brought statistics and facts and also talked about Dr. Gregory.

I just want to say I really, really, really appreciate your public comment this morning.

I know it takes a lot to come down here, but well done, well done, well done.

So thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, students.

And I didn't get the teacher's name for the Horn of Africa or the other individual or other gentlemen.

So with that, thank you.

All right, thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Thank you all so much.

Let's talk to any other questions.

Well, thank you very much.

We're set.

I love the numbers.

By the way, we have Dr. Hunt here, so you can talk about stats and numbers.

You're giving him a run for his money, so Dr. Hunt later on in the agenda will be speaking to numbers.

And just to reflect, by the way, in terms of You know, the retaliation piece and the skills training and the seminars on gun violence.

These are things that we're learning, and as you'll see if you stay there all the time, that we're incorporating gun violence more and more.

And importantly, as I like to call it, the seam between public safety and human services or housing and homelessness and public health.

You know, these connections between the traditional public safety and these other areas are so important, and your students were really kind of speaking to that.

because addressing this is, you know, helps the bigger public safety picture.

So thank you so much.

Thank you all so much.

Okay, now to our online commenter.

Yes, our last remote commenter is David Haynes.

Thank you, David Haynes.

spares all the propaganda.

There's a lot of sympathy for evil, predatory drug pushers who are the prolific reason why there's so much gun violence.

And yet we have all these adults between 18 and 27 that get listed as youngsters, like youth, and they're misguiding the youth.

And it doesn't seem like we have the proper tools for crime fighting and the proper interpretation of policies.

So I think we needed an investigation of the use of the resources in Seattle because The police chief utilized an environmental design to take all these evil lowlifes from hell that were operating within the alleyways of downtown.

And he dispersed them and moved a lot of them directly out of the downtown community council's boundaries, which is not an elected body.

And there seems to need to be an investigation of that political favor because they drove a lot of these people up into Belltown and they've exacerbated the crisis.

and they've spread them to other areas because when they were all consolidated, the police chief dispersed them all and the non-profits have failed to address the different levels of concern and crisis within people's problems, whether it's behavioral crisis, drug treatment, proper punishment and crime that has never been questioned to find out where they keep getting the drugs and who keeps buying their stolen goods.

They just are allowed to move around and then they manipulate the crime hotspots.

How much resource and money has been taken away from the crime fighting tools regarding the drug pushers versus how much money has been taken from the budget to pay cops overtime doing what cops are not needed to do, which is acting like a security guard at a private event, enjoying themselves at a football or a baseball game and getting a $250 bonus for showing up to work, not to fight crime, but to make overtime.

earmarked by the police chief whose efforts seem to create an easier payday for the majority of the police department so that they don't have to deploy and shut down the evil black and brown drug pushers who are conducting an uncivil war on the community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

Okay, public comment has expired.

We will now proceed to our items of business.

Members of the public are encouraged to either submit written public comment on the signup cards available here on the podium or email the council at council at seattle.gov.

Okay, we'll now move on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Appointment 3378, Richard Green to the public safety reappointment of Richard Green to the Public Safety Civil Service Commission.

Thank you.

Director Sheely, please join us with your colleague.

And go ahead, introduce yourself please for the record and then start your, basically your presentation, your remarks.

Thank you, Chair Kettle.

My name is Andrea Sheely.

I am the Executive Director of the Civil Service Department and the Public Safety Civil Service Commission.

I'm here with Sarah Butler, who is the Policy and Operations Advisor for the Civil Service Department and the Commissions.

We are here.

Thank you for your consideration of Commissioner Richard Green for reappointment today for a second term to the Public Safety Civil Service Commission.

Fortunately for Richard, but unfortunately for us, he is traveling today, so he was not able to join us in person.

Commissioner Green was first appointed by the city council in 2023, and since that time, he has served as chair in both 2024 and 2025 of the commission.

During his first term, Commissioner Green provided strong and steady leadership through a period of significant growth and realignment in the civil service department.

Under his commissionership, the department has expanded its capacity to support police applicants throughout the testing and hiring process, improved efficiency in delivering biweekly police eligibility registers to the Seattle Police Department, transitioned from a biannual to an annual firefighter application and testing cycle, Also developed in 2025, we developed and launched a new lateral paramedic firefighter exam to support the Seattle Fire Department.

And throughout that time, the Commission continued performing its core responsibilities, overseeing promotional exams for the ranks in the Seattle Police and Fire Department, and conducting its own quasi-judicial functions related to public safety civil service appeals.

Commissioner Green has been a thoughtful, collaborative, and mission-focused leader, contributing to an effective and responsive Public Safety Civil Service system for the City of Seattle.

I respectfully present Commissioner Green for your consideration and reappointment to the Public Safety Civil Service Commission for another term starting January 1st, 2026, and to conclude December 31st, 2028. Thank you all.

Thank you so much and appreciate your remarks and I'm sorry Mr. Green's not here, but you have a Great rundown plus we have the application package.

I always go to my vice chair, but if there's anything Or for my colleagues to include Councilmember Juarez any questions Not seeing any questions I do note this is I'm sorry I recognize a lot of the points that you were speaking to with Mr. Green, because these are different things that we've been working.

It kind of goes to my opening comment, my chair comment, over the course of these two terms.

And I have your press release from November 17th talking about, as of October 31st, 1,182 candidates have passed the city's civil service exam for police officers.

apparently the highest number ever recorded, at least since 2012. That's correct.

And that supplants last year's number of 1163, 1,163.

What can we do to move forward to solidify this and or improve?

Thank you for the question, Chair Kettle.

I know a lot of the things that this council has done this year and that this committee has done has contributed to that success for Seattle Police Department and the City of Seattle.

You have continued to put your effort and approval towards making sure that police officers are compensated adequately for the difficult and skilled work that they do.

You all have supported our department in adding positions and ensuring that we are a resource to do the work for both the Seattle Police and the Seattle Fire Department.

I will mention that Seattle Fire Department application window closed recently, and we are on pace to have a very long list for the Seattle Fire Department.

I don't have those numbers.

quite yet and the testing cycle will not conclude until March, but it's looking very positive on that front as well.

So I would say to continue doing what you have done and what you are doing is to recognize what Seattle's public safety priorities are and continue to support those in the ways that you're able to do so.

Okay, thank you.

Council President has jumped on my screen here.

Council President.

I did have a question.

So are there, and this is for the new commissioner that we are going to be considering today.

Are there any initiatives, improvements, ideas that the Commission will be taking up?

I'm not sure how your workflow proceeds, or if you're just heads down on the work that you have right at your right on your lap.

So I'm just wondering what's new or for the commission coming forward?

And I ask that because there was a huge shift in the number of people that were applying to SPD and who have been hired, right?

It's estimated that we'll end the year with a net positive of about 94. I am wondering from your perspective and from the perspective of the commissioners, to what do you owe that significant jump?

And then what are some of the things that you will be doing in the coming year to support an adequate flow of applicants that also are good applicants that meet our requirements and allow us to pick from the very best?

Thank you for those questions, Council President.

I heard two questions, to what do I credit for the increase in 2025?

And what are we looking at for 2026 for commission work, for the Public Safety Civil Service Commission specifically?

I think that the, you know, we have some people in the room here today, in addition to you all, who can be credited for a lot of the work that went into this increase.

I think we got a new contract in 2025 approved retroactively.

I heard that you talked about the even newer contract yesterday.

So I think continuing to pay officers for their work is extremely important.

I think the culture around public safety has changed.

I mean, we came out of a very intense time period in 2020 and time has passed and the public safety needs are being looked at differently and addressed differently.

I think we have the CARES department now, which can take some of the work that Seattle police officers have done historically and put it on their plate so that officers can focus on their very important public safety work.

I think these things are all attractive to candidates and potential recruits.

So continuing to do that very important work is important.

I think that we have made a lot of improvements in the application process.

We have speeded up.

Between our department, the Civil Service Department, and the Seattle Police Department, we have decreased the time that candidates spend applying, testing, and in backgrounds and other phases that are pre-hire.

so they're getting in the door faster.

I know that there's been a focus also in training and making sure that that is done efficiently and that officers are able to complete their field training.

So continuing in those efforts, there's no magic wand.

It's just hard, focused work in continuing to reevaluate what is appropriate and needed by our community and then put our nose to the grindstone and do it.

I think that what you were trying to say is, and I hate to use this analogy in this situation, but there is no one silver bullet, right?

That's exactly right.

So it's the accretion of many different things.

You mentioned the staffing processes.

Council Bill 120766, which turned into Ordinance 127026, which I put forward and that we processed in the Governance Accountability and Economic Development Committee, did modify the hiring processes and the recruiting processes.

to positions that were recruiters out of SDHR and put them into SPD so that they are more accessible by the actual people that are helping the potential recruits go through the process.

So I think that that was a positive that was a positive change and also the fact that we added an FTE to help actually process those applications as they came in so that people could get a personalized email or a phone call or something that basically said, and thank you for applying to the Seattle Police Department.

We'll be helping you through the process.

That's what every other jurisdiction was doing and I'm glad that we are now finally doing that and we have the resources available because other jurisdictions were beating us to the really, really motivated and highly attractive candidates.

I always like to talk to the person who is the closest to the process to see what's working and what isn't and keep up with what is working.

There was, as you know, and I'm not going to revisit this, I do still believe that offering the exam that other jurisdictions offer so that when officers want to apply to or potential officers, potential recruits want to apply to a number of different jurisdictions.

They take one test and the results are sent to different cities.

There was a letter that was sent by the mayor on May 23rd that was at the tail end of this process to approve the legislation that I just referred to that basically said we strongly request that the Commission, the Public Safety Commission, consider changing the exam.

Doesn't really matter, that's your bailiwick, but I do want to always make sure that we're on top of what is working and because this could be a blip, you know, and it does because of all the factors that you just mentioned, culture, processes, and then I don't know what the third one was, but we can't always expect to be having this inflow of applications and interest, and so I want to make sure that we at least keep the things that are helping us adequately staff our police department going forward.

Thank you, Council President Nelson.

I agree with you about that.

Thanks.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you.

Looking about, I don't see anything, and I'll add leadership to your list, by the way.

Okay, I move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointment 3378. Is there a second?

Second.

It is moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointment.

Are there any final comments?

Hearing, seeing none, no final comments?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll and the recommendation to confirm the appointment?

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member Saka.

Aye.

Chair Kettle.

Aye.

There are five in favor and none opposed.

Okay, the motion carries and the recommendation that the appointment be confirmed will be sent to City Council.

So thank you Director Sheely and please go back to the Commission and pass our regards from the Public Safety Committee and continue to do the great work.

Keep charging.

Keep the press on.

I appreciate your consideration.

Thank you so much.

Have a great day.

Cheers, thank you.

Okay, we'll now move on to our second item of business.

Will the clerk please read item number two into the record?

Seattle Police Department end of year data review.

Okay, welcome Dr. Hunt and whoever else you'd like to bring up with you.

Dr. Hunt, I was hoping that the students would still be here to keep you on your toes with the numbers and facts and figures, but they have moved on.

So did I.

I wish they had stayed, yes.

I actually wanted to meet them.

All right, you can introduce yourself, and if your colleagues can introduce themselves as well.

and then just begin with your presentation.

I think everything's set there.

Good morning.

Lee Hunt, Executive Director of Crime Community Harm Reduction for the Seattle Police Department.

Lieutenant Doecker Uso, Commander of the Real-Time Crime Center.

Lauren Atherley, Senior Director for Performance Analytics and Research.

The presentation today is a high-level summary of the six topics on the screen, providing a preview of a more comprehensive report in February.

The work this year has been guided by departmental priorities and the Seattle-centric policing plan.

The crime statistics presented today are of seven significant categories through the end of November.

We also evaluated neighborhood resource officer 90-day pilot, which we'll discuss briefly, and then I'll provide an example, excuse me, I'll provide a summary of our real-time crime center activities.

The planned schedule for reporting out on the 2025 national incident-based reporting statistics is as follows.

We're going to do a preliminary report early in January.

We know that reports are still coming in a few days or a week into the new year, along with the processing time for the record staff to process them and categorize them appropriately.

We are planning to put a full NIBRS report out in February for you and the public.

Just two quick summary slides to remind everyone of our priorities in terms of the mission, visions, and values of the Seattle Police Department.

These are our guiding principles, and we strive always to look to prevent crime and work to build those community partnerships.

Our ability to prevent crime is enhanced through those relationships, much like we heard this morning from the students from the Horn of Africa Services.

and we will partner with anyone, communities, businesses, nonprofits, service providers, and certainly our other city departments to work systematically and in concert to reduce harm and prevent crime.

I do want to mention that while the consent decree has concluded, we continue to be reform-oriented.

There is a continued accountability through the legislative and executive branches, the office, the Inspector General for Public Safety, the Community Police Commission, and the Office of Police Accountability.

So we feel that we have good accountability partners and we work strongly with all of these.

Lastly, we continually evaluate ourselves and strive for improvement.

One way is to evaluate evidence-based practices and adopt those appropriate to Seattle.

and I should point out that the gentleman to my right, Dr. Atherley, is recognized as one of the foremost evidence-based policing criminologists in the country.

We're fortunate enough to have him and many of his team who are also here supporting this department and the residents of Seattle.

We cannot reduce harm and prevent crime on our own.

It's about partnerships, and I'll use that term over and over throughout my many-year career here in Seattle.

It's all about partnerships and coordinated responses and programs.

And so the Seattle-centric policing plan that we put together and shared earlier today is our responsibility to reach out and work to partner with any organization, nonprofit, community group.

And more importantly, this plan is dynamic.

It'll evolve over time, and it'll evolve over time as input from our partners happen.

In terms of crime statistics for the first 11 months of 2025, we've had across seven categories of crime, which I'll display here in just a second, more than 3,800 less victims of crime.

The decline in homicides, which we have a 36% reduction as of last week, shootings, aggravated assaults, and robberies are down.

It's not just about reporting improved or lowered numbers, it's recognizing that more people are alive, It's also recognizing that without our Level 1 Trauma Center here in Seattle, these numbers might be very different.

We recognize that it's not just about the homicides, but also that the non-fatal injury shootings could have a different result without the good emergency care that we have here in the city.

So we look at our non-fatal injury shootings just as seriously as we would a homicide.

And you can see that we've had a 28% reduction in non-fatal shootings, and going back up to our homicides, the last year that we see as comparable for the numbers of homicides so far this year is 2019. Our aggravated assaults have declined as well, as well as our robberies.

and theft from motor vehicle, and the two areas that I'm most literally blown away by is the reduction that we're seeing, and that's probably a bad metaphor to use, I apologize, but is the reduction that we've had in stolen cars and burglaries, 23%, and a 19 percent reduction in 11 months.

That is a significant decrease.

And again, we have been looking back historically to see if we've seen a percentage decrease in these two categories, and we've yet to find it at this point in time.

So we're looking to see what's driving those.

We know that there are a number of different explanations.

in terms of changes in demographics, job, unemployment, the fact that our officers have been out doing more proactive work in these areas where we're seeing patterns of burglaries occurring and where car theft is occurring, and we're also working on educating the public to not be a victim of those crimes.

The homicide clearance rate for this year, we're at 83% right now for the year.

We continue to investigate those ongoing open cases.

You can see in the slide that in 2024 and 2023, our homicide clearance rates were 57 and 49, slightly before those same years for the national average.

So right now, we're above the prior year national averages for our clearance rates.

and again it's not just about the numbers going down, it's about the people whose lives are not impacted by high levels of homicide and also the fact that we continue through our high clearance rights to bring closure to those people that have lost loved ones, even cases that have been open for 31 years.

In the case of Tanya Frazier where we resolved that case with the technology of DNA assisting us.

we will continue to work any open case for as long as, for however old it may be.

If you review the chart, and this is on homicides, just a quick orientation.

The green vertical bars are the counts for each month of this year.

The red line are the counts for last year, 2024, and the blue dashed line is a five-year average.

And what you'll notice is we only had one month this year that surpassed last year, and that was March.

Seattle being a northern city, much like where Councilman Kettle and I are both from, the western New York Buffalo area, strong seasonality, you get five really nice months and everything happens.

and so all our activity goes up and what we see is strong seasonality and increases in crime across multiple, multiple categories.

And what we found this year is we are not seeing the seasonal spikes in multiple categories this year.

So while the numbers in May and June are slightly higher, you can see that they are well below our five-year average and we see this in several categories.

Our burglaries, for example, this year, May and June, typically, looking at the blue and red lines, are almost higher months in terms of the five-year average.

This year, it's our lowest two months, May and June.

Again, we did some education campaigns, crime prevention through environmental design, proactive patrol when patterns were identified to assist in this.

Touching on non- in fatal shootings.

We currently have a 33% reduction in non-fatal shootings.

Again, if you look, there's no seasonal high this year.

And I have a strong suspicion, and I suspect that the after-hours knife-life ordinance assisted in that reduction.

If you look to the right-hand side of that slide, that was prepared by the city attorney's office shows the count of nightlife shootings after 2 a.m.

prior to the ordinance being enacted, where it says 18 and then after the ordinance was enacted, which is six.

So just a 66% reduction in shootings after 2 a.m.

in nightlife areas.

So that clearly is an example of work that we've been able to demonstrate based on legislative...

Where is this thing?

There we go.

Moving on to the Police Neighborhood Resource Center, you know, evidence-based research shows that neighborhood officers that are assigned to distinct areas provide benefits to the community and demonstrate reductions to crime and harm.

And the Chief Barnes asked us to evaluate neighborhood officers.

And so we had a 90-day evaluation where two officers volunteered to work in this Neighborhood Resource Center pilot.

The Parks Department was kind enough to give us office space in Magnuson Park, and Performance and Analytics did an analysis of the activities of the officers 45 days and then after the 90-day pilot to evaluate whether there was significant changes.

And indeed, we saw differences in CAD events and property crimes and our violent crimes were so low we couldn't get a statistical measure on that and the next slide will show you why because we had so few violent crimes in the Magnuson Park area.

The important thing is that they built relationships while they were in that area and through proactive patrols they recovered multiple firearms and even located a homicide suspect at that time.

In the priority area Magnuson draw your attention to the lower left and the three red arrows the arrow on the left is In July which is prior to the start of the 90-day pilot The middle arrow is the first month of the pilot and the right hand arrow is the last month of the pilot and you can see that the counts of our property crimes and the low level we went from three to one on our violent crimes went down during their 90-day pilot and In addition, for Magnuson Park, it also was on our park summer safety plan.

You'll notice in the lower right that we only had one shots fired at the park so far this year, and that our robberies were down 86 percent.

Motor vehicle theft, which followed our citywide trend, was down 61 percent.

Larceny and theft, that's theft from autos.

People park their car at the park, go for a run, and forget to take or hide their valuables.

and people will come back and often find their cars broken into.

We like to encourage people to remove the valuables, or as the old saying is, take it, hide it, and lock it.

Reduce yourself from being a victim.

In terms of the RTCC, 66 cameras were approved for installation.

At this point, we have 62 up and functioning.

And the three areas, North Aurora, Chinatown International District, and the Downtown Business Third Avenue Corridor.

What we're showing you on this map, and it may take a minute to look to see what I'm talking about, is the green squares as a density map for the last four years of citizen 911 calls for the north half of the city.

and the darker, the brighter the color, the higher the density of 911 calls.

The dashed lines that you're seeing along North Aurora and the Third Avenue corridor and the CID, those are the view shed.

That's the area that the cameras can actually see where they're placed.

We don't view the whole city.

We actually only view 1.04 square miles.

Those 62 cameras cover 1.1 of the land area of the city.

It's a very small area that these cameras actually cover.

In those land areas, part of the rationale for placing these cameras was doing an analysis of where we see higher levels of violent crime or crime density in general.

and so what you're looking at is that these three locations for our cameras accounts for 20% of our violent crime in the city occurs in those three areas and 10% of all crime occurs in those three areas.

So they're placed in areas where we're seeing densities of crime.

Through the City Council you approved the plan and the funding for the RTCC and the OIG and its contract with the researchers at University of Pennsylvania will continue to evaluate the RTCC over the next two years.

We currently hold monthly meetings with the OIG and the research team and we are collecting data and reports for analysis for the researchers to utilize.

The one thing I want to stress about the RTCC is that only the analysts, the technology team that supports them, and their supervisors have access to the cameras.

It's a closed system.

No one views the images outside the center.

In fact, I think right now, Doug, you're the only sworn person in the department that can access the cameras and the platform.

The other thing I want to stress is that our analysts don't sit there monitoring cameras, watching people, watching cars, watching things going on.

They are on standby.

They do some other administrative work.

They're on standby until requested by an officer over the radio or a CARES 911 dispatcher for assistance.

The analysts document all their work in the form of crime reports, and those are stored in our records management system as part of the crime event.

and if you've had a chance to go out to the police blotter in the last several months, you've seen some examples of the work that the RTCC has been doing, particularly the one where this elderly woman was hit in the head with a bat with a screw on that.

The RTCC caught the image of that individual and the description and that individual was later arrested for that.

Some metrics that we have, the RTCC through November has supported 956 crime events.

Those crime events, like the example I showed you, resulted in 509 or 54 percent of those crime events had an associated arrest, either through the on-view work of the RTCC analysts working with the officers and the dispatchers, in coordination or because enough of a description information was provided that a probable cause was issued to be able to arrest that person at a later time or a later date.

For me, the important thing is that we've been able to assist over a thousand victims.

in this process.

The last number in terms of the video evidence, 12,000, over 12,000 clips of videos have been processed, saved, uploaded into evidence.com and attached in reference to active crime reports.

I will also say that the duration of the video that is stored on the cameras is five days.

So if a detective or an officer says, hey, I want to go back and look for something that may be on this camera six days, seven days, 30 days later, it won't be there.

It will have been deleted.

And the other thing that I'll mention is that we have privacy pixelation or privacy screens on all of the cameras.

So if it happens to pan by or in front of an apartment building, all of those windows are pixelated out.

We can never look into a window.

for any private space.

It's public space only.

The type of work that the RTC is doing, and just point out the percentage of their efforts, 44%, is associated with violent crimes.

Their aggravated assaults, which is the example of this woman that was struck in the head, is an example of an aggravated assault, the assault offenses, and our homicides.

In fact, the team has worked on every homicide since August, and they're a great asset to the detectives that are helping them out.

Lastly is hiring statistics.

Retention and recruitment.

We currently, as Councilmember Nelson said, yes, we have an increase of 94 officers as of last week.

Compared to last year, at the end of last year, we only had one, a net increase of one officer.

So we've hired 159. Last year, we had 70 hired.

and we've hired more officers.

I've asked the HR team to go back and look to see when we've hired this many officers, and at about 15-plus years, we still haven't found this level of hiring, this number, in one year.

We've had, and it's interesting to follow the prior people, we've had almost 3,900 applicants that met the minimum qualifications that we could go through the process.

and then this year we've had 65 separate compared to last year at 79. So with that, thank you for your time and we'll take any questions you may have.

Thank you Dr. Hunt and thank you gentlemen for joining Dr. Hunt.

I'm writing my notes, but as always, I start with my...

Well, first, before I say anything, I'd like to welcome Councilmember Rivera, who is the honorary member of the Public Safety Committee.

But I'll go as tradition dictates to my vice chair, Councilmember Saka.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just want to thank you, Dr. Hunt, and your team here for being here today, for sharing your insights and knowledge with us, and being so willing to dive so deep into this nitty-gritty data around the department.

the impacts that we all see and experience on the streets of the city of Seattle.

So thank you so much.

Really, really insightful work and really appreciate you all for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Dr. Hunt, Lieutenant Raguso.

Good to see you.

I'm so sorry, I forgot your name.

Lauren.

Lauren, thank you for your presentation.

I apologize, I was writing down names.

I had a quick question, and thank you for the overall presentation.

I love data and so it was really like refreshing to get numbers and data and information because people are always asking instead of hearing the qualitative analysis, they want the quantitative and I think they pair very well together as you walked us through some of the efforts of our SPD and the strategy behind it, which is great.

One of the things that I think is really imperative important and the Real Time Crime Center It's on the record.

I voted for cameras, very supportive of it.

And then talked to community folks who had some resistance and wanted to know more information.

And I think the biggest thing to help people understand stuff, making it palatable, outreach so people understand like, hey, these are when the cameras are coming.

You know, this is our timeline potentially to be installed or what it looks like.

Here are some of the measures that city council passed.

This is how we're going to protect you.

Just you saying that Lieutenant Raguso is the only sworn officer that has access to certain information, like, people just don't know that.

And they do not watch the Seattle Channel.

Hi, Mom.

But they...

Let me just be clear.

People watch the Seattle Channel, but what I'm saying is to make it palatable on social media, meetings, information can help tone the conversation down so much when we're going out into community, when we're receiving emails, when people read blogs, when people see tweets, when they see all this stuff, because I get information and I feel confident about what I know when I'm articulating to people about stuff, but I think there is another form of communication that SPD can do to outreach to the community so we can have these conversations, and not micro conversations with neighborhoods, those are important, but a broader sense where it's palatable, where we as council members can take some information and say, hey, here's this website, here's this two-minute video, whatever it is that's palatable for people.

So I just wanted to throw that out there because I think technology gives so much angst and anxiety, and it would just be helpful to the public to have that information about, you know, just a two-minute rundown about our technology crime center and what it does.

So anyways, I just wanted to point that out.

And then also, I'll be doing a deep dive into the into the presentation because I like what you talked about in terms of Magnuson Park and that 90-day and that data that you all had.

I'm kind of jealous it was in Councilmember Rivera's neighborhood, which is great.

It absolutely needed it.

But just doing a deep dive and saying, hey, we tested this out in this small thing.

This is what we saw.

And then we want to resemble that across the city and put those in different neighborhoods I think is really key.

So just thank you.

I'll be doing a deep dive and I'll be working with SPD on the communication piece just to the community on a certain hot button topics that makes it palatable.

Because the reality is, look at this.

If people still end up with the same type of reaction towards SPD or towards things that we're doing, but with the proper information, I'm fine with that.

I can live with proper information out there, with transparent information out there, and the facts and data where, you know what, they end up at the same conclusion, that's fine.

But when it's misinformation, when it's, you know, a certain angle, when there's certain narrative going out there, that's when it becomes troublesome because then that goes down this rabbit hole and then there's added information and there's added layers and then you get just like a completely different narrative.

So I can live with information that's transparent, that's palatable for people to have, and if they get to the same conclusion, that's fine.

But just so that information's out there.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Hollingsworth.

Yeah, it's very important about getting the word out.

I had a press statement go out a little over an hour ago this evening.

My interview with Omari Salisbury from Converge Media will be released, and we have to reach out in many different ways.

Hi, Mrs. Hollingsworth, because otherwise we're not necessarily getting the, we need to get that ripple effect, that second echo, third echo in terms of what's happening.

And so with that, next up is Council President Nelson.

Could you please bring up the slide, if there is one, about car theft, please, if there is a slide on it.

Maybe you just mentioned it.

I want to emphasize that that is 23% reduction in car theft.

When people hear that, they think, great, that's great for the people that have cars.

But I just always want to I Want to emphasize that why this is important is because what is done with those cars after they're stolen cars are used to Drive through the front of small businesses to get the ATM in back and other things and so it Stolen cars are used to commit crimes, and so it is extremely important that we have this reduction.

Would I be correct in assuming that the reduction is in part due to expanded use of AARP?

No.

Is that what it's called?

Yeah, that's not old people, but...

Automated license plate readers?

Automated license plate readers, yes.

We have no indication at this point that the ALPRs reduced cars being stolen.

At this point, the ALPR system that we have in our patrol vehicles gets alert after the cars have been stolen and put into the national FBI database for stolen vehicles.

So it's not preventative in that sense.

I can say that we have, within the county, both the sheriff's office as well as our regional police partners, We have a team that works at looking at stolen cars across the counties because people are stealing cars in Seattle and doing things outside of Seattle and vice versa.

So we're looking at the network of car theft behavior and rings that are occurring.

So we don't have the numbers today to tell you what the arrests are on that.

We certainly will look to get that next year as part of the full report.

But I think that the education around people locking their cars, taking the valuables out of it, and I always tell people if you can park under a street light or in a garage or off street, that's the best.

I know a lot of people can't have that ability to do that, The best you can do to keep from getting your car stolen, the better.

Okay, so it's helping you identify stolen cars, but not actual car theft.

But it could be a culture change or more education given to people about where to park.

That's what you're going to explain it by.

I think in addition, the legislation that passed with Kia and Hyundai for the ignition trouble is a big part of this.

So the work that's been done by the legislature has helped to reduce the numbers.

I think that was our city attorney, Ann Davison, that basically prohibited, you're nodding, there's an audience member who knows about this.

That was, we took Hyundai to court.

Can you please explain what happened there?

If my memory is correct, Hyundai and Kia were both identified that it was extremely easy to punch the ignitions and steal the car and have access to it, which led to the pot shop robberies, burglaries like you mentioned, drive-by shootings, etc.

So the legislature required them to do a manufacturer recall to fix the ignition issues.

Thank you.

That's all I've got for right now.

I might have another question.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you, and thank you for the panel and for your leadership, Council Member Kettle.

Dr. Hunt, page numbers.

Number one, I'm sorry, but because of this, when we printed out what was posted online, my printout stops on the, and I numbered them for myself, would be page 12 is the Magnuson.

It stops there, so I don't have a printout of pages.

My numbered pages 13, 14, 15 and 16. and then it comes back for the last page on hiring staffs, which would be if you had page numbers, page 17. So let me tell you why it's driving me insane.

I wanted to look, yeah, I wanted to go back to the map and write on it, but I don't have it because it wasn't posted.

So perhaps we can make sure that that gets posted for those people who still print stuff out and use a pen and paper.

Can we go to, I think it would be my page 13, but it's the Aurora map.

Okay, so this is where I wanted to focus in.

If you could give, I know we've been through a lot and I wanna appreciate what Councilman Hollingsworth said about, you know, this is, we gotta see the facts before we develop quote unquote feelings.

We gotta start with the facts and agreed upon set of facts in which we can legislate and move policy forward and also challenge those facts, question them, be critical thinkers about those facts.

So what I would ask you to do is I see where, if you could explain just a little bit more for me, when we look at south of the Ship Canal, you have the red square or the green squares.

You have a couple red ones in there and orange.

and then we have Aurora.

I don't see a whole lot on Lake City, so I want to focus.

Can you just give me an idea about citizen calls, density map and areas with cameras?

Some of them are different shades of green.

Does that matter or am I just not reading this right?

Density mapping?

Sure.

So these are relative kernel densities.

I apologize for the statistical term.

They do matter, relative to the type of behavior that's being concentrated here.

They do indicate that calls for service are coming from that location.

Excuse me, can you bring the mic closer to you, please?

Yeah.

But also, you know, what you're observing there is sort of the density in context.

So as those colors get darker, it basically means there's a higher concentration of that activity in those areas.

Okay, then that, and I was missing that.

Okay, now I can see it.

And so, again, because I was trying to frantically go through my paper, trying to match your screen, and since I didn't have page numbers, I couldn't align them up.

So what is the, so what are the other red colors and orange and yellow?

Are they lower color or what is that?

Correct.

Red would be the highest density, and then the lighter the color would be lower densities.

So this is violent crime that I'm showing.

It's not all calls for service.

So this is saying that these are denser areas within the Third Avenue corridor and then the surrounding areas showing you where we get a lot of violent crime occurring at those addresses and then how it kind of, the surface, if you will, the density as it moves around and spreads out and then dissipates into very low density.

What is the reddest?

What would be that?

I don't want to call it any particular name, but I can't see it on my screen.

So you're talking right in the dead center of the screen.

I've got this red square here.

So these are relative densities, inverse density weighting.

It's just a way to say across this space, things are more clustered around here at greater densities or higher numbers.

There isn't a value associated with this.

It would be nice to point those out because as policymakers and we're looking at public safety and where we want to put resources, not just to arrest people, obviously, but for other services as well.

This may sound like a stupid question.

I apologize.

On the camera stuff, is there any type of information about when you're taking, is there more camera activity at night rather than the day?

Because you were talking about the how things are lower now that when they passed the legislation regarding nightlife.

Is the cameras mainly operating where you're catching what you need in the nighttime rather than the day?

I don't think we've actually looked at time of day yet.

That's a variable that I think the University of Pennsylvania can certainly look at is the temporal aspect as well as day of week.

but we've not actually looked at to see whether we're getting more activity at night or during the daytime hours.

Well, let me ask you a question.

Do you think that matters for us as policymakers, as understanding public safety and temporal, as you say, time of day and whether it's nighttime or daytime?

I don't think it matters.

Looking at this density map on the screen, it is inclusive of all times of day.

So what you're seeing in those red areas, regardless of the day-week or the time of day, for the last four years, the densest areas are in that pike-pine area.

Yeah, and I would say, you know, sort of generally speaking, you have considered the temporal components of this type of behavior with regard to nightlife enforcement.

From a tactical perspective, it's a little difficult to make policy and legislate around the 24-hour clock.

To the extent that you have the ability to regulate the use of space, I think that has been accounted for by this council and council in the past.

Also certainly providing for various types of services or SEPTED type interventions, those crime prevention through environmental design type interventions that necessarily may include the addition of lighting or things that provide for better management of that space during low light hours I think are generally observed.

So to that extent it does matter and I think you have taken that into account in the past.

I was thinking about when you activate space with lights and you do the architectural light, the things that light up.

I mean, that's what I was getting at as well.

And with this information, do you work with the care team?

We do work with care and also with parks and with the mayor's office and try to be a good partner in providing these data.

I think without stepping on Dr. Hunt's toes, Speaking generally, I think we think that police data is about policing, but it can actually be a really great way of bringing around a lot of different diverse resources to address things without an enforcement forward approach.

And that's really the power of these police data and these analytics.

Without getting into the nighttime issue and nightlife, I get that, but the daytime issue in regards to care where it really is about de-escalation, mental health, those kind of issues.

That's kind of what I was getting at from a policymaker's perspective.

So thank you for that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Juarez.

I would say when it comes to technology, we have to be ready 24-7.

So that's not a but.

As we look at issues, Councilmember Juarez, as for an example, last week I gave two interviews related to after-hour establishments and chronic nuisance properties.

which is showing up in different places.

And so we, as policymakers, do need to understand the time of day pieces.

But the technology pieces have to be at the ready 24-7.

And to that last point comes from Member Juarez.

This is something, in terms of working with the city attorney's office, Mr. Scott Lindsey noted that This is where it's all hands on deck.

So for example, after our establishments and the chronic nuisance properties, we're now working with FAS in a way that we never did before.

And bringing all these pieces together, throw in parks, throw in some of these other departments, these non-traditional public safety departments can have an impact on what we're doing in public safety.

So thank you for your questions, Council Member Juarez.

I'm shifting to our honorary Council Member, Committee Member, Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

Council Member Hollingsworth, I see you have your hand up and I would defer to you first because you're actually on this committee and I'm happy to...

She's already talked once.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you all for being here.

I want to thank the chair and as this is the last Public Safety Committee for the year, I really want to thank you for always welcoming those of us who are not on this committee to join.

You know how much I care about public safety, how important it is to the district that I represent and I want to thank you for all your work this past year and the last couple years you've been chair to give focus to, you know, the best ways that we can provide legislative help to address public safety in our city that we all love and we want to make sure that folks feel safe, that folks are getting the services that they need and we're doing public safety in a responsible way that's really meeting the needs of all of our constituents, not some of our constituents.

So I want to thank your leadership for that.

I want to thank you all for being here.

I, in particular, am very grateful for the efforts at Magnuson Park.

You all know since I got here I've been requesting assistance and reaching out to the mayor's office, whom I see here today, Deputy Mayor Burgess, Sarah Smith, and of course, Natalie Walton Anderson, who's not here today, has been a really, really great partner in providing and helping provide public safety, addressing public safety in the district, in particular to Magnuson Park.

And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't I recognize former North Precinct Captain Laurie Agard who started this conversation with me when I first got here last year and it was really she was first pressing for a summer safety activation at Magnuson because we had not had one but there was one at Alki in Golden Gardens because there were issues at the parks then and you know these issues have are spreading to all the parks across the city.

And so I really appreciate using data to really, and you can see the data from the Magnuson slide, but just in terms of what's happening in the summer months, and I think this is probably though this slide is particular to Magnuson is probably not dissimilar to what's happening at other parks across the city and why the mayor's office and SPD partnered and parks partnered to do this summer activation safety plan for all the parks in the city.

And I'm very grateful for that.

I also want to thank a current North Precinct Captain George Davison, who's been such a strong partner in addressing public safety, not just at the park, but in other areas of the district, like the university district that's had historically high numbers of crime incidents related to drugs and also what we've seen with small business public safety issues in View Ridge and Wedgwood and Sandpoint and I very much appreciate Captain Davidson's focus.

We meet regularly and I think that is important.

Relationships matter, partnerships matter as we're all working together to address these issues and I'm really glad to hear you talk about work with care because that is a department we all agree on alternatives to policing to really help our neighbors, especially our unhoused neighbors throughout the city and how to best provide care for folks and connect them to services including housing and mental health and drug addiction services.

In particular, I want to thank our council president, Sarah Nelson, who's been such a strong advocate for the addiction services.

This is real.

People need services to be able to get better.

and then be able to solve some other issues in their lives that come forth because of addiction issues and mental health issues for that matter.

So I'm trying to hit all the points, but in particular, I just really am so grateful for the activation at Magnuson Park.

I know that data went into why this 90-day pilot.

I also want to thank Chief Barnes because he's been a great partner too, and he looked at crime statistics to say, let's try this pilot at Magnuson Park and see how it goes, and then we can hopefully scale up across the city.

And in particular, Magnuson, I have a lot of folks living at Magnuson Park.

There aren't a lot of parks where folks are living actually in the park, but this is one.

And the only other one I can think of that comes even close is probably Discovery Park, but it's not exactly the same.

In this scenario, people are living in the parks and the folks living at the park are my constituents as well.

I super care about them and they're experiencing these public safety issues in greater numbers even than some of the neighbors.

But being a park, everyone from across the city comes to the park, and everyone is impacted when there's car theft, which I appreciate, Council President Nelson, you talking about the fact and bringing focus.

Why should we care about that?

Because cars are being used in other crimes, including trafficking, human trafficking.

which is something that we all care about.

So this is why this is important.

And of course, solving for some of the violent crime at the park.

I've heard from residents at the park who are concerned about this.

Being a mom, I care very much about kids and there are a lot of kids and teenagers living at the park and we want to make sure that where they're living is safe.

So I in particular care about Magnuson Park for many, many reasons, not the least of which is that people are living there with their families, and they deserve to have a safe space.

And like I said earlier, of course, everyone who's visiting the park deserves to have a safe space at the park and the neighbors as well.

So I really want to thank the mayor's office again and SPD and Parks.

I would be negligent not to mention AP Diaz, the superintendent of Parks, who also has been a strong partner.

This has really been a strong collaboration across city departments.

to really bring focus and get things better at the park.

And I have heard from constituents in the district, including the park, who feel like they're seeing a difference.

And I also want to say that I appreciate when the mobile precinct has been stationed at the park.

it has not been often because it goes all across the city as well it should because I care about public safety in other areas of the city not just my own district and the police officers that are stationed at the mobile precinct also very much care I mean one of the things I super appreciate about Chief Barnes and this is no disrespect to other chiefs we've had I've appreciated their partnership as well but I know I've had extensive conversations with Chief Barnes and you Dr. Hunt about community policing and the importance of community policing because we really it should be a partnership it is not us versus them we are all in this together this city is for all of us and we really need to work strongly together to bring positive outcomes for our city and for all living at the city, not just some, as I said earlier.

So this focus on community policing is really important to me, and these types of activations in my mind provide that.

including the mobile precinct who on a Sunday I unannounced showed up just to say hello and I was very welcomed by the officer who was there and his partner came later.

They were very welcoming, they were happy to have the conversation and they cared about the folks living at the park and visiting the park and you know I appreciated that.

and I like the unannounced because I was getting the true what's happening on the ground with our officers and I very much appreciate our officers who are giving strong attention to not just the park but other areas of the district and across the city.

So again, thank you chair for your leadership Thank you all for your strong partnership.

Yes, let's scale this to other parks and neighborhoods in the city.

Because what we know is when there is officer presence, when you see officers and they have positive relationships with community, we get better outcomes all the way around.

and that is very important and I think what we're all trying to support up here and lastly I just want to thank you Councilmember Hollingsworth for your very important comments about transparency and communication because We are privy to information up here and I always say to the folks watching that we are making decisions based on data and based on strong information because we do care.

I'm not a rubber stamper and I don't think anyone would accuse me of that these past two years I've been here.

I do not rubber stamp and I do very much care.

So I want positive outcomes all the way around for everyone living in this city.

and I want a police department that looks like our neighbors in this city and that respects our neighbors in this city and that want to be strong advocates for our community in this city, which is why I very much appreciate the community policing approach to to policing.

So Councilmember Hollingsworth, your comments about communication is so important because if the folks don't know what's happening, they're relying on either misinformation or no information.

and that's real.

And so I do think that we can always do a better job of communicating and I think in particular with these, you know, sometimes very difficult issues related to policing that we can definitely, the city as a whole and SPD can do a better job communicating because it's gonna be advantages for everyone including the department.

really and so we want to make sure the department is set up for success as much as everyone who's living in the city because I know that my interactions with many at the department are positive interactions where people want to, officers want to be good community officers and so we need to make sure that we're doing better communication so that when we're making the decisions the public can see why we've made the decisions and that is actually based on data and these are well-informed decisions and they, to your point, Council Member Hollingsworth, can decide they don't agree.

That's okay.

I mean, I'm here for all of it.

We can agree to disagree.

I've only said that about a million times since I've been here.

And we're gonna continue to make decisions that are well-informed and for the good of everyone living here, not just some people living here.

So anyway, thank you for letting me take up this much space, Chair.

and thank you for letting me participate.

Thank you.

As a reminder, we do have one more agenda item.

Council Member Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Sharon.

I'll be super, super quick, because I do owe Seattle Channel an apology.

Everyone watches you.

And seriously, I apologize.

That's the first thing.

But I'm just talking about to watch information and then to understand what it means.

You know, just wanting to get more people to figure out what that looks like.

But I do want to say, and just for the record, because I talked about real-time crime center and cameras, and supporting cameras to help solve the violent crime that happens in our city.

There is not one council member, and I think I can speak for everyone, that supports any type of federal overreach into our cameras.

And I think that's the way it was spun, and, you know, just a lot of misinformation out there, and I get it.

It's a...

It's a very sensitive topic and I know that a lot of council members are always constantly thinking about how do we protect folks on both sides to the crime that we're experiencing right now in real life that we get that information from, that we see.

a lot of council members get that information to the potential threats of what we've heard.

So I just wanted to say that for the record that I support what we're doing, where we're heading, and trying to make sure that we curb and deter the most violent crime that we've seen in our city and the information that we're constantly getting that a lot of people don't get unless they might have the Citizen app and they see different stuff going on.

It's a prime example of palatable information to people to understand.

So just wanted to throw that out there, just for the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Hollingsworth.

Council President Nelson.

So in the Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee, Let's emphasize the A in there, the accountability in the middle name.

In March, this report was presented.

I asked the auditor to look at gun violence and what we can be doing better, and this report is titled Four Recommendations to Better Understand and Address Current Gun Violence Patterns in Seattle.

Please read this, and probably your leadership already has.

One of the recommendations that I personally, not personally, I, out of just common sense, think would be a fruitful avenue is it notes that SPD does not currently investigate fatal overdoses as crimes and does note other cities that do so.

The audit on page 22 to 23 indicated there's a federal statute that allows for indictments and prosecutions for illegal drug distribution that results in fatal overdoses.

Many other cities do work with the DEA to do this.

Why is this important, connecting the dots again?

Because the drug distribution rings also shed light on how are the guns getting into the city, being distributed, et cetera.

So this is a request to go ahead and dig into this report because it does have some great recommendations and I have, in my limited, over this past year, interaction with the administration that Chief Barnes has put together.

I've been very, very impressed with the level of professionalism and just fresh new perspective that is brought to the city and what we're trying to do here.

So I just am plugging this.

Thank you very much for looking over that.

I have one other thing.

Mr. Rubstello, I believe, did bring up a good question.

I would like the answer to how is assault defined?

We will get back to you on that because there's assault as defined by the FBI for reporting purposes and then there's state statute related to assault.

The definition is unwanted physical touch.

That's the definition of assault.

Can you say that again please?

Unwanted physical touch.

Okay.

Got it.

And I finally, not finally, but I do want to read from that article because when I read that article that was referenced, I sent it to the chair, but this is about the 75-year-old woman who was attacked.

The article in My Northwest does, it was published three days ago, basically said that a bunch of bystanders saw a guy swinging a stick with a nail and then calls came in five minutes after Basically it said that after the calls came in, there was a violent attacks by someone and the...

Hold on, I'm trying to find it.

Within minutes, this person is previously known to law enforcement as a violent person and he's also a convicted felon for assault.

Basically it was because someone was viewing the RTCC cameras that you were able to So again, I think that that's what we're talking about.

We always have to talk about why we're doing something and its positive or negative impacts on our city and on our people and so I do agree that it's important to be able to communicate better with the public about our initiatives and the results that they are producing.

So thank you very much for bringing that up and we always have to, it's a two-way street with our constituents and what we're doing and hearing complaints and then explaining ourselves.

So thank you very much, keep it up.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, really quick.

This happens when you're chaired to go last.

And we do have one more item.

I don't know what happened with the posting, whatever, and we're going to be quick on that.

In fact, I invite you to stay for it because I can run through it really super fast.

Going through your briefing, consent decree, moving forward, we have to continue the, you know, the improvement stepping forward, and that's got to be part of our messaging.

Crime stats, you talk about non-fatal shootings and the impact of our hospital system, Harborview.

I want to go to Harborview because Harborview plays into that but also plays into other issues like KCJ and King County Jail and so I want to meet with them.

I'd love to get your thoughts.

Homicide clearance rate at 83%, like what's driving that?

Is the technology pieces assisting in that?

I'd love to learn more why that delta between what we're doing, at least that number and the national numbers.

Thank you for the 911 density map.

I talk to my colleagues all the time about our public safety challenges around the city, but as you see from the density map, D7, I'm extremely I'm busy myself as a district rep, never mind citywide public safety chair.

Real-time Crime Center, I was just at the Southeast Precinct.

You know, I've been into the North Precinct, by the way, in terms of like Aurora.

I know my colleagues all have, and they talked about Real-time Crime Center.

They also talked about ALPR and what it's done and helps them make their, makes a difference.

I was gonna mention the 74-year-old woman in that case, but I really, I really, You're very interested in these numbers and these numbers are so key because there's a lot of machinations going on out there and we have to cut through that with the data sets.

Love your recruitment and retention.

Retention is also so important.

I talked to a senior officer who said to me that he is retirement eligible, but he is staying on partly because of what's been happening over the last two years, which goes to my chair comment at the very beginning.

and noted precinct visits.

And, you know, as I mentioned to Director Sheely from the Public Safety Civil Service Commission, at the end of the day, it's also leadership, which is what you're doing, Dr. Hunt, but also Chief Barnes, as mentioned by multiple of my colleagues, you know, going out, getting to know the community, particularly coming from the outside.

It takes time.

And so I really appreciate the leadership that that he's doing, and so thank you.

Oh, one note too, in terms of visiting Harborview, I also want to go back to the Real-Time Crime Center and meet with you, Lieutenant Raguso.

And with that, can you move to item number, third item of this, would the clerk please read item number three in the record?

And this will be super quick.

Because it's our Public Safety Committee Strategic Framework Review.

I'm sorry, I just said it.

Go ahead, say it again.

Yeah, they're good.

But I asked them to stay so they can watch.

Public Safety Committee Strategic Framework Review.

OK.

I'm going to bring the slides up really quick.

And colleagues, this is just a quick review of where we are and something to ponder over the next weeks, over break.

And then we'll confirm again once we're into the new year.

So the Mission Vision Strategic Framework for Safe for Seattle.

Next slide.

This is our mission.

Bottom line, it's about creating a safe base through those pieces, engagement, policy direction, oversight.

Our vision, we talked about, I had a meeting recently with Sound Transit and King County Metro.

I've been to the downtown school.

Our children need to be safe on buses as they go to school.

Businesses need to be able to operate without having private security.

Thank you.

Every time I meet a business, I say thank you if you have private security.

and then we need to respond.

This is where the alternative response piece comes in there with that last segment of that sentence, of that vision.

Next slide.

These are the, you know, that permissive environment that happened in our city where we just allowed things to happen and it just took on a life of its own, led to other things and that became the connective tissue between a lot of our crime issues, this permissiveness that we allowed We permitted this to happen.

And there's different reasons for that.

But we got to the point where that was like a common thread throughout our public safety challenges was this permissive environment.

So how can we address that?

This is what we did two years ago, beginning January 24. Police staffing was huge.

As you know, we have downed so many officers.

But the legal tools, this is where you see less after-hours establishments, chronic nuisance properties.

street racing, those whole laundries.

We also saw what vacant buildings and lots were doing to our communities, our neighborhoods.

And so our first bill was the dangerous, the vacant building abatement, which gave Chief Scoggin so much authority.

He's taken out 130, whatever, vacant buildings, and that's made a big difference for our neighborhoods and our communities.

Graffiti remediation, I know some just love graffiti, but that's different when it's a piece of artwork, but when it's damaging somebody's personal property or creating other, or public property, that's something very different.

And then fifth, public health, you know, can't succeed in public safety if we don't succeed in public health.

And then really important is the county and state need to do their job.

State, mental health, county, public health.

I mentioned King County Metro, King County Sheriff, all these different pieces need to come together.

Next slide.

For our committee, you know, we have nine entities that report to us.

These are the nine.

and you can see our accountability partners with you.

We also have fire and rescue and now also I add alternative response with our care department and of course emergency preparedness is a very important piece of this as well.

And then underlying this in a lot of ways from the law and oversight, you know, we have city attorney's office on the Seattle Municipal Court.

Next slide.

These are some of the highlights.

These have been mentioned, and we want to talk to these at different points.

Not now, but we've been really pushing in a lot of different ways.

And, you know, I mentioned FAS earlier.

Graffiti is another way.

You know, trying to hit things from a civil perspective, because we have to put all cards on the table for what we're trying to do.

So these are some of the highlights that we've done over the two years.

and shown another way.

Clerk, please, next slide.

Oh, we have our accountability accomplishments.

I think this gets under...

It's unfortunate.

I think we've done a lot and there's still more work to be done.

but there's no acknowledgment of all the work that has been done, and that's unfortunate.

And this goes to a lot of different places, whether it's OIG, OPA, and the like, as you'll see later today, also with the SPOG tenor agreement.

Next slide.

And so 34 bills passed on this two-year period.

A lot of them relate to Pillar 1 as it relates to SPD staffing and the like, but also a lot with technology, and then those other pieces too that we have in here.

Some do show up twice, like CCTV and RTCC, and I recognize the challenges that some folks had with that.

But there was a logic behind this, and all these bills are part of the strategy.

You know, these things come together, you know, and they do reinforce each other, as I mentioned with that one example with after hours and chronic nuisance properties.

Next slide.

But learning from what we've been doing over the two years, police staffing is still there.

I say these pillows are not ranked ordered, but obviously police staffing is huge.

Instead of saying legal tools, I see functional criminal justice system is so important.

And as we had the kids today, the students, really gun violence reduction prevention and community safety.

And this is really important in the sense of addressing the scene between public safety and some of these areas like human services.

I took two of those bullets and two pillars and combined them through this idea of urban blight remediation.

This is go to the vacant buildings lots and graffiti.

Again, more specifically addressing the scene between those areas and a continued collaboration with the county and state.

Next slide.

Is that the last slide?

I believe it is.

So this is what we're doing.

I think this is important to put out there.

We're going to talk with the staffs and my colleagues, but I think it's important for the public to know and sitting here thinking that I think it's important for you, Dr. Hunt, to understand what we're trying to do as a committee and to press forward.

Colleagues will follow up on this and then we'll continue on in 2026. And so one last thing I want to do, I know my vice chair has just walked out, but I just want to say bravo Zulu.

to our Council President, Sarah Nelson, that's Navy speak, actually NATO, for a job well done.

She has served, obviously, before we arrived, everybody that's here right now, and she worked hard in the face of some challenging headwinds.

But now, over the last two years, she's contributed to what we've done on public safety.

And so, and since this is your last committee meeting, I just want to say thank you very much for all the work that you've done on public safety.

It's meant the difference in terms of what we're seeing on our streets.

And again, thank you so much, Council President.

If you'd like to say one last word, you have the final word today.

Wow.

Thank you for that acknowledgement.

Yes.

When you mentioned the headwinds the first couple of years, it was true that we've had a cultural shift between the first two years that I was on council to the second, and that has largely to do with the council members who were the district reps who were elected in 2023, partners with me in really focusing on what was most important to our constituents.

public safety, homelessness, and housing.

And we have focused on that.

I would say that never, I would just simply ask that we continue to enlist the work of our auditor and independent body who is our accountability partner in this city.

There is so much work that they have done to identify what is working in other cities and work that we can borrow and implement in our city with no cost whatsoever.

in part by using our federal partners at the DEA and the Department of Justice who also have resources that we can put in place.

One note on officer salaries.

It is true that we hear often that some of the work that we have done, paying officers more, but what we forget is that also this is the most expensive city in the state.

And in Seattle, we are dealing with the issue of chronic homelessness that is in part driven by the drug trade and in part driven by so many other root causes.

But we have a lot of resources right here to use at our disposal to continue.

to address the permissive environment.

And I just want to say that when I first heard you say that phrase, I thought, you can't really say permissive environment in Seattle, because it sounds, it can sound paternalistic, it can sound old school, but in fact, your repetition of it has really led to policy changes and a recognition that we have to change how we look at crime and how we look at public safety, and it is, it's much bigger than the laws that we implement, it's how we coordinate as a city body, the departments, the auditor, the public safety, human services, everything together to really deliver for our constituents a safer and more prosperous and equitable city.

So thank you very much for the work that you have done this year.

Thank you, Council President.

And last year.

All right, we have reached the end of today's meeting agenda.

Is there any further business to come before the committee before we adjourn?

Expecting none.

None, none, none.

Okay, hearing no further business come before the committee, and we're only four minutes late after the we are adjourned.