New data shows Seattle police response time increased since 2020

Longer response times from Seattle Police have left some business owners in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on edge.

New data from SPD shows that response times have significantly increased since 2020.

“We work with sprinkles. We should not have to deal with this kind of stuff,” Maysaa Abouhamzi, who owns Cinnaholic, said.

She told KIRO 7 that she’s had to wait hours for police to respond at times and sometimes no one shows up at all.

“The main thing they suggested is that we keep calling, keep calling, keep calling in the middle of the situation which is not an answer that helps us very much,” she said.

The data from SPD shows that in 2020 response times in the East Precinct for priority one calls were 6.63 minutes on average.

However, now, in 2023 that number has jumped to 9.62 minutes.

For priority three calls, the response time in 2020 was 64.72 and in 2023 it spiked to 118.41 minutes.

“I just really hope that we don’t have a priority one type of situation because I don’t think they will get here very quickly,” Abouhamzi said.

She said she’s had to train her staff to deal with people who sometimes threaten the safety of her employees and customers.

“The team does know how to de-escalate situations but that really is not their job, their job really is to sell cinnamon rolls,” she said.

Some employees have stopped working there because of it too.

“I have lost wonderful team members who have moved away from the area who are just fantastic but could not handle what the area was presenting them,” she said.

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