Seattle Councilmember Andrew Lewis released a special report Thursday that explained how Seattle is addressing homelessness, public safety, and police recruitment.
The report outlined the collaborative effort of the Seattle City Council and the mayor to resolve city issues and highlights seven departments.
Seattle Police Recruitment and Retention
The Seattle Police Department has had its lowest number of officers in over 30 years at 961. To offset this, the department has offered a $30,000 signing bonus for lateral hires and $7,500 for new recruits.
The Seattle City Council has pushed for an alternative civilian way to respond to calls where police officers aren’t necessary. The city has funded a pilot program to jointly respond to these low-level calls which will free up officers for higher-level calls.
A report from the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform analyzing SPD data found that 79.7% of SPD calls for service are non-criminal in nature. It also found that 49% of SPD calls for service could be handled by an alternative response. The City Council and SPD decided that the pilot program will focus on responding to 12% of these calls.
Park Rangers
The Seattle Council also wants to make sure Seattle Parks are protected. Currently, Seattle only has two park rangers. With the passage of the 2023-2028 Metropolitan Park District funding plan, Seattle parks will see a total of 28 park rangers patrolling downtown open spaces in 2023.
Let Everyone Advance with Dignity Program
Let Everyone Advance with Dignity is a social service diversion program providing outreach and case management to people involved in the criminal legal system to resolve underlying causes of criminal activity and prevent re-offending.
During COVID, a program called COLEAD was created to respond to the situation in Downtown Seattle where encampments that had violent crime were posing significant challenges to public health and safety.
“COLEAD was able to resolve 14 of the most serious encampments in the Downtown core serving more than 500 people. These sites included the encampments on 3rd Avenue, the Pioneer Square Pergola, and City Hall Park,” the report said.
A UW study found that after COLEAD, 911 call volume decreased by 39% in the area.
Services for Survivors of Sexual Exploitation
The Seattle City Council expanded its budget for the Safe, Healthy, Empowered Clinic.
SHE Clinic is a partnership between Aurora Commons and Harborview Medical Center. It was created in 2018 to provide healthcare services, including treatment for addiction, to survivors of commercial sexual exploitation, domestic violence, and sexual assault.
Aurora Commons serves over 400 people a year.
Community Safety and Communications Center
The Community Safety and Communication Center handles around 900,000 calls per year and the 911 dispatchers are exposed to a significant amount of secondary trauma.
To enhance dispatchers’ abilities to respond to calls and give much-needed assistance and support, the Council added two additional 911 dispatcher positions for 2023. These new dispatchers will help efforts to reduce response times and get appropriate assistance to help community members during their time of need
Regional Peacekeepers
An additional $300,000 investment is being made by the Council for a hospital-based response program to provide help for men aged 25-40 in regard to gun violence.
This program provides counseling, wrap-around services, and engagement to help gun violence victims heal and recover, while also working to prevent retaliatory shootings.
Nurse Practitioners for Health One
The City Council and Mayor created the Health One program to resolve low-level calls before they become emergencies. This unit frees up time for SFD to respond to life-threatening emergencies. The team is composed of a firefighter and a social services caseworker.
The recently passed budget will allow for a nurse practitioner to join the team.
A majority of the people Health One responds to are experiencing homelessness and many have health challenges related to undiagnosed behavioral mental health and substance addiction. Adding a nurse practitioner to the personnel of Health One allows the team to complete service needs assessments for clients, write prescriptions for medications if necessary, develop care plans for disease management with clients, and help arrange ongoing primary-care referrals, according to the report.
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