On Thursday 11/13/06 the City Council Budget Committee met and voted to add 10 new Police Officers in 2007 and 20 more in 2008, and also voted to fund the GOTS program. Here's the AGENDA they were working from.
You can watch the meeting via Realplayer streaming video: Police staffing is from 30 min to 49 min, GOTS from 46:30 to 47:20 on the video.
City Council Press release on the Public Safety Package
Reports from the media:
Seattle Times (11/10/06): Seattle's proposed 2-year budget would add 37 police officers
Seattle PI (11/10/06):
Officers angered by hiring plan
Far more are needed than proposal asks for, union says
Seattle PI (11/9/06): Council may vote today on more police officers (good summary of the issues)
1) Tuesday, 11/14/06: City Council Budget Committee meets and votes on how to fund the new Police, GOTS program (etc): AGENDA. Watch it LIVE .
2) Tuesday 11/14/06, 11:30 AM City Council Press conference on Public Safety Initiative
Who: All nine members of the Seattle City Council and
Concerned Citizens
What: Press Conference
Where: Seattle Police Headquarters, Lower Floor Conference
Room, 610 5th Ave., (across from City Hall), Seattle
When: 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, November 14
3) On ~ November 20th the fully City Council meets to vote on the Budget agreed to by the Budget Committee. As ALL Councilmembers are on the Budget Committee, it seems unlikely that they will vote against themselves!
4) When the budget season is over I'll sent you a polite reminder, suggesting that we all write to City Council and thank them for their efforts to increase public safety.
(Comments from Council Staff and others)
For all recorded Council budget sessions try:
http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/watchVideos.asp?program=budget
I am concerned that the Council's efforts may not result in anything like the number of new Officers we need.
I urge you to write to Councilmembers and emphasize
our need for more Officers.
Contact details, and advice about effective oral and written
testimony, are available in these two handouts: here
and here.
Councilmembers' contact info (write letters to each Councilmember!)
From a letter from Lisa Herbold (and edited slightly):
Please see the attached 1) overview of the package presented today and 2) a summary of each of the items presented as proposals for funding.
Feel free to share the information I have provided here.
Please keep in mind that it is not likely
that everything will be funded at the funding levels that will
be proposed today. In fact, some
of these items may not receive funding at all. This
is a starting "laundry list."
In the next couple days, Councilmember McIver, as budget chair will be meeting with individual Councilmembers to see what items have the greatest Council support. Voting on individual budget adds will start next week.
Best,
Lisa Herbold (Licata aide)
You may watch the Council presentation via streaming video:
http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=2060641
I (Andrew) made some quick calculations: funding ALL of the proposals would require rebudgeting 0.5% of the City's projected 2007-2008 income.
This seems a small price to pay for public safety.
Note that Councilmembers start VOTING on the budget changes next week!
Please read the:
and immediately write to them and share your thoughts on our need for more Police and social services.
Contact details, and advice about effective oral and written testimony, are available in these two handouts: here and here.
Many thanks,
Andrew Taylor, Miller Park
(PS I will add here links to newspaper articles about the Council's Public Safety Package, if there ever are any! Let me know if you find any.
This Seattle Times editorial is somewhat relevant )
NOTE: KUOW's
Weekday program on Friday 11/3/06 , entitled "Crime in
the City", featured neighborhood and small business advocates,
was about the need for more Police in Seattle. Their summary:
" The members of Seattle's Crime Prevention Councils are
concerned that crime is increasing and there aren't enough police
officers to patrol the city. Are they right?" The webpage
has streaming audio feeds of the program (eg in RealAudio
)
Hi Folks,
I've had some interesting conversations in the past couple of
days with some neighbors who are concerned that we (the ??????
Neighborhood Assn.) are moving too quickly to endorse the idea
of more police.
They believe there are plenty of police but that they aren't being
wisely allocated: that there are too many with desk jobs or devoted
to "security." (And there are some who don't want
more police on the streets at all, no matter how they're allocated,
but that's another subject for another time.)
I remember Councilmember Steinbrueck mentioning that a certain
percentage of police have been taken off the streets to support
homeland security and others are tied up with technology desk
jobs, but this is kind of vague information.
So the upshot is I couldn't actually answer their questions: how
many police ARE there, how many are assigned to patrols and, more
importantly, what do we know about how the patrol vs. desk job
decisions are made (which ones are mandatory, which are discretionary,
what are their assignments and why?)
I'm weary of statistics, but I think that most of us still have
the same goal to increase police presence, especially on
foot/bike patrols. Personally I don't care how it's done, and
given Councilmember Licata's modest public safety initiative numbers,
if there ARE more officers sitting at desks who could be out patrolling,
I'd like to know that.
How do I learn more? Please feel free to forward.
Thanks for your help
I (Andrew) replied:
All excellent questions, for which I have no concrete answers. Instead a few observations and feelings.
1) Allocation of Officers is an acknowledged problem. There is an ongoing effort ( Geo Policing ) to redraw beat boundaries and dispatch Officers in a more rational manner - the present beat boundaries were drawn up years ago.
See Mayor's Press release for only written mention I could find of GeoPolicing:
http://www.seattlechannel.org/news/detail.asp?ID=6568&Dept=40
Or look at the 8/1/06 Public Safety Committee meeting (which
I haven't):
http://www.seattle.gov/council/video_archives.asp?program=safetyGovArts
for a Geo-Policing Status Report
2) At the last East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition meeting (10/26/06) I asked Captain Black about the number of patrol officers. He immediately noted that he presently had fewer officers available for patrol that he'd ever had. When asked where the others are, he noted Homeland Security and technology training as two issues. In brief, I suggest you ask him.
3) I don't know, but would also like to know, who decides which officers go where. I suspect (but don't know) that the Police Officers' Guild (their union) has a very strong say in what goes on.
4) City Council has suggested effectively reinstating Community Service Officers ( "4 new positions to provide civilian assistance to Patrol" , cited HERE) as a way to free up officers for patrol duties. Feelings are mixed on Community Service Officers: some say they are an inexpensive way to free up sworn officers for patrol duties; others point out that in lean times CSO's are an easy item to cut, as they're not part of the Union contract, and would prefer a (smaller number of) sworn officers who'd be harder to remove.
5) My feeling is that, even with Geo Policing and Community Service Officers, the Mayor's Policing study will eventually lead us to realize that we need more officers on the street, and that the only pragmatic way to achieve that in a bureaucratic organization is to add some more bodies. It would be nice to get them just with efficiency, but I fear that some of the people parked behind desks may be there for a reason, and you might not want them on patrol (and, to be honest, you'll never get rid of them)!
6) So, believing in the limited capacity of the Police Academy, I wrote a letter to Council (just before the their "City Council Public Safety package" was released) urging them to fund as many additional Officers as feasible.
7) My suspicion is that (with enough encouragement from us) they will fund a trainable, sustainable number of new Officers, to start us on our way to whatever magic number the Mayor's report will come up with next year.
I'm sorry that none of this is the hard answers and numbers
that your neighbors (and I) would like. However, given that Council
will be voting on these budget additions starting early next week,
we don't
have time to wait for such clarity, and need to act on our gut
feelings.
Thanks for the stimulating questions,
Andrew
Councilmember Steinbreuck has proposed, as part of next year's City Budget, for a NET increase (over and above replacement) of 50 Police Officers a year for the next 5 years: See Seattle PI articles below.
At the first City Budget Public Hearing, many neighborhood groups and individuals spoke of the need for more Police throughout our city.
Many videos about the Budget deliberations are available on the Seattle Channel Budget Page to view on your computer (and fast-foward as needed). I suggest:
a) The October 11th Public Hearing ( eg: Stephanie Tschida at 3:17:45, Andrew at 3:40:30, Kristin O'Donnell at 4:30:20)
b) The October 17th Budget Committee meeting: note the public comment at the start, and the discussions about Police Staffing levels in the 2nd half (from ~ 46:00 to the end)
c) The October 31st Public Hearing
d) The November 1st City Council meeting introducing the "City Council Public Safety Package"
[Hint for Mac users, and maybe others: CTRL-click on the video to open it in Real Player and use the pause and fast forward controls! ]
See also Seattle Channel, Council and Mayor's Budget web pages for details.
Since then Councilmember Licata and the Council have both issued Press Releases (see below). They generally acknowedged our Public Safety concerns, but seem to be heading in a (typically Seattlish) wholistic approach,
Councilmembers Licata and Steinbrueck hosted a meeting of many people interested in public safety and social services, to get some input as to people's priorities, His office distributed this summary of the views people presented.
I am concerned that the Council's efforts may not result in anything like the number of new Officers we need.
I urge you to write to Councilmembers and emphasize
our need for more Officers.
Contact details, and advice about effective oral and written
testimony, are available in these two handouts: here
and here.
Councilmembers' contact info (write letters to each Councilmember!)
Licata: Public Safety Needs Nuanced, Complex Approach
Attachments to Licata Press Release: Chart, Essay
City
Council: Councilmembers intend to develop comprehensive public
safety package
Mayor
(10/3/06): Mayor Looks to Add More Police Officers in 2008
Steinbrueck calls for 250 more police officers: Oct 5th
Seattle Police: Thinking ahead: SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD: Oct. 6th
Line by line, a look at how Seattle spends its money By CRAIG THOMPSON GUEST COLUMNIST, Oct 12th
Police, parks at top of budget concerns: Oct 12 article on first Budget Public Hearing
Our thin blue line isn't thick enough: Oct 18th
Lawless city area goes begging for police help: Oct 13th
Top
cop hears our grumbles and gets our fears: Oct 23
Letter to City Council from neighborhood member Lonnie Lusardo
A letter to City Council from Andrew Taylor
Councilman Peter Steinbrueck reports. "I believe we can
help this situation [crime and response times] with a serious
increase in the number of police officers on the street. However,
this package will not move forward successfully without the Council
hearing from the public. I urge you to be a part of our budget
process by continuing to communicate with Councilmembers and to
consider attending our upcoming public hearing on Monday, October
30th at 5:30PM at City Hall.
What the Councilman is saying in polite, politician speak, is that, while close, the votes are not yet there to move his proposal for 50 net new officers per year into the budget. MORE PUBLIC PRESSURE IS REQUIRED!
The SE Seattle Crime Prevention Council has met with 8 of the 9 Council Members to date. They are listening and can be convinced; however, some of them are holding back to see what the public outcry is if they don,t add more officers. YOUR ATTENDANCE AT THE HEARING IS NEEDED. KEEP YOUR E-MAIL COMING. Council e-mails are attached.
WE ARE CLOSE, LET US NOT FALTER NOW! CHARGE!
Neale Frothingham
Vice-President
SE Seattle Crime Prevention Council
He also wrote (to his group):
Thank you for all who have committed to attend the hearing
on October 30, 2006 at 5:30 p.m. WE NEED TO MAKE A STRONG VISIBLE
PRESENCE. To that
end bring signs that say, "More Cops", "50 more
cops", etc. If not, I'll have some.
Plan to stay for the first hour. If you want to testify, which
would be good, get there early (4:30 p.m.) and get in the line
to sign up to speak.
If you're not speaking, seat yourself behind one of the two microphones,
so your sign will be on camera when others speak. If you prefer
to stand, take
up a spot in the back against the wall and hold up your sign.
I signed up as #67 last time and did not speak until 9 p.m. although
1 hour of the wait was the Council attending to other business
before taking testimony (which is not anticipated this time).
If you can be one of the first 20 on the list, you can testify
and leave by 6:30 p.m. Last time, we had about a dozen or so that
spoke from CPC's, Chambers of Commerce, and Belltown Neighbors,
etc. throughout the evening. The Council has heard much from me,
and I am not opposed to speaking; however, they have heard much
from me and it strengthens our case for them to see and hear new
people and voices.
I appreciate the support I have gotten from you all as I have worked to spearhead this issue for the SE CPC. Just the meetings with Council Members and public hearings have totaled over 30 hours of my time. I, like all of you, work and understand the resources that this has required from us all. It has been a team effort and I appreciate the sacrifice you all have made.
We are almost there. Let us not falter now. CHARGE!!!!!!!!!
Neale
VP, SE Seattle CPC