(A proposed Op Ed piece, in response to the Seattle Times article "Favoritism feared in plan to fight crime in precinct" by Michael Ko)
Recently the Seattle Times ran a story about a Safety Initiative
in the East Precinct, which is being portrayed as 'micromanaging'
the police. We would like to provide a little history and the
'rest of the story'.
What is the real story? Due to the continued drug dealing, vagrancy,
shootings and murders in the East Precinct, several neighborhood
groups got together to lobby the City Council for some form of
help. The neighborhood groups are not just Capitol Hill, but include
First Hill, Miller Park, Judkins Park, Madison Valley, and Union
Street. An idea was presented by Councilmember Licata, to tap
into some existing capital funds for projects in the East Precinct.
The funds could be used to continue funding a social service
outreach staff member and to fund a bicycle patrol for a minimum
of 3 to 4 months during the summer. The neighborhood groups agreed
to forgo some capital improvements and worked with the Council
to refine the idea. Meanwhile, the Mayor not available to meet
with citizens, except on call-in shows, declined to open a dialogue
with our neighborhoods
Our diverse group of citizens has lobbied the City Council since last September. Due to the support of Councilmember Licata, the City Council agreed with our idea, funded it in the budget, and then we saw the Mayor freeze the funds. We have since met with representatives from the City in three meetings, agreed that we might not be able to get all the funds, and agreed that it was only for one year. We also agreed that we would start to work with local businesses for contributions to continue the program in future years. We also agreed to the idea of a grant writer to go after grant funds in support of the program.
That was it not taking money from any other neighborhood
or precinct, but from our own local capital project funds. The
funds were already going to be spent in the East Precinct on some
capital projects (e.g. Bobby Morris Playfield resurfacing).
However, we may never see those funds, we may never have the opportunity
to see our police force implement bicycle patrols in a mixed-use
urban neighborhood. Why? The police argue that they are being
micro-managed; the Mayor says it is setting a precedent for one
area of the City; yet, the City Council recognizes the need to
help the neighborhoods. We are a little bewildered on why the
Mayor does not believe in fixing the problem in the Central District
when there is grass-root support.
An example of how Bicycle patrols have worked:- the Downtown Seattle Association has for years purchased $70,000 to $80,000 a year of "extra" bike patrol services beyond what the Police Department ordinarily provides. The Pioneer Square Chamber also purchases "extra" bike patrol services.
The purchase of "extra" police/bike patrol services
has worked so well for the Downtown and Pioneer Square that the
Mayor's Office used their model to broker a deal in the U-District
last year. The Mayor's Office worked with several major institutions
to commit to 2-years of funding in order to purchase "extra"
bike and foot patrols to provide extra police presence on The
Ave. That is what we are fighting for in our area.
The area of Madison Street east of the TV towers is just starting
a great urban revitalization. The bike patrol will help those
new businesses take root: their future tax revenues will help
to support future bike patrols. If we don't help them now, they
may wither on the vine, and leave us with the desolate streetscape
that we now "enjoy", where drug-dealing and prostitution
seem the major businesses, and flying bullets are all too frequent.
Bottom line, as one weary citizen stated after the tenth meeting
on this issue, "...Mayor Nickels is squandering an incredible
resource in its volunteer citizen groups by not listening, not
participating with us and by doing end-runs around us with unnecessary
and appeasement-oriented process when they have no intention of
implementing any of our suggestions."
Michael Booth
Representative from Miller Park
1644 21st Ave
Seattle, WA 98122
In support of our statement, we refer the reader to the citizen
supported Miller Park web site: http://home.jps.net/~tayles/Public_Safety/reports.html