This police report starts out as a cut and dry robbery and turns into a story of hellish bureaucracy in South King County.

Here’s the gist of the situation. While riding Metro bus 125 through South Seattle on Wednesday, January 26 at 4:09 p.m., a teenager was approached by a large stranger attracted to his Northface jacket. The stranger allegedly ordered the teen, “give me your jacket.” When the teenager refused, the man allegedly grabbed the jacket, pushed the teenager, and fled the bus. Three of his friends exited with him.

Meanwhile, two witnesses (one of them an off-duty Metro driver) called 9-1-1 to report the robbery. However, the emergency operators told both witnesses that no officers would be dispatched to the scene until the victim called to report the theft himself. The fact that he was unable to call himself, because he was busy being victimized, didn’t change the operators’ minds. Not to be deterred, the off-duty bus driver then called Metro dispatch to contact a King County deputy. Metro dispatch was able to contact 9-1-1 but were also told that no officer would be sent to the scene. Eventually, the witness was able to contact SPD dispatch directly and an officer responded to the incident. Unfortunately, it was an SPD officer instead of a King County deputy—and the robbery took place outside of SPD’s jurisdiction.

So the responding SPD officer couldn’t do much in the way of investigating the robbery but nobly submitted a police report anyway. He writes in the police report, “I realize the call happened in King County Jurisdiction, however, the victim was freezing cold and had already been waiting for an extended period of time. Therefore, I felt a strong obligation to assist the juvenile victim of a violent offense.”

What a sweet and noble man.

After the officer’s report was complete, the Metro supervisor gave the young man a ride home. The suspect was never apprehended.

There are a few lessons to be gleaned from this story. First, make sure you’re not the victim of a crime while on a Metro Transit bus as it crosses the border between Seattle and unincorporated King County. Second, 9-1-1 is a joke when you call from South King County.

19 replies on “Robbery in South King County becomes 9-1-1 nightmare”

  1. The deal that Soundtransit has with the KC Sheriff’s office desperately needs an overhaul. KC Metro Transit is a dumping ground for problem deputies like the thug who nearly killed Christopher Harris. Just ask around in the local criminal-justice community…

  4. Remember those pesky budget problems facing KC? Well, garbage like this is a direct result of those cuts. KCSO does not have enough money to do their job. They have already had to cut back their level of service (try getting Animal Control to respond or to report someone missing) and they have changed what they will/will not respond to. The situation is so, so much worse than what is illustrated in this story. And, I fear, it will continue getting worse.

  5. @4: WTF??? Didn’t you know government services like police protection are FREE?? Ask Tim Eyman or someone else in his tax bracket!

  6. How about this one:

    About three years ago, I was driving down 72nd avenue in Kent…this is a small service road that runs behind the old Boeing Space Center East…converted to general office space.

    An irascible guy pulls out of a driveway at breakneck speed right in front of me, almost ploughing into the side of me. As he almost hits me, he gives me the finger (?) then pulls around behind me and does a complete 270 degree revolution around my car. After that, he ends up in front of me, still driving like a nut.

    Ok, so after all that he ends up at a traffic light trying to pull into 212nd, going up Kent East Hill. I wasn’t angered then, but he continued to give me the finger, and after the left turn, drove near me, threatening me.

    At that point I pulled out my cell phone, and with a description and license number, tried to report what seemed like an obvious case of reckless driving.

    The 911 operator wasn’t having any part of it. She had me repeat the information three times, and kept asking me “where he went”. I kept telling her, “he’s right in front of me…here…now…Real Time!”. After 5 minutes (we’re jammed into traffic by now) she determines that I’m not in her service area and she “forwards” me to a King County 911 operator. She begins with “Yes?”. And I say, well did you read the report (on your computer screen…which I assume is there)…and she says “no” we’re on different systems.

    By they the guy has made his left turn, and I needed to head up the hill.

  7. Actually @4 and @5, Sound Transit *pays* KCSO. The Metro Transit unit is one of the fee-for-service model contracts that KCSO also has with a number of incorporated cities/towns within KC to provide outsourced law-enforcement.

    Think of KCSO as Blackwater. Only not as efficient.

  8. Years ago when I was unfamiliar with the White Center area, I happened to be at a bus stop on 15th Ave SW near Roxbury. A bus pulled in and two fighting dudes spilled out. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a fair fight as one of the guys had a big-ass knife and was promising to use it on the other guy. More unfortunately still, the unarmed guy was traveling with a young kid and an older woman, who both got well away from the fight, the kid even running to hide behind a tree.

    Knife-wielder chased unarmed guy across the street, screaming that he was gonna cut him and kill him. I whipped out my cell phone and called 9-1-1 ……

    And was subjected to nearly ten minutes of grilling by the emergency operator as to WHICH SIDE OF THE STREET I WAS ON. No fucking shit. Apparently the SIDE OF THE STREET from which I was calling was critical info for them and determined which of two agencies would respond to the call. I had not clue ONE as to which (directional) side of the street I was on, being unfamiliar with the area. I tried to describe the stores around me, no good. Finally one of the people watching the imminent stabbing came to MY rescue and gave me the info the emergency operators were insisting on.

    The cops did finally arrive, stabber was apprehended, stabbee was medically attended to, and the little kid who ran behind the tree was surrounded by caregivers.

    But I have NEVER experienced such a clusterfuck from dialing 9-1-1 as that, never before and never since. You’d think they’d have some kind of work-arounds for these so-called ‘border’ cases. Sheesh.

  9. Pretty much sums up why I don’t ever go south of roughly Henderson, unless I’m driving to Portland. It’s a fucking pre-apocalyptic wasteland down there.

  10. And to think that poor cop’s reputation has been maligned by the loudmouthed, trigger-happy numbnuts on the force. I have to believe cops like this are the silent majority, or I’ll kill myself.

  11. How about this takeaway: The Seattle Police officer was kind, compassionate, efficient and willing to go the extra mile – even though the victim wasn’t rich, old or from Bellevue.

    Which pretty much sums up about 99% of contacts with SPD- although you’d never know it from reading The Stranger.

  13. Any time a cop looks at a black kid funny in Seattle he’s gonna face the wrath of Slog and the ACLU anyway, so might as well provide the minimal amount of policing they want.

  14. Actually, I was there. The offenders weren’t black. The victim was. The route was the 128 which travels from Tukwila through unincorporated King county then through Seattle. The clusterfuck happened from 911. Both 911 calls were made from cell phones- it depends which cell towers they go to. Also, the offenders are familiar with the lax and confusion of police response in the area. That is why they assaulted the kid on the border. The driver operating the coach wasn’t even aware an assault/ theft had taken place. By the time he was informed, we were at SSCC. King County caught the suspects, and recovered the jacket, from what I understand.
    These men were goons, praying on a child as a victim. That is scary. More importantly, thefts are at an all time high on Metro. The gimmick is to snatch something from someone- even violently- and hop out the back door. Metro is aware of this. Instead of educating their passengers. They play mute, as if problems don’t really happen.

  15. @8: you were in the Roxbury Vortex. north side of the street = Seattle, south side = unincorporated King Co., AKA White Center. no one wants Rat City.

  16. Ah, the wonderfulness of Seattle Urbists, living in Density….

    A woman who tried and failed to light her crack pipe last week caused a fire at her Capitol Hill apartment that resulted in roughly $30,000 damage, according to police.

    […]

    A fire investigator talked to the woman, 61, who lived in the apartment where the fire started. She admitted “that she had been attempting to light the contents of a ‘crack [cocaine]” pipe with a lit chopstick,” Detective Kevin Grossman wrote in a court document.

    “She was unsuccessful in doing so; therefore, she dropped the lit chopstick on her couch and left the apartment in hopes of obtaining a lighter from one of her neighbors. The couch then ignited, causing a fire in the apartment which resulted in approximately $30,000 in damage.”

    http://www.seattlepi.com/local/434478_cr…

  17. Just for the record ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that happens on Metro (King County) property is the jurisdiction of the County Sheriffs- from the buses to the bus zones. How is it that KCS can use this authority to pick and chose which incidents that they are willing to respond to in King County? Otherwise they dump it on SPD or other local jurisdictions.

  18. @14

    Thanks for the additional info. I used to go by SSCC and I took that 128 to White Center a couple of times. I didn’t realize I was going into no man’s land.

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