Is Seattle less safe with 26 fewer cops than we had last year? That was the question at City Hall on Monday when Mayor Mike McGinn proposed a budget that would counter an $18 million shortfall next year in part by leaving open 26 vacant officer positions at the Seattle Police Department, saving $2.4 million next year.
The idea is something of an experiment, McGinn explained, that involved leaving positions empty this year as officers quit or retired. If cops leave next year, the city will replace them, but the positions empty now would stay empty, resulting in a city police force of 1,301 officers.
Not surprisingly, the Seattle City Council protested.
“I hear continued frustration in neighborhoods like Belltown and the U-District that we don’t have enough police presence to change street-level crime,” said Council Member Sally Clark, a member of the council’s Public Safety Committee. Meanwhile, the committee chair, Tim Burgess, said he would need to analyze the mayor’s proposal. “We clearly have significant street crime and disorder issues in some neighborhoods,” Burgess said, taking an apparent dig at McGinn’s veto of an aggressive solicitation bill last year.
But these claims that public safety is suffering seem a political canard (both Burgess and Clark have indicated they may run against McGinn for mayor in 2013, and a tough-on-crime platform is the staple of vacuous politics).
If the slight downturn in cops this year impacted public safety, it’s apparently made Seattle safer.
The latest police statistics show crime in Seattle is at a 55-year low. Even with the existing staff levels—again, 26 fewer cops than last year—the city is exceeding metrics of its Neighborhood Policing Plan adopted in 2007. For example: Response to 911 calls through June of this year averaged six minutes and 18 seconds (less than the city’s target of seven minutes), 34 percent of officer time is considered on-duty and available (above the 30 percent recommended), and 10 squad cars are available for backup at any given time (in line with the city’s goals). The current staffing levels also provide a near-record 545 patrol officers on the street.
“I wish the feedback from neighborhood businesses matched up with the numbers cited to support the budget proposal,” said Clark.
But anecdotal evidence that some people feel underpoliced seems an impractical way to run a city—or shape a budget. Reinstating $2.4 million for the police department would require taking $2.4 million from somewhere else, and the onus is on council members to prove it should come out of parks, libraries, or human services (which already have been cut by tens of millions of dollars in recent years while the police budget has remained untouched).
“We all know there is a high-profile push to increase the number of police officers over time,” McGinn said. But gauging public safety simply by counting cops, he contended, is “lunging toward the wrong finish line.”
The council will make the final decisions when it passes the city’s 2012 budget in November. 
“If the slight downturn in cops this year impacted public safety, it’s apparently made “
Seattle safer.”
–yes, fewer cops to shoot or beat people…I’d feel safer.
“The latest police statistics show crime in Seattle is at a 55-year low. “
—What is the police statistics on police against citizen violence?
Perhaps they could save some money if they weren’t having to pay out lawsuits for their cops’ fuck-ups against the citizenry? Save those open spaces for cops they can thoroughly test to make sure they’re not murderous, blood-thirsty thugs! And get rid of police guild president Rich O’Neil! He needs his ass FIRED! With a fucking FLAME THROWER!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=crpB…
It’s not what you are
It’s how you dress
That’s one thing I’ve learned from the guys
I must confess
Now me, look, I got this job not just beeing myself
Huh uhh
I went out and bought some brand new shoes
Now I walk like someone else
Maybe I’m crazy or just too high
But all this can’t be worth my
Piece of the pie
Sittin ’round just gettin’ high
Temporarily pacified
I guess less is more
Something special, something new
Some brand new group to sink my teeth into
Sittin ’round just getting high
Temporarily pacified
Chorus:
That’s what’s going down on the inside
Don’t let this getaround to the outside
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no show!
Sodon’t be tryin’ to putt no mo jo on my butt, anyway
The fewer cops there are in Seattle, the safer we are.
With every cop fired, laid off, or quit and not replaced, the city becomes just that much better and more livable.
An ideal Seattle would see the total elimination of the police department. Lock, stock, and barrel.
@3 So then, who would enforce the laws we choose?
We have Pierce county to learn from for one? and a hiring freeze is a total politipiggy way of saying we are doing nothing but want to make it look like we are doing something? So when Seattle starts chopping they wont touch the police “at all” and they will cry out we had a hiring freeze? After raising parking rates and charging to park anywhere all the time and everything else Seattle has done to increase its intake they want to pout and cry up to the Budget where they will spend money like Hobos on a Ham Samitch? 😉
@4 we don’t choose most of the laws that our police department is working with, in fact it’s the police guild, their union, that dictates the rules of how police must operate and how much money they must make, and what and when to arrest, and what laws to enforce and what not, etc… The taxpayers have no rights when it comes to police. To answer your question, the laws that we choose must be enforced by an agency that is accountable to us, the taxpayers, and not their union and self interests.
Sally Clark is up for re-election and she is endorsed by the police guild. We sure do not need another police voice on the council, Burgess is enough… Her opponent Dian Ferguson is strong on police accountability reform. Vote For Dian!