Reporting for duty.
Reporting for duty. Getty

Looks like it's Rich People Order Their Own Cops season again. A tipster in Laurelhurst sent us this photo of a flier advertising the neighborhood's renewal of its private security force for the 10th year:

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For the cost of $200 per family per year, the Laurelhurst Community Club promises uniformed and armed off-duty Seattle Police officers who patrol the neighborhood six days a week for five hours per shift and check on residents' homes while they're on vacation. The officers monitor incoming 911 calls. In past years they have addressed "parties in the park that can lead to vandalism in the neighborhood, stopped suspicious persons, and have provided tips at Block Watch meetings on how to better secure your home," the flier says.

A browse through the Laurelhurst Blog gives us a sense of some of the pressing issues on the beat:

(The reports linked there also include calls to which on-duty officers responded, including some reports of theft and assault.)

Laurelhurst isn't the only neighborhood hiring extra cops in order to, uh, remove teens from the park, I guess? Homeowners in Magnolia, Windermere, and Ballard do the same thing. Queen Anne has also considered the idea.

Last spring in Magnolia, a private security guard approached a man sitting in his parked car, demanded to know why he was there, got into an altercation with the man, and then pepper sprayed him in the face. That security officer was not a sworn SPD officer and therefore wasn't subject to the same training and rules as off-duty cops. For now, off-duty cops are hired through third-party companies, not the SPD. With news that the FBI is investigating allegations of intimidation and price-fixing involving a company employing off-duty officers, Seattle is now in the process of moving control of that off-duty work to the SPD. It's not clear what private company Laurelhurst uses. A contact person for the neighborhood's private security program did not return a call for comment.