A modest refund to a beleaguered department won't preclude achieving better public safety reforms.

"Despite Continued Calls to Defund"

Yes some people have gone out and broken windows and rioted and assaulted people to call for less police.

However, look at any polling done since then and you can see there is no demographic that actually wants this (especially African-Americans).

We don't just give shit to the loudest people.

Wow this is pretty much a stream of consciousness gone wrong. As noted the majority of people do not support defunding the police so I’m glad the mayor acted like a leader and put forth a budget that doesn’t cater to a bunch of activists bent on destroying public safety.

Been downtown or Capitol Hill lately? Defunding the police is stupid. Asinine.

So, like $350million+ for the status quo, and $10million for the alternatives? Yep, definitely a 2 pronged approach, but shaped kinda like a wishbone after the wish, which didn't come true.

@6 Saying "Look at these places, crime exists! That's why defunding is a bad idea" is a statement that pretends that the police haven't been here the whole time, not fixing the problem that supposedly illustrates your point. I'm curious what a police force wielding 60% of the public welfare budget could do that the police force wielding 50% of it hasn't been able to?

The police do not prevent crime or solve it. They commit crime, they cover up crime, and they pocket a shit ton of money for literally doing nothing (other than harassing, assaulting, and murdering people). The mess downtown, all of the homeless people, the increase in violent crimes in 2020 - what exactly are the police doing or going to do about any of that?

You know what communities have the least crime? Those communities that are well funded, well cared for, and in which all residents are treated humanely. If this country took the TRILLIIONS of dollars spent on cops and put it into supporting communities - housing, feeding, caring for, and educating people - society would be far safer.

The constant drum beat about defunding the police being asinine is never backed up with any proof that the police actually DO ANYTHING, ANYTHING AT ALL. But just like everything else in this society, we are just hell bent on continuing with the status quo instead of doing anything radical to actually bring about real change.

Human beings are dumb as dirt, nothing but hate filled animals destroying everything. And as the world continues to burn and humanity slowly immolates itself, people will just sit around bitching and moaning and demanding that the solution to everything is the same as it ever was (that's the definition of insanity).

While it may be true that as many as half all calls may be responded to without police officers, it's not always clear which calls are in that 50%. Making the call retrospectively is a bit misleading.

'Angélica Cházaro, a member of Decriminalize Seattle and the Solidarity Budget Coalition, argued that a city that fully invests in meeting universal basic needs – which she believes the 2022 Solidarity Budget does – is one where police would become obsolete.'

One of her beliefs is at least 200 hundred thousand million billion trillion trillion times more correct than the other. Luckily, we don't have to choose which one that might be, because the Solidarity Budget Coalition wasn't actually elected by Seattle's citizens, and thus has no power to implement their budget.

@5: Did you not read the material at those urls? Or did you simply not understand it? Yes to the latter, obviously:

"And 20% (151,180 around Seattle residents) supporting the 50% defund (and only 38% oppose) seems particularly high."

Nearly twice as many opposed defunding as supported it, and that's your 'gotcha' response to other commenters' noting that the defund position has little popular support? (Are you practicing for what happens if the citizens of District 3 recall CM Sawant, and then you'll use that result to claim those exact same voters really, really, REALLY wanted her to become their CM-for-Life?)

'54% of Seattle residents supporting diverting funding away from police agencies and toward social services and community programs seems pretty popular to me considering how "radical" everyone seems to try and make it.'

Who here has said it was "radical"? Give even one example.

Our City Council, fully supported by The Stranger, has spent the last five years behaving as if homelessness was driven entirely by economics. Specifically, Big EEEEEBIL Amazon cruelly drove hard-working local families right out into our streets, leaving them with no alternative but to live in tents and steal just to survive. If that was anything other than a blatant lie, then aggressive policing (of the type our Council and Stranger say already exists, to the point of being a serious problem) would have at least made a dent in homelessness.

Instead, per your own link, ordinary citizens know that mental illness and drug use drive homelessness, and that we should redirect our resources toward treatment:

'He doesn’t support defunding the police or cutting their budgets in half and actually thinks his area could use more officers. At the same time, he’s not opposed to funneling some money away from police to support better social services.

'“If you did defund, you would have to put it more towards mental health or homeless help or social programs, that kind of stuff, to kind of help balance it a bit,” he said. “I don’t think buying more military arms is really going to help the situation.”'

If a 68-year-old, retired construction manager (!) holds that view, how could you possibly refer to it as being made to sound "radical"?

Well color me surprised. former prosecutor Jenny Durkin supports more money and less accountability for the police. She is more bothered by broken windows than the violent police execution of Derek Chavin. If she's also anti-vax and pro insurrection that places her in perfect alignment with the SPD she answers too.

The primary job of a prosecutor is to shield the police from accountability. Ensuring they have we full funding their under performance is central of that.

@12: You meant George Floyd, but what a contorted juxtaposition and insult to his memory just the same. Christ.

Jenny is anti-vax and pro-insurrection? Please link to juicy details!

@5, "I mean I can see how the arbitrary 50% defunding alarms some people."

Not too alarming because I doubt it'd even happen. I mean, look how long it took to get ADUs in some meaningful way. However, if a politician takes a position such as defunding the cops by 50%, it's completely legitimate to challenge them on it because politicians should be challenged on their stated positions rather than what you think they'll end up with in negotiations. This isn't panicky, this is kinda how things should work.

My take is that the progressive political movement has overplayed their hands on there are going to be some consequences in the upcoming election. Maybe I'm misreading the room. However, continually insulting people for bringing up that Lorena González supported defunding the police by 50% or NTK for being an abolitionist is kind of idiotic itself. They very publicly took these positions and either need to either explain why they think they're good ideas or "clarify" what they meant by abolishing or defunding the police in a way that doesn't sound like complete bullshit.

Some things SPD has done in the past month:

https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2021/09/26/officers-arrest-one-following-shooting-in-pioneer-square-club/

https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2021/09/18/one-injured-one-arrested-after-south-park-shooting/

https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2021/09/17/police-arrest-man-seize-gun-after-sodo-rv-fire/

https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2021/09/17/renton-pd-seattle-pd-arrest-three-juvenile-suspects-after-armed-carjacking/

https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2021/09/13/officers-arrest-two-men-following-dog-attack-stabbing-at-occidental-park/

https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2021/09/13/bike-patrol-seizes-handguns-drugs-after-interrupting-downtown-dice-game/

https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2021/08/29/two-people-injured-in-first-hill-hatchet-attack-suspect-in-custody/

I'm sure all of the violence was just a cry for help from these individuals with overt murderous and violent proclivities and a one time thing. No need to isolate them from society. They definitely would have turned over a new leaf once we sent some government workers to talk with them and give them a tiny house or something. Pretty soon we'll be just like Stockholm! Except for those extra hundreds of thousands of legal and illegal guns floating around in our city, but I'm they'll all stay firmly locked in their gun safes. Safety at last.

@17 And that only costed $30 million (not counting cost of imprisonment)! I guess we should give SPD more money and crime will just go away, it's the only way.

I can understand and respect the black lives matter point of view as it relates to police discriminations and brutality. Its clearly on the agenda.

But defunding the police as "retribution" or punishment is well stupid.

Defunding the police doesn't fix the problem. With more funding the police and city could:

1) get more funding to train the force and correct the mistakes.
2) Hire new officers who can be trained from the onset.
3) Investigate and sort out the good apples from the bad apples.

... oh yes, appoint a blue ribbon committee to review and study the situation...that is so Seattle.

Allowing the city be be riddle with crime, murder and lawlessness is not "punishing the police". Its punishing the citizens of this city. It may have escaped our city council, but the other 90% of the population would like to have the services of the police.

More cops.
More minorities shot to death for no good reason.
More cops getting away with it.

Nothing new here.

@11 the analysis used computer assisted dispatch (CAD) data - it includes initial classification (on receipt/dispatch) and final classification (on resolution). If lots of reclassification was an issue it would have been visible in the data.

@22: So, you're saying NTK is just plain lying, every time she claims that as City Attorney, she would prevent prosecution of almost all misdemeanors in Seattle?

Or are you just trying to avoid dialog on a topic you support, but prefer not to defend?

The park ranger view of law enforcement could work in certain pastoral environments, however, Seattle is a bustling metropolis with an international port and many people entering and exiting everyday, so it makes sense to have a robust police force.

Whoever heard of a town without a sheriff?

Criminals are a regrettable part of our social reality, they live not only in fiction but right here in our fair city.

Nevertheless, economic disparities and public health issues that drive criminal behavior must be adequately addressed alongside adequate law enforcement funding.

Defunding police and moving the financial resources to social services, although noble from a humanitarian standpoint, is tantamount to exiting Afghanistan and giving the Taliban our weaponry, then declaring victory.

Turning a blind eye to evil will not make it go away.

Speaking of criminal behavior, Mayor Durkan needs to do something with her hair.

She looks like one of the specters from “Thirteen Ghosts”.

AgentSmith2 has an open invitation for a hot oil job with green peppercorns from pollysexual.

Before police reform : a mob of white cops who live in the far-out suburbs put duct tape over their name tags and badge numbers, head for the ghetto, and shoot the first black people they see. Then they head for Dunkin Donuts to celebrate.

After police reform : a mob of white cops who live in the far-out suburbs put duct tape over their name tags and badge numbers, head for the ghetto, and shoot the first black people they see. Then they change into their MAGA hats, and drive home in their pickup trucks with the Trump/Pence bumper stickers.