A debate over Seattle’s ‘Technology Assisted Crime Prevention Pilot’ plan at the District 3 public safety meeting

Report: ShotSpotter wastes officers time, provides little help in court, targets overpoliced communities — syracuse.com

Last week’s D3 meeting (Image: CHS)

Tuesday brings the final day of public comment on a roster of “Technology Assisted Crime Prevention Pilot Technologies” being pushed toward deployment in Seattle by Mayor Bruce Harrell and proponents of boosting the city’s struggling police department with better surveillance and intelligence systems.

The proposal would create a plan “a new public safety program that will combine a Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) System with an Acoustic Gunshot Location System (AGLS) integrated with Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC) software together in one view,” the administration says. Last year, the Seattle City Council approved Harrell’s request for $1.5 million in the 2024 budget to test acoustic gunshot detection systems like ShotSpotter.

Supporters say the new surveillance system would help boost the department’s ability to quickly respond to gun violence and knock down the city’s record pace of homicides. But examples of real world deployments show the tech doesn’t necessarily work as advertised and can actually hinder police response.

With a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday night and online feedback also being gathered for the meeting, District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth heard more from constituents at the latest in her office’s monthly public safety meetings held last week.

In the meeting held at North Capitol Hill’s Seattle Prep, there was a stark divide on the hopes around ShotSpotter. Continue reading

Seattle free to try to crack down on graffiti after appeal in East Precinct chalk protest case

Seattle’s lawless days as a graffiti free for all are over after a federal appeals court ruling in a Capitol Hill free speech case.

The <strong”>United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has overturned a 2023 ruling that the city’s vandalism laws were unconstitutional in a case over arrests made in 2021 over chalk and charcoal messages scrawled outside Capitol Hill’s East Precinct.

The messages are a frequent and continuing protest method near the 12th and Pine facility and outside Seattle Police Department facilities across the city.

The previous ruling forced the city to back off prosecution for graffiti or tagging while City Attorney Ann Davison’s office appealed the case. Continue reading

Anniversary of Jaahnavi Kandula’s death brings decision in officer accountability investigation, vigil at East Precinct

Punishment is in the labor contract-limited hands of Chief Adrian Diaz as the civilian-led Office of Police Accountability has found Seattle Police veteran and union vice president Dan Auderer violated department rules when he joked about the January, 2023 death of 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula with Seattle Police Officer Guild president Mike Solan.

Tuesday night, demonstrators gathered outside the East Precinct to mark the one-year anniversary of Kandula’s death. E Pine at 12th was reported briefly closed to traffic during the vigil and march.

“We will never stop fighting for Jaahnavi, until there is accountability and justice in her name,” one participant posted about the vigil. “We will continue to show up every year to remind these 2 how precious and valuable Jaahnavi’s life was. We will never forgive and we will never forget.” Continue reading

SPD orders inspections after video of Capitol Hill’s East Precinct shows Trump flag, mock gravestone — UPDATE

The Seattle Police Department is apologizing and Chief Adrian Diaz has ordered inspections of the precinct headquarters across the city after revelation of a video from 2021 showing a mock gravestone for a Black teen shot and killed by police and a Trump flag on the walls of Capitol Hill’s East Precinct.

CHS reported here on the body-worn video taken around the time of the January 6th United States Capitol attack showing a “TRUMP 2020” flag and a mock gravestone for Damarius Butts — a Black 19-year-old killed in a “justified” shooting by Seattle Police.

Friday, SPD released a statement on the video. “While we do not know the origin of the items in question from 2 ½ years ago, there is no doubt they are inappropriate,” the statement begins. “We recognize the hurt and disappointment this has caused.” Continue reading

What was on the walls of the East Precinct’s break room in January 2021? A Trump flag and a mock gravestone for a Black teen shot dead by police

What is the vibe in the break room at the East Precinct above 12th and Pine?

Around the time of the January 6th United States Capitol attack, a “TRUMP 2020” flag hung from the wall. And a mock gravestone for Damarius Butts — a Black 19-year-old killed in a “justified” shooting by Seattle Police — sat on a shelf.

The Seattle Times reported Wednesday on officer body cam video surfaced in the court proceedings around this settled East Precinct chalk graffiti protest case that shows the inappropriate and possibly illegal displays.

“As one of the officers stands to respond to the vandalism report, his body camera sweeps the room, showing the Trump flag, a U.S. flag and a silhouette of a tardigrade — a tiny organism celebrated for being virtually unkillable,” the Seattle Times reports. “The video also captures, on a shelf, a small gray mock tombstone, bearing a clenched black fist, the name Damarius Butts, his age (19) and the date he was killed by officers: April 20, 2017.”

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SPD 2023 staffing report: It now takes more than an hour for an East Precinct cop to show up for low priority calls

The East Precinct is down about three sergeants and two or three officers from last year, according to the latest “Sworn Staffing, Finances and Performance Metrics Report” from the Seattle Police Department. Meanwhile, exits from the city’s total police force have slowed since last summer, officials say, and response times for the most serious 911 calls have stabilized — though, especially in the East Precinct, lower priority response times have gotten significantly worse.

Officials are discussing the report Tuesday morning at a session of the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee. Continue reading

Despite Capitol Hill and Central District smash and grabs, East Precinct burglary reports have plunged

Aftermath of a recent break-in at the Hillcrest Market

With reporting by Hannah Saunders

Despite a rise in concern over property crime in the city to end the year, Seattle Police statistics show that either people aren’t reporting the crimes, or a return to more normal patterns and increased emphasis on organized retail theft have put a dent in surging shoplifting and burglary totals in the city and across Capitol Hill and the Central District.

Still, around 100 break-ins are reported every month in the East Precinct, most targeting commercial buildings. And the individual anecdotes are frustrating. A week before Thanksgiving, the manager of Capitol Hill’s Hillcrest Market posted pictures to the CHS Facebook Group showing the aftermath of a break-in that targeted the Summit Ave grocery for thousands of dollars worth of cigarettes. It was the third time in a month the shop had either been ripped off or broken into. Continue reading

Car prowl reports are down (actually) in Seattle — but not on Capitol Hill

2022 totals projected based on reports through May

One of multiple cars busted into in a prowl spree last week around E Pike (Image: CHS)

Want a Seattle crime problem to solve, city leaders? Crack down on car prowls on Capitol Hill. Seattle Police statistics show that reports of car break-ins have actually dropped about 20% in the city over the past five years — but there has been not letup across the East Precinct covering the Hill and the Central District.

Around Capitol Hill, they are coming in bunches in 2022. Of the around 120 reported every month in the East Precinct, many now involve rounds of mutli-car smash and grabs. A recent spree involved 11 cars parked overnight last week on a block around Temple De Hirsch Sinai.

“They were probably looking for cash; at least in our case there was nothing visible on the car seats,” the CHS reader who alerted us to the spree writes. “The thieves rummaged through the dashboard and all they seem to have taken is some stray coins.”

A previous spree area was hit twice near Miller Community Center with a night of smash and grabs in late June in the same area of another night of busted car glass a few months earlier. Continue reading

City Council report: 2022 Seattle Police 911 response times ‘up in nearly every precinct’

 

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Source: Seattle City Council central staff report

Seattle Police 911 response times have reached new highs according to data presented Tuesday morning to the Seattle City Council’s public safety committee.

According to the report, the median response time for the highest priority 911 calls so far in 2022 in the East Precinct has clocked in at six and a half minutes. That is up from six minutes and five seconds in 2021, and just over four and half minutes in 2020. Continue reading

South Seattle Emerald report on Chief Best text messages could cloud city’s defense against ‘deliberate indifference’ CHOP lawsuit

The South Seattle Emerald has posted a new report based on text log transcripts from messages between former SPD Chief Carmen Best and Assistant Police Chief Lesley Cordner from June 2020

Text messages reveal both former Chief Carmen Best and Mayor Jenny Durkan and her office may have been more involved in the decision to abandon Capitol Hill’s East Precinct than either has previously disclosed, according to new reporting from the South Seattle Emerald.

The revelations could further jeopardize the city’s chances of defending itself in an ongoing federal lawsuit accusing City Hall of “deliberate indifference” in allowing the CHOP occupied protest area to form and cutting off the area from city services for weeks in the summer of 2020 amid concerns about dangerous conditions around the camp and protest.

The new revelations surrounding text messages between the former police chief and her assistant chief in the days leading up to the June 2020 formation of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone were reported by the Emerald’s Carolyn Bick last week:

According to texts between Best and Assistant Police Chief Lesley Cordner, it appears that Best was in contact with former Mayor Jenny Durkan about the Seattle Police Department (SPD) removing items from the East Precinct and that she was aware, on the morning of June 8, 2020, of a plan to remove firearms, ammunition, and evidence from the building by 5 p.m. that day.

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