Seattle Police gang detectives believed they were circling in on suspects involved in Sunday morning’s drive-by shooting at Pike and Broadway as the investigation continued Tuesday but reports of increased patrols in the neighborhood in response to the incident are not accurate.
“In response to the shooting, police plan to increase nighttime foot patrols in the area,” the Seattle Times reported. Other media outlets have followed.
But a SPD spokesperson tells CHS that no actual increase in the number of patrol officers is hitting the streets in response to the shooting — ongoing weekend emphasis patrols started earlier this year to curb nightlife-related crime, however, will continue.
“We increased the number of officers on foot beats earlier this year and have kept them in place because we know they’re important,” a SPD spokesperson said in a statement.
Sunday night, Mayor Ed Murray and Capt. Paul McDonagh talked to community representative and members of the neighborhood chamber of commerce about the shootings, the emphasis patrols, ongoing gun violence across Central Seattle, and new tools coming to Capitol Hill in 2016 to free more time for cops to focus on policing while moving more drug and mental health issues toward services and programs. Murray and McDonagh also said the department is having difficulty recruiting new officers as Seattle faces intense competition for qualified candidates.
Meanwhile, the investigation of Sunday’s 1 AM drive-by continue. Gang detectives have video of the incident including one distributed widely by Seattle media after it was captured by an employee at a local business who regularly records activities at the busy intersection.
The video shows the silver sedan used in the attack make a slow turn onto Broadway from E Pike as a string of at least a dozen shots are fired and people in a group standing on the corner in front of the grocery store fall to the pavement. Four people were shot in the chaos and one was badly injured by the exploding glass of a shattered QFC window. Seattle Fire said the five victims in the shooting suffered minor injuries — though one victim who was shot and hit by glass provided another view of how serious “minor injuries” can be. “A peice of glass 1inch away from my heart but you know the docs cleaned me up,” the person who said she was a victim in Sunday’s shooting wrote in a social media update. “Nd now dealing with excruciating pain. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time LITERALLY cause I was omw to get some food.”
A member of a local superhero group also reportedly captured images of the incident on his bodycam and provided the video to police.
The specifics of East Precinct’s patrol response won’t sit well with Pike/Pine businesses where owners and employees have called for more to be done to quell violence in the neighborhood and help protect the culture and businesses in the area’s nightlife core.
Dave Meinert, co-owner of the Comet and Big Mario’s and a longtime part of the neighborhood’s entertainment industry, attended Sunday night’s meeting with the mayor and said he believes even the ongoing emphasis patrols have decreased in the area. Capt. McDonagh said Sunday there has been a shift in how foot patrols have been utilized in Pike/Pine with a transition over the summer to focus officers on foot to daytime patrols and keeping officers in their cars more at night so they can respond more quickly to incidents across the precinct. East Precinct foot patrols also more frequently involve Cal Anderson Park than the streets of Pike and Pine.
Meinert said by email Tuesday that he wants more cops on foot near the clubs, bars, and restaurants — not only in the park:
My impression is that the Mayor believes there should be more foot and bike patrols in the neighborhood, but that we are short on current available officers, and there is a shortage of new recruits, which is the same issue the State Patrol is dealing with. So, no, I don’t think we have enough foot and bike patrols in and around Pike Pine. Nor do we have enough social services to help deal with some of the issues we’re facing. But this is a citywide issue, not due to a lack of leadership from the SPD or the Mayor. Still, I’d like to see an increase as the neighborhood becomes more dense and faces the issues that come with increased numbers of people living, working, and visiting here.
The Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce has not yet responded to our questions about the need for foot patrols in the area.
One alternative solution for the area’s nightlife businesses could be working together to form an organization that would be allowed to hire off-duty cops to help bolster SPD’s presence. An organization like the Broadway Business Improvement Area, currently being planned for expansion to cover areas including Pike/Pine as part of the priorities for the chamber’s newly hired director, could be one example of the type of organization that would be allowed to hire off-duty cops. Police officers are prohibited from providing security services to private businesses like bars and clubs. Meinert tells CHS he personally hasn’t looked into the possibility of creating a nonprofit organization to manage such a deployment but also questioned why the issue should be turned back on the bars and clubs. “I can’t speak for everyone, I think that bars and venues already pay a lot of taxes and that should cover good policing,” he wrote.
Another alternative strategy to help calm Pike/Pine could be ramping up the pedestrian zone effort tested this summer when an average of 26,000 pedestrians were counted entering and exiting the Pike/Pine area from 8 PM – 2 AM on weekend nights.
