For years Terrie Johnston has been the crime prevention coordinator for both the Seattle Police Department’s East and West precincts.
But after whittling down about 140 applications to a handful who were interviewed about two weeks ago, a selection and hiring process is underway for new coordinators at both the East and Southwest precincts.
Johnston warned attendees at Thursday’s East Precinct Advisory Council community meeting that background checks and training take months. A new coordinator likely won’t be officially in place until June.
“I hope that there will be somebody that’s great and will be working full-time for the East Precinct,” she said.
Johnston isn’t the only double-duty coordinator. Mark Solomon covers both the South and Southwest precincts.
The department doubled up on coordinator assignments in recent years after budget cutbacks. Restoration of the positions comes just as some of the potential federal funding for community policing is threatened over President Trump’s immigration executive order targeting sanctuary cities.
The SPD’s crime prevention coordinators discuss ongoing crime problems with neighborhoods, help businesses with security, and work on the annual Seattle Night Out Against Crime.
Johnston also said she often talks to people who have called 911 and are dissatisfied with police response times. She said discussing those situations provide either the caller or SPD with information that can help in the future to improve the system.
“There’s always a lesson that can be learned,” she said.
While the coordinators are gaining two new team members, Johnston said initially their duties will stay the same, but that may change in the future.
“Right now, you can expect better service than you have been getting,” she said.
Johnston said the new coordinator will inherit a precinct where property crimes, at least, are dropping.
“Car prowls — that is the No. 1 crime in Seattle, but they are all down compared to last year,” Johnston said talking about the three main areas the East Precinct is divided into.
During the past three months, 387 car prowls have been reported. In the same period last year, 744 were reported.
Residential burglaries are also down. There have been 152 in the past three months, compared to 145 last year.
Violent crimes have also been down for the most part.
You can see the latest statistics on the CHS Capitol Hill Crime Dashboard.
“Generally speaking we’ve very happy that most of the major crimes have been trending downward. Some of that is seasonal, some of that is unexplainable,” Lt. Grant Ballingham said.
While shots fired incidents were down with 328 cases in 2016 and 376 in 2015, Ballingham said SPD is seeing more rifles, which are more lethal and their shots travel further.
In December, police arrested a man at Seattle Central who was carrying a rifle in a guitar case. No one was harmed in the incident.
Currently, a small number of officers are trained to carry what police refer to as long guns, but because of the increase in incidents with rifles, the department plans to invest in more rifles and train additional officers.
Officers are only deployed with long firearms to dangerous situations. The circumstances for when the weapons are carried are “very strict,” Ballingham said, and the training for officers is “very rigorous.”
The long guns would not be carried at protests, Ballingham assured attendees.
Some residents expressed concerns about ensuring protests are treated fairly. Ballingham said SPD bases its deployment based on past events organized by the same groups and how the protest is being presented before it is held.
While Johnston doesn’t physically work out of the East Precinct, this past year she did more work on block watch groups and home security surveys in the East Precinct than the West. The new coordinator will work out of the East Precinct.
The East Precinct Advisory Council — or EastPAC — meets monthly. You can learn more at eastpac.org.
Thank you for the post. I am just wondering if there is typo in the following: “Residential burglaries are also down. There have been 152 in the past three months, compared to 145 last year.”
Good Move: I was the Crime Prevention Coordinator in the 1990 working and establishing block watch programs in the Yesler Terrace, Highpoint and Holly Park. Working with Sonja Richter , Denise Bolden (Cookie-now a detective), Seattle Housing Authority and the CSOS and we cleaned up The area. With a Crime Prevention Coordinator you get the community involve which in turn helps the officers.