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Downtown safety at core of Durkan’s 2020 ‘State of the City’ address

The major focus of Mayor Jenny Durkan’s third annual State of the City address delivered Tuesday? Safety in the city’s downtown neighborhoods.

“As Chief (Carmen) Best and the city continues to increase public safety downtown and everywhere in our city, we also have to be willing to try new things,” Durkan said. “Today, I can announce that as part of our comprehensive approach to public safety, we are investing in a new community response program. While the police investigate a scene, and police and fire keep people safe and arrest offenders, we will also have a new parallel community response. This new program will dispatch trained, trusted community members to respond immediately after a shooting, to hospitals, to neighborhoods, or hot-spots.”

Durkan said the goal of the new effort will be “to calm tensions, support families and survivors, and stop these situations from escalating into retaliation or further acts of violence.”

Durkan’s announcement follows the deadly downtown shootout in January that left one dead and seven injured.

Durkan Tuesday outlined a roster of efforts to address concerns about violence and disorder on the streets of the city’s core:

  • Ongoing presence for the downtown mobile precinct, including a permanent parking spot at 3rd and Pine. Additional emphasis patrols and the mobile precinct have already led to significantly lower 911 call volumes;   
  • New SPD Mental Health Professionals in every precinct, including a focus downtown;  
  • New SPD operations to address trafficking of drugs, guns and stolen goods;  
  • Creation of a community response program to dispatch trained, trusted community members and former gang members to gang violence and deescalate situations, preventing gang retaliation, which can put many additional residents, including bystanders at risk; and 
  • Hiring of six new Community Service Officers and deployment of Community Service Officer program in every part of the City, which includes a focus on downtown.   

The mayor also announced a plan to expand the Health One pilot program in the city. The new Seattle Fire team for homelessness, substance abuse, and mental health issues hit the streets of downtown and Capitol Hill late last year. Durkan said this summer SFD will deploy an additional Health One unit “to triage non-urgent medical requests and ensure members of the community get immediate access to health care and social services.”

You can watch video of the speech and read the complete transcript of Durkan’s 2020 State of the City address here.

 

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The Ghost of Capitol Hill
The Ghost of Capitol Hill
4 years ago

Cash Rental Assistance Now! There is no housing shortage and cops DO NOT keep people safe. We need to get Cash Money into the hands of the poor so they too can be served by the market! VOTE OUT DURKAN AND END THE SWEEPS!

Adam
Adam
4 years ago

How about actually locking criminals up, Jenny?

The perpetrators of the mass shooting downtown had each been arrested dozens of times, and each had multiple previous convictions. It shouldn’t be all that surprising that letting armed, convicted felons roam around downtown wouldn’t have a good end.

Thom
Thom
4 years ago

“we will also have a new parallel community response. This new program will dispatch trained, trusted community members to respond immediately after a shooting, to hospitals, to neighborhoods, or hot-spots.”

People are getting paid to do this? I never knew being a “trusted community member” was something that came with a paycheck.