SPD VIOLENT CRIME TRENDS — CAPITOL HILL: The Capitol Hill core has averaged about 29 violent crimes a month so far in 2025
SPD PROPERTY CRIME TRENDS — CAPITOL HILL: Property crimes like burglary and theft are a big problem. The area has averaged nearly 200 property crime reports per day in 2025 (Source: SPD Crime Dashboard)
Jen Carl
Since taking on the role of the new Capitol Hill Neighborhood Safety Coordinator with the GSBA chamber of commerce in February, Jen Carl has been conducting initial outreach with members of city departments, and taking a responsive approach by looking into safety issues the neighborhood is experiencing. But, her goal in this position is to uncover crime trends to build more proactive responses, and to strengthen relationships between the community and cops.
Carl is a Lesbian who grew up in Florida in the 1990s, having experienced bias. She went into the criminal legal field after the 2015 murder of Freddie Gray while in Baltimore police custody. She said the legal system is one of the most marginalizing systems in the U.S., and hopes to find ways to truly serve the neighborhood where it’s safe for the community and general public.
“Right now, it’s just a lot of data gathering: understanding where the gaps are in public safety, understanding that Capitol Hill is a very unique community,” Carl told CHS, who noted how Capitol Hill’s economy is driven by visitors and neighborhood-focused small businesses alike.
“Together, they create this wonderful [catalyst] of uniqueness, so understanding that unique vibrancy that Capitol Hill has and pairing that with the challenges that it’s seeing, and figuring out what the best strategies are to overcoming while maintaining the uniqueness.”
The new Capitol Hill Neighborhood Safety Coordinator comes as a response to growing concerns and impatience around street disorder and public drug use — especially in Pike/Pine and especially at the core area around Cal Anderson Park and Broadway and Pike.
It is a troubled area — Of the seven East Precinct homicides officially recorded by Seattle Police investigations in 2023, five covered murders that took place in a few block radius in the heart of Capitol Hill near Broadway, Pike, and Pine. In 2024, the area claimed two more lives. Many of those involved the loss of young, Black victims.
CHS reported here last month on the latest efforts by Mayor Bruce Harrell and Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess to respond to public safety concerns in the area including a push to deploy an anti-crime camera system pilot already being rolled around Aurora Ave N, the International District including Little Saigon, and the 3rd Ave corridor downtown and increasing the number of cops available in the precinct.
Other City Hall initiatives including one of its biggest haven’t made much of an impact. CHS reported here on the so far rarely used Capitol Hill Stay Out of Drug Area and the sole recipient of a banishment order for the zone. In the time since our report, the city says there has been a second.
Seattle’s CARE Department, meanwhile, has opened an East Precinct headquarters for its Community Crisis Responders headquarters on E Madison.
The GSBA’s Capitol Hill Neighborhood Safety Coordinator is also part of this response. District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth secured new spending for Capitol Hill public safety initiatives including $125,000 for the new community safety coordinator position with the GSBA beginning in 2025 and $150,000 to support a new street Ambassador Program in conjunction with the chamber group on Capitol Hill in 2026.
The coordinator job pays around $70,000 a year.
The NSC is responsible for working with Capitol Hill businesses and the community to build relationships, conduct outreach, and coordinate with key city departments and the neighborhood about safety issues in the area. The GSBA hired Carl, with her role being established in the city’s latest round of budgeting to tackle safety on Capitol Hill.
Carl’s top-of-mind concerns are the intersection of public safety and public health, like the fetanyl and homelessness crises. She said people experiencing these challenges generally commit crimes of survival—like stealing food because of hunger. She highlighted the Downtown Activation Team, and how unhoused community members have been displaced into Capitol Hill. She said the team is moving into Little Saigon, and she will find strategies to address the displacement of unhoused people ahead of time. At the same time, she said people are committing more violent crimes on Capitol Hill.
Carl hopes to learn more about the rates of gun violence among youth to understand why it is happening and how to combat it, which may include providing youth with greater resources and engagement within the community. While she has yet to conduct outreach with Capitol Hill students, she said she plans to and will work closely with SPD’s youth outreach coordinators.
“What we’re trying to do is really engage these youth in more after school activities,” Carl said, echoing remarks of D3 rep Hollingsworth.
When talking with businesses and the community, Carl said she’s heard much fear about the neglect of Capitol Hill, like street cleanliness, as well as concerns about federal happenings. Restorative conversations, she said, can work to heal the community and create a more holistic approach to address community safety issues. Another thing Carl has heard is that SPD isn’t responding to calls.
“Data shows it’s actually the opposite. I think it was in 74 days, the SPD East Precinct responded over 40 times to Pride Place in particular. They are responding. We know about the staff shortages around SPD,” Carl said, noting how the response times may not be within a caller’s desired time frame.
Carl encourages members of the community to report crimes to SPD, even if response times are so, so that the incident is documented. She is also fully accessible to the public and encourages people to reach her at [email protected].
Carl said she wants to be the bridge that builds a relationship between the police department and the neighborhood, particularly for the LGBTQ+ community. She said SPD’s LGBTQ+ Liason, Officer Dorian Korieo, hosts living room conversations where he visits a person’s house and holds conversations.
“We are looking at doing one of those in Capitol Hill,” she said. “The more we can do that and the more I can work with the East Precinct to set up community events…[it] allows SPD to really see and understand the community struggles—not just overall with public safety, but the struggles historically.”
Carl said she will fully go to bat for the Capitol Hill neighborhood as it pertains to safety.
“Now that I’m in this role, we’re going to start to see some changes. The needle’s going to be moving in the right direction—just hang in there,” Carl said. “I would love to say I’m going to make crime disappear, but I don’t necessarily think that’s reasonable. I would love to see the perception of safety go up. I want people to feel safer.”
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She wants people in the neighborhood to “feel safer”, but then she makes excuses for shoplifting criminals that they’re hungry. Can’t have both.
You can tell just by looking this person will have no effect on anything. Just another jobs program for gender studies majors.
Give her a chance, for god’s sake!
SPD is so worthless…we had someone trespass our property and SPD came to look for them. They forgot to look ins. Room and left with the intruder in our building. We had to call them back and tell them WE found the intruder. So lazy…anybody can be a cop.
They take their fitness tests at home. Fact.
That’d be why it looks like physical fitness is not a requirement.
I agree, there are still a handful of cops quiet quitting. But I have seen a change in the way they operate. For example.
Last month the cops were pulling people over here Broadway/Pike/Pine/Cal Anderson areas. That never happened before. They’d let people burn rubber. and race through here after the bars closed.
This doesn’t make sense. Maybe try again.
Lost me with “Carl’s top-of-mind concerns are the intersection of public safety and public health, like the fetanyl and homelessness crises. She said people experiencing these challenges generally commit crimes of survival—like stealing food because of hunger.”
Show me the data behind that assertion, given how much she’s “studying” and “learning” in this new position.
they love throwing in terms like “intersection”…
Stealing food because they are hungry: how do people say this with a straight face? I mean maybe if they don’t live here they can swallow the lie, but if they walk around daily? How?
Pretty unfortunate that our neighborhood safety coordinator is an extension of the chamber of commerce. Safety for what and whom exactly? Why is there always a layer of private interests between the city and the people?
You caught it too.
“The NSC is responsible for working with Capitol Hill businesses and the community to build relationships,”
This is a business FIRST program. Says so in the first sentence.
The next is “to build relationships, conduct outreach,”
That means creating a labor army free of charge in support of business wants and needs. Always with the fig leaf “for the citizens/people” tossed into every sentence as a preemptive attack against businesses law and order MAGA lite agenda. Their “savior” Bruce hath bent-eth thy knee-eth already to the mad king. Now we got a MAGA lite running for office who uses a crystal that speaks to various dimensions for support.
““What we’re trying to do is really engage these youth in more after school activities,” Carl said, echoing remarks of D3 rep Hollingsworth.”
Fund education? We had tons of stuff to do after school. We had the Ballard Boys Club and parks etc.
Today? It’s all been defunded. Everything is gutted. They want to privatise the hours after school. Privatise all public schools as well. There’s no wood shop or metal shop. We can’t fund a councilor or nurse full time. Fund it, and they will come. Talking does nothing and that’s all we do. Unless? It’s cutting wages for the minimum wage labor force and stealing Jumpstart money from them as well for ‘business first” agenda items. We always take action where business is concerned.
“builds a relationship between the police department and the neighborhood, particularly for the LGBTQ+ community.”
Good luck…They have almost no accountability. No real scrutiny and can not police themselves. Nobody is a ‘bridge’ on this issue. I think we’ve heard the speech before several times whenever a new chief is installed etc. It gets old. Prolly shoulda studied past peoples speeches. Theirs maybe a new Sherriff in town. But the new boss is same as the old boss in the ‘words’ dept. Same exact platitudes. The placate comes next.
““Now that I’m in this role, we’re going to start to see some changes. The needle’s going to be moving in the right direction—just hang in there,””
First, we the people, are the change. Things are getting better. That is a result of reprioritizing what we have to be most effective. Not much quiet quitting going on either.
Yup…Shoo them away from our little alleyway to a neighborhood near you. Not exactly solving much really. We are doing businesses bidding. If it was for us who live here? They’d have done something long ago. It’s not like we didn’t try that’s for sure.
But letting criminals have a street takeover led to a murder? They think it’s funny we are up all night? THAT is OUR law enforcement? I bet if businesses were open they’d have stopped it instantly. But it all happened after closing so the cops did nothing in spite of how many 100’s of calls? 100’s!!! They got the dash cam evidence they needed for the excuse to do nothing. When in fact? They could have done their jobs. And didn’t.
I gotta wonder about what’s really happening. Besides salivating for the World cup to arrive.
It looks like a well thought out, clever plan to mobilise everything and everyone towards businesses first and we as residents are an afterthought. Unless it’s for free labor. Then it’s on the menu.
Simply moving people to another area is not solving anything. So disappointing to see this going down. A lot of talk about businesses and LGBTQ. Not much for us who do not fit into those categories.
I don’t fault her, she seems genuine and eager, albeit a bit naive. At this point were hearing more of what the GSBA has tasked her with than anything she has planned. It’s a really helpful view into how stagnant and performative their “solutions” are. Can we stop giving businesses and their orgs our tax dollars for this stuff?!
Me either…She’s eager to try. I applaud her for stepping up. But it gets old hearing the same things. Many hypocritical.
Imagine a Hill without small biz. Now reconsider everything you wrote.
Imagine it w/o people?
Your extremist views are why America is what it is today. Privatise everything and disparage govt..
There’s so much free food available in this city… no one with an iota of motivation to actually care for themselves needs to steal food. People do it because it is far easier than actually seeking out the free stuff and there’s no consequences…
I don’t want a neighborhood that “feels safe”. This is code word for the leftist gaslighting that everything is fine and people are irrationally afraid because they are brainwashed by rightwing media. Bullshit. Seattle is unraveling and has been for the last 10 years because of failed leadership and policies that allowed crime and disorder to fester without treating the root cause, which is drug addiction (not a lack of affordable housing”.
I want a neighborhood that IS safe where the crime and violence created by roving drug addicts and gangs fighting over the lucrative drug market is finally shut down by cops that are walking the beat and are empowered to enforce law and order. The problem in Seattle is not that the drug addict homeless are “marginalized”. Rather it is that we have centered them, and as a result let them dominate and destroy public spaces and public safety in the core of the city. I am so tired of hearing that people steal because of “hunger”. They are stealing because they have come here for drugs and there are no consequences for actions because of far left ideology. Speaking of which, what the f*ck is a “restorative conversation”? It sounds like the discredited Nikita Oliver crap that got us into this mess.
It is so disheartening, but not a surprise, that a position that was intended to help address the safety needs of the community and prevent another 12th and Jackson/3rd and Pike situation was filled with a far left activist. More magical thinking and performative bs is only going to make the problem worse.
All I’m hearing here is more of the same old, tired war-on-drugs philosophy that spent 40 years making things worse.
Things actually were getting better steadily from the 90s until they suddenly reversed everything in 2020 and ruined the city.