SEATTLE — Recently several high-profile crimes, including the shooting death of an innocent pregnant woman, have driven calls for change among residents of Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood.
Tuesday evening’s safety forum was organized by the nonprofit Belltown United.
“I cannot hear what can’t be done. You’ve got to tell me what can be done to change the condition on our streets now,” said Tom Graff, board chair of Belltown United. Graff is also a resident and business owner in the neighborhood.
Residents and businesses report open-air drug use, petty theft and murders. Specifically the very public killing of 34-year-old Eina Kwon, a 34-year-old pregnant woman who was shot and killed in her car in broad daylight.
“I need change right now. Eina Kwon’s family deserves it, we deserve it because we live and work here every day,” Graff continued.
The city pointing to change – specifically efforts such as the newly established Community Violence Task Force and the mayor’s new Fentanyl Systems Work Group.
“The Seattle Police Department is in a staffing crisis right now. We are short hundreds of police officers,” said panelist Capt. Steve Strand.
Strand has served the Seattle Police Department for 32 years and says limited resources are going to Belltown.
“We’ve really concentrated on putting officers out on the street in patrol working on our response times and being able to deal with the violence we’re seeing on the streets,” Strand said.
Many answers are hard to come by as issues are in flux as some efforts appear to be on pause all together. Both specifically stopping illegal graffiti and open-air drug use are two issues the city is waiting on further guidance before enforcing – residents fear they’re left dealing with the consequences.
Councilmember Andrew Lewis says he expects city legislation will mirror the state's recently passed drug use in public law and says he expects more information in coming weeks, but could not say when he expects the legislation to pass.
“We are on a good trajectory on the whole as a city but we need to take stock of the fact that we need to be deploying our resources more effectively,” Lewis said. “Obviously the biggest thing that we’re facing is the crime in every neighborhood and Belltown in particular has had a recent spate of horrific crime against the community."