SEATTLE — On Tuesday, the Seattle City Council held its first Public Safety Committee meeting under the newly elected council.
“All of them ran under a public safety platform, which is huge for us and I think it's huge for our officers,” said Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz.
The heads of the city’s fire department, CARE department and police department updated the council committee on their challenges and goals.
The council committee laid out six things they want to focus on to help improve the “permissive environment” that has been created in Seattle when it comes to crime: Police staffing, legal tools, closing unsecured vacant buildings, graffiti remediation, public health and collaboration with the county and state.
Seattle Police data shows that police staffing decreased again in 2023, reaching the lowest level in at least seven years.
“We've got to be able to figure out how we raise that staffing. It's really going to be important,” said Chief Diaz.
Chief Diaz said the department recovered a record-high number of guns last year but also saw a record number of homicides.
The city also saw an increase in the number of shootings where injuries and deaths occurred. One happened outside the A4 Apple Learning Center in the Central District. The daycare had a window shattered by a stray bullet after a man was shot outside the building. No kids were hurt.
“Oh, man. I've been seeing so much gun violence and my personal opinion is the youth, they need resources,” said Appellonia Washington, one of the owners of the day care.
She said that following the shooting, the city did step up to engage more with the Central District to work on public safety matters, but she says more can still be done.
“My hope is that everyone can walk around freely, don't have to watch their back, don't have to duck down, but we can enjoy our communities in peace,” said Washington.
The city's fire chief said vacant buildings are a major public safety issue. His department responded to over 100 vacant building fires in 2023, resulting in three deaths. The chief said problematic buildings need to be demolished sooner.
“When the building's been accessed multiple times and there's been multiple responses from fire and police, we know where that's going. Eventually, there is going to be a significant fire in that structure,” said Seattle Fire Department Chief Harold Scoggins.
When it comes to drug overdoses, the Seattle Fire Department responded to more than 5,000 in 2023. That's compared to just over 3,000 the year before.
“We need the landscape to change a little bit. We need to have treatment centers where if someone does decide to make that decision and they want to change their life, we should have someplace to take them,” said Chief Scoggins.