The start of that clip shows someone riding a motorized go-cart along the waterfront path at Lincoln Park. It’s one of two clips sent by Steve, who says it happened last night, and that he reported it to police, but …
I was very angry about this: The police never showed for the hour I was there waiting after reporting this incident. What’s the point in reporting and “partnering” if the police don’t show?
The walk along the Lincoln Park beach was teeming with pedestrians at sunset last night, which was when I first called 911. Who else would you call when the law is being broken and people’s health is at risk?
First call was at 9:13 p.m.
Second call: 9:52 p.m.
I left park at 10:15 p.m.In all fairness I checked the WS blog, of course, to see if there might be competing crimes in the neighborhood that would compromise manpower, or if something really big was going on elsewhere in real time. I could find nothing being reported at the above times.
This has happened twice now at different times when I have called the police to come to Lincoln Park.
They don’t show, or if they do it’s long after the fact.Are there staffing issues? Locally? City wide? Cutbacks after a busy July 4th holiday laden with no doubt overtime? Inaction raises questions. That’s all.
Or is my concern so silly it shouldn’t be taken seriously? After all, it’s just a go cart flying without lights through the night. It IS silly.
Does anyone know how many officers actually staff and cover West Seattle on any given night?
How many units typically patrol the west of 35th Sector between Frontenac and Brace Point (W3)?I’m sure it’s sufficient given our crime index. But it’s peak party season in the Park and this is when accidents happen.
To the point of “competing crimes” – there is no way to check in real time what else is happening. If it’s something major, yes, we report on it here on WSB, in real time (like the Alki gunfire incident last Friday night). But there are many “life safety” – the police’s priority – crimes that don’t get to that point. The police “incident response” map shows calls (not all – for example, we have been told by SPD media relations, sexual-assault calls will not be shown) starting about six hours after the fact; you can browse this map right now and see some of what was happening yesterday and last night. (Image added 8:43 am – calls from yesterday afternoon/last night – note that the SW Precinct handles South Park as well as WS)
According to the Seattle Parks Code of Conduct, driving a motorized vehicle on a path like this is a rule violation (see 3.2.22). It is also listed as a violation in the Seattle Municipal Code. We will ask police for a response to this, and add whatever we find out.
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