What Seattle Police do — and what citizens think about it

WSB reader Patrick e-mailed that photo today with this eyewitness report: “Yesterday about 6 police cars pulled up at Chief Sealth when students were let out; they questioned 2 students for about 15 minutes, looked in the bushes where they were questioned, and let them leave.” We don’t have information on what that was about — but it reminds us, you might not have heard about the survey released just before City Hall shut down for the 4-day holiday weekend: It’s the “biennial survey of attitudes toward police” in the Neighborhood Policing and Crime Survey Report. Here’s the page where you can find a link to the complete report as well as various summaries. We browsed it to look for West Seattle specifics; not many of those to be had, but we were quite interested in page 13 of the report, where traffic offenses and graffiti/vandalism — both discussed extensively, repeatedly, here at WSB — were identified as the crime problems noticed most frequently by citizens. On a related topic, WSB reader LyndaB passed along word that everyone is invited to the Police Chief’s Citywide Advisory Council meeting on December 11th (6:30 pm, West Precinct, which is actually downtown) to get details on the Neighborhood Policing Staffing Plan that the police department will start implementing in January.

Stucco November 22, 2007 (3:21 pm)

It takes six cop cars worth of cops to ask 2 high schoolers questions? I’m less concerned about graffiti (although it is a problem) than idiots with pellet guns shooting cyclists or the removal of crosswalks/I-35.

Dirk McGurk November 22, 2007 (3:34 pm)

Students at that HS carry guns. That is why the police had a show of force.

Cy November 22, 2007 (5:31 pm)

Possibly the pellet gun shooter was at the high school?

I’ve only had great experiences with SPD, whenever I’ve had to deal with them here in West Seattle.

GenHillOne November 22, 2007 (6:27 pm)

Dirk, just curious why you single out “that” high school. Do you have stats to share that makes CS out to be that much worse than other Seattle schools?

Joe November 22, 2007 (6:53 pm)

@ Cy… You must be white.

Radley November 22, 2007 (9:10 pm)

Ok Dirk, sterotype much?

Let’s see, when was the last time that Seattle high school students committed a major crime …. oh wait, that would be the Roosevelt High School students who planned the murder of a classmate.

Please don’t spread false representations when you clearly don’t know anything about “that” school and “those” kids who go there.

The House November 22, 2007 (9:57 pm)

Radley, although I’m sure there are lots of HS students all over the U.S. that carry guns to school and have no idea why the police arrived on the scene for this event, I would tell you that I’m positive that Chief Sealth would have a higher percentage of students that have committed a crime (major or minor) than some other Seattle area schools.

Oh, and don’t go crazy about sterotypes. I hate to tell you that there generally lots of facts to back up stereotypes.

Alvis November 22, 2007 (10:45 pm)

Call me crazy, but I’d wager that all but two or three schools in Seattle have a higher percentage of students that have committed a crime (major or minor) than “some” other Seattle area schools.

Radley November 22, 2007 (11:11 pm)

House, if you are so positive, please produce some data to back up your claims. There is no need to defame a nieghborhood school on the upswing.

grr November 22, 2007 (11:23 pm)

all I know is that I’ve spent a few evenings doing a ‘citizen ride-along’ with a bud of mine who is a 15 year SPD veteran. It was the most eye opening experience I’ve ever had. I don’t know how he does it, nor how he keeps his sanity.

I’ve never seen humans so such a lack of respect for someone TRYING TO HELP them in my life. Simply stunning. White/black/asian..it simply didn’t matter. And I simply don’t understand the mentality of ‘arguing with the people with badges and guns’. If a cop tells you to DO SOMETHING, you should do it. Argue later when the situation is calmer.

and…do a Google search for ‘Chris Rock Police’. Pretty damn funny, and, well…

Kayleigh November 23, 2007 (6:27 am)

Still waiting for statistics, reports, etc. that show that Chief Sealth students carry guns more often or are more often perpetrators of crime.

chas redmond November 23, 2007 (4:29 pm)

Here’s a link to the year-to-date crime stats for census tracts in Seattle “http://www.seattle.gov/police/crime/stats/pur170/200701y.htm”

It looks like census tract 115 includes Chief Sealth HS and the total crime numbers to date for ’07 are 27 crimes. It also looks like census tract 33 includes Ballard HS and the total crime numbers to date for ’07 are 23 crimes. Most frequent crime for tract 115 was residential burglary and auto theft; most frequent crime for tract 33 was theft followed by auto theft. Looks like West Seattle HS is in census tract 98 and total crime for that sector is 34 with the dual dominant crimes being residential burglary and theft. So, in terms of crime per school census tract, it looks like Chief Sealth’s sector is twice as safe as the area around West Seattle High or Ballard High. These are all assumptions, though, since we don’t know the age or school affiliation of those caught doing criminal deeds in these three census tracts.

CO Transplant in WS November 23, 2007 (6:19 pm)

Joe seems to be suggesting that skin color affects how the SPD treats people. Requesting backup to support assertions is always valid…How about some of that here?

Stucco seems to know more about police allocation than the police do. Please tell us how the SPD should have handled the referenced situation.

What’s that? I can’t hear you. Oh yes, it’s the silence from otherwise loud people who cannot support their positions.

Stucco November 24, 2007 (11:18 pm)

Sorry CO Transplant. I’d need five more of me to answer your brilliant challenge.

westseattleite November 26, 2007 (9:24 am)

Somebody hit my parked car the night before Thanksgiving and took off. I was very impressed with how quickly the police responded and they called us later to let us know they found the person that did it.

Sorry, comment time is over.