Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess came to West Seattle today to promote his package of proposals to fight “street disorder.” He was one of three speakers during the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce‘s monthly lunch meeting – held this time at the Southwest Precinct. Before Burgess’s appearance, the 30-plus people in attendance heard from the precinct’s top two leaders: Its commander, Capt. Joe Kessler, and its operations lieutenant, Lt. Norm James. One big theme from Capt. Kessler, who’s about to mark his second anniversary as West Seattle’s top cop, and Lt. James: Report EVERY crime, no matter how small. They recounted cases in which officers recovered stolen property and wanted to return it to its owners – but the thefts had never been reported. (Be sure to have records of your valuable, and etching identifying info helps too.) He also noted a case of thefts from a business that each seemed tiny – and went unreported as a result – but eventually added up to something huge. Capt. Kessler also acknowledged that while there had been complaints in the past about callers getting brushed off when they called 911, leading people to question police advice about “call in ANYTHING suspicious,” the complaint level is down and service level is up.

Also up – police staffing; he discussed the citywide level, which is around 1,350 “and still hiring” – way up from a historic low of 1,000 some years back – and noted that while the SW Precinct has 13% of the city’s call load, it gets 14% of the staffing, because of some quirks caused by the fact the patrol area – West Seattle and South Park – is split into two “sectors” instead of three or more like other precincts. He noted that three members of the SW Precinct team are currently on military deployment overseas.

The “emphasis team for the business community,” two officers who spend most of their time in The Junction and environs, has been on that assignment for some months now, and Capt. Kessler said it’s going well – they often intervene or intercept trouble even before it’s officially reported. He says the third-watch team (which starts around 7 pm) will be increasing visibility for businesses that are open at night, such as restaurants and bars.

One such entrepreneur, Dave Montoure of West 5, commended precinct leadership for the new emphasis patrols and offered the observation that since the two officers had previously worked downtown, they recognized some Junction-area troublemakers as having come from downtown. That led Capt. Kessler to say police “strongly support” the new crackdown proposals by Councilmember Burgess, who picked up from there.

His five-point proposal – for which he says he thinks he has enough votes for council approval – is outlined here. He wanted to stress three of the points: First, the continuing incremental increase in police staffing citywide – this will be the third year of adding 21 officers per year. Burgess suggested the mayor might look there as a place for possible budget cuts.

Second – though he said this mostly would affect downtown – a return to fixed-beat foot patrols for police (he by the way is a former officer). That way, he said, police “get to know people and become a very positive presence.”

Third and last, he got to the component that “gets all the attention” – a crackdown on “aggressive solicitation.” He described this defensively right out of the gate – saying it does not ban panhandling, but it would keep panhandlers from following you, touching you, speaking abusively, etc. And he insisted it’s not a crackdown on homeless people: “The homeless are NOT the people causing the problems – it’s mostly people engaged in other criminal activity, street hustlers, drug traffickers …”

The city’s current “pedestrian interference” law, he said, is invoked only about 10 times a year, and he does not expect his proposal would be used often. In fact, he said, the city of Tacoma has an ordinance even tougher than his proposal for “aggressive panhandling,” and 2 1/2 years after its implementation, it’s never been used – he says its value has been entirely in deterrence.

He stressed that his fellow councilmembers and the mayor need to hear your thoughts on his proposal, and if you want to make maximum impact, write and send an old-fashioned postal-mail letter, he said: “We get so few!”

Asked where to find out even more about his proposals, he pointed to his website, timburgess.com, as well as to the council’s website (here’s his section).

The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s next meeting is its annual awards breakfast, 7:30 am April 7th at Salty’s on Alki – ticket information at wschamber.com.