$400,000 more violence-prevention patrolling for Seattle Police citywide

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

1:53 PM: At City Hall, Mayor McGinn just announced $400,000 will be added to the Seattle Police budget for violence-prevention patrols in trouble spots citywide. Obviously downtown is in the spotlight right now as one of those spots, but he stressed they’ll use data from around the city to decide where else to spend the money. It’ll largely go toward overtime for officers on the force now – Interim Chief Jim Pugel says that’s about 180 hours a month – though 30 more hires are in the SPD pipeline for the next year. The mayor is still answering questions at a live briefing right now; we’ll add the full announcement when it’s available.

2:11 PM: The mayor’s briefing is over. It was noted by at least one reporter in attendance that this came several hours after City Council President Sally Clark and Councilmembers Bruce Harrell and Tim Burgess – present and past chairs of the Public Safety (etc.) Committee – published an item on the Council Connection website in essence challenging the mayor to do more.

5:53 PM: We promised we’d add the announcement when the news release turned up – here it is.

smokeycretin9 August 15, 2013 (3:03 pm)

I was sure some more bike lanes would have fixed the problem.

chuck and sally's van man August 15, 2013 (3:20 pm)

Too bad it takes election year politics to get this dead duck mayor to do what he should have been doing all along. Don’t like the other guy much better, but McSchwinn’s gotta go.

alki slide August 15, 2013 (3:45 pm)

Nickelsville got more money than this..lol

Diane August 15, 2013 (4:06 pm)

and, it’s front page Seattle Times today, with huge story about downtown crime
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it’s ridiculous that this is what it finally took for the Mayor to take some action

WSB August 15, 2013 (4:08 pm)

Well, as you know from Facebook, they didn’t even break the story. But the councilpeople in their post have an interesting point. One I try to remember … you can’t just throw statistics back at people. Even ONE crime can be too much. And if one crime happens to you, suddenly your stat is 100 percent. Etc.

Diane August 15, 2013 (4:09 pm)

and yes, Nickelsville got more money to move them out of their camp; this is a start; MUCH more is needed

sophista-tiki August 15, 2013 (4:09 pm)

Does “violence prevention” mean more cameras spying on our every move? probably wont do much for the amount of theft that happens every day.

Diane August 15, 2013 (4:29 pm)

I was thrilled to see photo on Seattle Times frontpage of 3rd & Pike (my bus stop that I’ve been talking about for over a year, and pleading with the Mayor, City Council, Police, to get cops down there); and in fact, it’s one of the questions I asked the Mayor at the Coffee Chat just before the primary
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it looked to me like city council and every news outlet blasted the story all over fb all at the same time this morning; thank god; great job; and I hope they all keep at it, and not settle for this $400k pittance
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I think most people care way more about professional, factual, meaningful coverage than who broke the story
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oth, it was very frustrating that the Mayor’s briefing this afternoon was not available to watch live on any local tv news channels; many of us don’t have access to live internet feed; so thanks for letting us know what happened

alki slide August 15, 2013 (4:31 pm)

Mr. Mayor, you can’t put lipstick on a pig.

Jk August 15, 2013 (4:57 pm)

Only took McGinn 4 years to make this happen. . I wonder if he noticed it’s an election year.

justme August 15, 2013 (5:02 pm)

Good news!

West Seattle Hipster August 15, 2013 (5:13 pm)

I agree with the other comments, it is a good start, but there is much more to be done.

First order of business for SPD is to reclaim Westlake Park from the folks who have taken it over: https://www.facebook.com/westlakeparkdrugdealers?ref=br_tf

I was certain that the mayor would have done something after a fellow cyclist was assaulted at Westlake Park: http://www.komonews.com/news/crime/Cyclist-viciously-beaten-by-group-of-skateboarders-while-riding-downtown-212377511.html

However, beefing up the police force is pointless if the courts continue to set criminals free……

michael August 15, 2013 (5:55 pm)

It takes an election year for everyone, including the voters, to wake up to the real issues. Decisions can be made with your votes. Out with McGinn. What a lame a..!

Pro Mafia August 15, 2013 (6:41 pm)

I for one am in favor of other means of taking care of the plauge of crime and scumbags which one finds in the city of Seattle now. We are a cutting edge streamline city we need a streamlined tough underworld cartel of sorts to straighten this out. Unfortunate that it most likely with never be.

Mitch August 15, 2013 (6:43 pm)

It’s curious to continually read on this blog about lenient courts and liberal judges setting criminals free. The reality is that the US has the highest percentage of it’s population behind bars than any country in the world, far more than Russia or China, for example. And given all the hand wringing I also see here about increasing and rampant crime it seems like the idea of locking up more and more people may not actually be the best strategy.

Genesee Hill August 15, 2013 (7:11 pm)

I hope they hire a trucking company to start and finish the job of removing the filthy riff-raff from Seattle.

I hope Nickelsville is one of the trucking company’s first stops.

Load ’em up. Move ’em out.

Rachel August 15, 2013 (10:27 pm)

Smokeycretin9- I’m laughing so hard right now!

Kayleigh August 16, 2013 (10:07 am)

I’m laughing because Seattle loves to hate its mayors—as if everything wrong with this city is obviously the mayor’s fault. First everyone hated Nickels, now McGinn. I’m sure people will hate the next one, and the one after that…
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Maybe the problem isn’t the mayor. Ya think? Maybe?