For the second time in a week, Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best were in West Seattle this afternoon. They chose Delridge Community Center as the location for a wide-ranging budget announcement involving everything from police retention to human services. Above, our video; the event was followed by two news releases published on the city website. This one is about plans to improve police retention/hiring (based on recommendations in this report), this one is about money to be spent on “new investments in community safety and building opportunity for young people (to) focus on alternatives to arrest and incarceration at every step of the system, from interactions with law enforcement, to diversion programs before a court filing, to reentry assistance after involvement in the criminal legal system.”

So why make these announcements in West Seattle (as you can hear in our video, we asked the chief what’s in the plans for the Southwest Precinct, and the reply was not ultra-specific)? Some community members were invited to be there in support, including Lora Radford from the West Seattle Junction Association, which has launched the city’s first Business Block Watch.

Meantime, the chief and mayor are continuing their budget-announcement tour tomorrow, when they’ll be joined by Fire Chief Harold Scoggins at Fire Station 2 downtown.