UPDATE: Police response at California/Charlestown

ORIGINAL SATURDAY REPORT: Another multi-hour “person in crisis” situation just concluded at California/Charlestown. We belatedly saw a reader note about a large police response there in the 7 am hour, didn’t hear anything further and thought we’d missed it – until we happened onto it while out on errands after noon. An ambulance was just pulling up; we pulled over and inquired. Police had been there five-plus hours trying to talk someone out of a car, they told us, and had just convinced him to come out. No other details; they were wrapping up the scene.

ADDED MONDAY: SPD’s preliminary summary report on this incident says police originally responded to this situation at 5:17 am, after a report that someone was threatening self-harm and refusing to leave. Police were there for a while and then left after the person, who was alone in an apartment, refused to come out. This was repeated multiple times over the ensuing hours – they got a call, returned, left. Finally, the person called and said they wanted to go to a hospital, so an ambulance was called and the person was transported for mental-health evaluation.

Thomas A Wood January 23, 2022 (6:52 am)

Two days in a row SPD has had to use their limited resources dealing with someone in mental crisis. The Council said they don’t want the police dealing with these cases.They told us of these crisis teams .That would come in place of police to handle the crisis. Where are these teams?Were waiting !

StopCuttingDownTrees January 23, 2022 (1:36 pm)

SPD has to respond to these situations because people in crisis are DANGEROUS. They are desperate enough to do anything and often have weapons, like the knife-wielding Mr Clemens at Target. Many times they threaten to hurt/kill themselves and anyone else around them. Police are equipped with restraining equipment like tasers, zip ties, chemical irritants, handcuffs, submission hold training, etc, that saves lives. Social workers can only watch in horror if a subject decides to hurt themselves or someone else.
- WestyisBesty January 23, 2022 (9:51 pm)
  
  No you are mistaken. The wise and benevolent Seattle City Counsel cut the SPDs funding so they could establish a peaceful group of socially woke bureaucrats that would lead us from the horrors of the ‘systematically racist’ cops to a new Utopian future in which we would have an elite group of social workers that were going to fix all the drug problems and cure the mentally ill. And its working! Everything is getting so much better! All hail the Hypnotoad!
  - WS Res January 24, 2022 (2:39 pm)
    
    The Triage One program doesn’t even exist yet.https://publicola.com/2021/07/23/public-safety-agencies-announce-plan-for-new-911-triage-team/

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