FOLLOWUP: Police hiring goes back to City Council committee Tuesday

| West Seattle news | West Seattle police | West Seattle politics

Two weeks ago, we reported on a discussion of Seattle Police‘s staffing/hiring struggles in the City Council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee, chaired by West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold. This Tuesday, the issue is back on the committee’s agenda, as are measures proposed by Herbold and by citywide Councilmember Sara Nelson. Herbold is proposing covering moving expenses for hires in SPD and some other city departments, while Nelson is proposing a resolution supporting hiring incentives such as bonuses. Both measures could be voted on at this meeting. Also on the agenda: An SPD report, as required by the council, on the department’s “efforts to identify a non‐sworn response for 911 call types that the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform categorized as appropriate for a civilian response.” The report notes that’s not so simple, as most calls turn out to be something other than what they were dispatched as, so SPD says it’s launched a project “to develop a risk assessment matrix to help determine which calls can be safely off‐loaded to an alternative response (though risk will never be completely eliminated).” This and the two councilmembers’ hiring-related proposals are on the agenda for the 9:30 am Tuesday (May 10th) meeting, which also explains how to watch/listen, and how to comment.

Mike May 9, 2022 (8:18 am)

Council fiddling continues.

Smoosh May 9, 2022 (9:01 am)

What do you think their job is if not to sort out how to run the city and it’s departments? Must you complain about having to breath air if it’s a little too cold? Would you rather we handed decisions off to an autocrat, technocrat, or automaton?
Don May 9, 2022 (10:03 am)

The default city council hate is all the doing of KOMO and powerful media outlets. So tired of people acting like they’re the villains in this. The cops are the ones who teargassed citizens!
- Thomas Wood May 9, 2022 (12:38 pm)
  
  I don’t need KOMO to dislike the City Council! They’ve failed at everything they touch. They continue to hide behind cameras ,instead of getting out and talking to people. Crime continues to surge and they want to sell us on this utopian force that doesn’t exist.
- anonyme May 9, 2022 (1:33 pm)
  
  Once in a great while, I turn to KOMO to look for evidence of these common assertions that KOMO is some kind of right-wing propaganda machine, but I must be missing something. All I ever see is another bland, rubber-stamped news & weather wasteland, just like KING & KIRO. They’re all virtually identical and barely qualify as journalism. So, to claim that any ‘hate’ movement is due to the overwhelming power of KOMO and their brainwashing affiliates is disingenuous at best. Unless, of course, you’re of the belief that your TV controls you and makes you do things. You know, it’s also possible that some people (like the ones that read and write) might be finding respected news sources and reading well-rounded, reasoned opinions from many other sources and *gasp* actually making up their own minds. The characterization of anyone who doesn’t fall into simplistic, liberal-leaning lockstep on every issue as a ‘KOMO watching’ stereotype can be just as easily dismissed.
MAS May 13, 2022 (8:28 am)

Nice Nero reference, and appropriate.

anonyme May 9, 2022 (9:38 am)

I think the frustration lies with the fact that this problem was created by the CC with their hypocrisy and animosity toward the SPD, forcing mass resignations (including Carmen Best) and now they are floundering in their attempts to re-write history and correct the massive amount of damage they have yet to be held accountable for. Their solutions, unsurprisingly, all involve more money from taxpayers to correct their (the CC) mistakes. And yes, I’d very much like to hear the opinion of an automaton. At least it would be objective and evidence-based.

WS Res May 9, 2022 (10:28 am)

Seattle police have proved themselves more than capable of earning plenty of animosity and antipathy themselves, with zero help.
- anonyme May 9, 2022 (1:02 pm)
  
  Not the issue. I absolutely agree that SOME (perhaps even many) police have proved
  themselves deserving of animosity. That’s not a reason to threaten to
  defund an entire department that is essential to the safety of the
  citizens of Seattle, leaving us with a decimated police force that the CC had promised to support and expand. Police reform is needed, but more political theatre will not get us there.

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