By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The Seattle Police Department may only have hired one more officer last year than it lost, but as 2025 opens, the Southwest Precinct has two new officers.

That was part of what emerged at tonight’s Fauntleroy Community Association board meeting, a hybrid meeting facilitated by Mike Dey, in his final meeting as FCA president, with more than 15 people filling the Fauntleroy Schoolhouse conference room, and several more attending online.

POLICE AND CRIME: The local precinct was represented by crime-prevention coordinator Jennifer Satterwhite, attending online. She heard first from an attendee who said he was “assaulted yesterday in my home.” The attacker was an old friend of a family member, and the attack was unprovoked. His biggest concern was that police did not respond for five and a half hours. Once they arrived, he said, he told them who the attacker was, and where he lives. But no arrest yet, that he knows of. How do police pursue something like that? Satterwhite looked into the system, once the man gave her the incident number, and noted the case has been assigned to the City Attorney’s Office and to SPD’s follow-up unit. But, she cautioned, “I can’t necessarily speak to what the detectives will do.” Can police indeed arrest someone for something like this? another attendee asked. Yes, said Satterwhite, though she warned she had no information on why an arrest hadn’t been made. She said she could have an officer follow up. As for the long response time, two possible factors – the dispatcher asked if the attacker was still there and if he had had a weapon (both answers were “no”); Satterwhite said the former was a likely reason the call was given a lower priority. The victim clarified that he had told the calltaker he thought the attacker was gone but might be in the bushes.

After that discussion, Satterwhite had a crime-stats update for Fauntleroy – for 2024, the area “ended exactly even compared to 2023” – exact same number of incidents. Among specific crime categories, motor-vehicle theft was down 34 percent (17 fewer incidents) – burglary was down 4 percent (1 less burglary) – aggravated assault the same (9 incidents for the year) – 1 less rape – Do the stats include 35th/Barton? asked an attendee. The west side, Satterwhite replied. Can the east side be included too? The designation is a city policy, outside SPD control, Satterwhite suggested. Others suggested they should be considered together, as what’s happening in Westwood affects what happens in Fauntleroy. She said police look at “repeat call locations” around the precinct too. In Westwood, for example, crime last year was down 2 percent from the year before (which itself was a “historically high” year) – burglary was up 26 percent, robbery was even, auto theft was down 30 percent (90 fewer incidents).

Satterwhite also brought numbers on incidents of confirmed gunfire (which, as we often remind you, means there was a victim, property damage, and/or casings found): In the entire precinct, 97 incidents last year, up from 92 in 2023, though that was down from “historically high” 2022, which saw 121.

Asked about the slight increase in police hiring over police departing, Satterwhite noted that outgoing interim Chief Sue Rahr has negotiated with the state training academy (she was closely involved in training oversight in a previous role) to have up to 12 Seattle Police recruits in each academy class (every two weeks) – the previous limit was five. She added that the Southwest Precinct got two new officers recently, one female, both joining the shift that had the most vacancies, evening (third watch). How’s the morale? asked Dey. “Honestly, I think it’s much better,” Satterwhite replied, saying that followed a few “tough” years. “I think we’re at a point where those who are unhappy have left. … I think we’ve turned a corner.”

Other major items of business:

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