The race for Seattle City Attorney is turning into one of the more interesting races to watch after yesterday’s primary. The importance of this position cannot be overstated. The city attorney is responsible for ensuring that criminals are prosecuted. As KOMO News put it, “concerns about crime, safety and repeat offenders are a driving force...
“These people need to get down to business and clean up the mess in this city.” That’s what Joe Howard, a financial trader living in Seattle, has to say to local political candidates. “I understand you want to open up society, you want a fair and equitable society, but just being airheaded about things behind...
The global pandemic was a gut punch to our rapidly growing regional economy, with the greatest costs of the slowdown landing on the backs of low-income workers and communities of color. This coincided with a rapid spike in violent crime, vandalism, and people in crisis. We are recovering, but in order to get the economy...
ANALYSIS OF SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL PROPOSAL TO EXCUSE AND DISMISS MOST MISDEMEANOR CRIMES By Scott Lindsay – attorney; Seattle resident; former public safety advisor and special assistant for police reform to the City of Seattle; former senior counsel to House Oversight Committee Democrats. On Wednesday, October 21, Councilmember Lisa Herbold, chairperson of the Seattle City...
In an email to his constituents last week, Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss wanted to “address the homelessness in district 6.” Strauss said that action was needed to get homeless people out of parks, libraries, and bus stops and into adequate shelter. One of the best tools for this, Strauss wrote, was the Navigation Team....
The Seattle Times’s Dominic Gates reported that arrests and property damage in downtown Seattle are impacting SPD’s ability to respond to other crimes happening in the city and the overall public safety of the community. Following demonstrations over the weekend, interim SPD Chief Adrian Diaz pleaded to members of the community for the violence and...
A Superior Court Judge ruled that there was enough evidence to move forward with the recall petition against Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant. According to a King 5 News report, the judge ruled that four allegations made against Sawant can proceed. These are serious allegations ranging from misusing public resources to doxing Mayor Durkin. Sawant...
Black Lives Matter of Seattle King County (BLMSKC) is taking the fight to the Seattle City Council. According a report from MyNorthwest.com the group sent a letter to the Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC) calling for an immediate, transparent and aggressive investigation into the actions and conduct of the city council. The letter asks SEEC...
In a press conference, interfaith leaders from Seattle’s communities of color demanded that the City Council work to repair the damage it inflicted through its mistreatment of SPD Chief Carmen Best, the first African American woman to serve in that role. According to a report in the Post Millennial, Rev. Leslie Blackwell urged Chief Best...
Seattle Times reporters David Gutman and Mike Carter wrote about the mounting backlash the City Council is facing over its actions to defund the police, with no plan in place to maintain public safety. According to Gutman and Carter’s report, former SPD Chief Kathleen O’Toole says the city is headed for trouble and urged council...
Pierce County law enforcement authorities have taken an innovative approach to handling repeat criminal offenders. These “high priority offenders” are only a portion of criminals, but account for a large percentage of the overall crime in Pierce County. As KOMO reports, Pierce County police have mined data in reports and case filings to zero in...
One year after a report commissioned by Seattle business leaders profiling ‘prolific’ criminal offenders who commit a “substantial portion” of the crime in the city, it appears that little has changed. According to the Downtown Seattle Association, 93 of the original 100 offenders profiled in last year’s report have cycled back in to jail. Collectively,...
According to a new report by the Seattle city auditor, the city could be doing more to deal with the mounting problem of trash around homeless encampments. The auditor’s report emphasizes and recommends dealing with the problem in a proactive way. So far, the report argues, the city has been acting in a reactive way...
Seattle City Council recently passed a bill which would ban evictions in Seattle for three months during the winter. The ban is intended to prevent tenants from becoming homeless during cold months, but it may also have some unintended consequences. The moratorium on evictions will be in effect for three months of the year, December...