Restorative Justice is a Vital Component of Livable Urbanism
Last week I wrote about Pooja Vaddadi’s race to oust incumbent Judge Adam Eisenberg from the Seattle Municipal Court. Vaddadi contrasts her competence and...
Seattle Officials Tout Safety, Mental Health Interventions for New School Year
City and school officials promise a tangible change in safety and student supports when the new school year begins. But they're delivering fewer mental health investments than student groups requested.
SDCI Delivers Vacant Building Monitoring Report
A year after the city adopted new vacant building maintenance and demolition laws, the city council received a monitoring report and briefing on the...
Council Rejects Pedersen’s Push for SPD Hiring and Retention Bonuses
The Seattle Police Department (SPD) has a $15 million budget surplus resulting from a high rate of officer attrition over the past two years....
OPA Confirms SPD Orchestrated Proud Boys in the CHOP Hoax, Recommends No Punishment
A Seattle Office of Police Accountability (OPA) report released last week belatedly confirmed what Spekulation and some other activists said happened in the summer...
Seattle Police Contract Passes Despite Limited Accountability Measures, Budget Hit
With a 24% raise and backpay, Seattle police officers are collectively earning an extra $96 million in compensation from the City in 2024. City leaders hope to spur hiring, but the contract did little to increase police accountability and blew a bigger hole in the City's quarter-billion-dollar budget deficit.
Op-Ed: Those Maimed by ‘Less Lethal’ Weapons Oppose Re-arming Police with Them
The Seattle City Council is set to vote Tuesday to formally re-authorize use of "less lethal" crowd control weapons, like the blast balls that seriously injured folks like me in the summer of 2020. It sends exactly the wrong message around police accountability and reform.
Washington Legislature Rolls Out Wide Array of Public Safety Bills
The Washington State Legislature is considering a large array of public safety bills, from subsidizing police officer pay to tighter gun control to addressing the state’s public defense crisis. Here's a look at those bills.