Police and Public Safety

On Wednesday, Seattle Council’s public safety committee advanced Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposal to contract with the South Correctional Facility (SCORE) jail to house a limited number of people accused of simple misdemeanors, such as criminal trespass and shoplifting. The proposal comes with logistical challenge and its share of critics.

SPD’s refusal to offload low-priority calls is undermining its ability to solve serious crimes. Over recent decades, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) has increasingly handled...

As the Presiding Judge of Seattle’s Therapeutic Courts for the past four years, I have seen lives destroyed by the lack of a comprehensive...

On Wednesday evening, Philando Castile's life ended in his car as he bled out from five bullet wounds still buckled in his seat following...

On Monday, Erika Evans was sworn in as the first Black Seattle City Attorney, following a resounding victory over Republican incumbent Ann Davison. The Seattle police guild was already on the attack, seeking to brand her as soft on crime.

Downgraded from a full audit and long delayed, the Office of Inspector General’s six-page mutual aid review did not assess if outside police forces patrolling the streets of Seattle would be required to follow SPD bias policies, be held to SPD force review policies, and be accountable for their actions through the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) complaint process. 

Mayor Harrell may have come around on the Youth Violence Prevention Initiative he helped defund during his time on Seattle City Council. In 2020, guns...

Mayor Bruce Harrell has proposed a 0.1% sales tax hike for public safety investments, including doubling the size of the civilian CARE department. However, CARE’s future rests on cooperation from the Seattle Police Officers Guild, which has sought to limit the fledgling agency in the past.