Posted on 09/12/2022 6:07:57 PM PDT by george76
As the city of Seattle experiences historically high crime, its police department continues to dwindle and recruitment efforts continue to fail. One former King County Sheriff puts it bluntly: “we’re screwed.”
The Seattle Police Department (SPD) lost six officers in August, according to a police source, bringing the year’s total separations to 122 and nearly 500 since the city council opted to defund the police department in 2020. What’s more alarming is the 350 officers that will be eligible for retirement at the end of the year. If even a fraction leaves the department, Seattle may not have a fully functioning police department.
Union leadership warns the city is on the verge of an unimaginable public safety crisis.
Rantz: King County refuses to jail dangerous suspects, still blames COVID..
A depleted police department..
Seattle saw 11 homicides in August, the single deadliest month since 2008, according to SPD records. And the police chief warns the city may reach a 25-year-high homicide rate by the end of the year.
To Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) president officer Mike Solan, the crime surge is a result of a depleted police department.
“There’s been a mass exodus of policing. The profession itself is almost on its last breath. And what happens is that criminals fill the void when there’s no law enforcement,” Solan warned on the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “And when you connect to funding, and then you connect the reform laws that were just absolutely catastrophic to our communities, This is the sad result. And who ends up paying the price? Our communities.”
Before the start of the department’s mass exodus in 2019, which was hastened in 2020, city leaders hoped for between 1,500 and 1,600 officers. Now, the city revised its numbers down to 1,400. But as of August 28, the SPD only had 877 deployable officers, according to SPOG.
“These are catastrophic losses,” Solan says.
Solan warns that he’s most “fearful of the 350 that are eligible to retire” and that “we’re very close” to a decimated SPD.
“We can’t even absorb another 20, 25. I mean, we’re already at or below minimum safe status levels every patrol shift. People are getting burned out with just augmenting for patrol watches, because there’s just so much work out there. And they’ve worked so much. They’re tired. And then they have all these special events, the stadiums, sporting events, concerts, just trying to contain the crowds, traffic, all this stuff. We’re trying to work through and manage post defunding. And it’s very difficult, but it’s going to take strong leadership on both sides to get something accomplished to protect the city from a complete disaster.”
Unfortunately, however, recruitment efforts are not yet delivering results.
SPD recruitment efforts are not working..
According to an internal document obtained by the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH, the SPD has only recruited or re-hired 41 officers to date. SPOG projects that number will be 60 by the end of the year. Solan doesn’t know how the department will recover at this pace.
“We can barely get any recruits. It’s just, I don’t know. I don’t want to send a defeatist. I always try to be an optimist. But it’s not looking good,” he said.
Solan argues it will take a decade to get the department to the staffing it needs to police a city the size of Seattle. Other law enforcement experts contacted by the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH concur.
“It’s going to take at least a decade, at a minimum, to get to the level of 1400 to 1500 people at a minimum,” Solan warns. “And that doesn’t bode well for the current officers that are here, in terms of having a safe environment to work in. And then I think, more importantly, it’s the community that we serve professionally on a daily basis. This crime surge is here, and it’s real, and it’s only going to get worse.”
The SPD is not the only department struggling with staffing
‘We’re screwed’..
The King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) is not fully staffed.
A spokesperson with the office confirmed it experienced 74 separations so far this year, leaving the department with just 634 deployable staff. It has 113 open deputy spots that are not being filled fast enough.
Former sheriff John Urqhart saw these problems coming.
“We’re screwed. How long do you think it’s going to take to hire the 500 officers that SPD wants when they can barely hire five a month?” Urqhart said to the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “The sheriff’s office is down by 115. How long is it going to take to get them back up to some sort of decent staffing? You know, I hate to be pessimistic, but this is not going to go away. This is not going to go away.”
...
‘I don’t know how the city moves forward’..
Seattle officers are currently working without a contract. While a fair contract won’t completely fix the staffing crisis, it’ll help keep more officers from separating.
“You know, we would like to settle something sooner rather than later because time is of the essence,” Solan says.
Solan says that SPOG leadership is meeting with Mayor Bruce Harrell’s team “more often than not,” which gives him hope. He says there’s no other option than to negotiate a new contract.
“[Signing a contract] would be retaining your current people, which would then entice laterals or new recruits to come in because you have a fair wage that was up to today’s standards. The other option is, don’t have anything and you lose… it would decimate this department. And I don’t know how the city moves forward.”
If they would just wake up and finally elect some democrats, they can finally raise taxes to hire more social workers
They voted for it. Maybe Pantiesinawadfa will do tne job for free.
the morons there voted for it.
Enjoy!
You get the government you voted for.
“Good and hard”
The problem is that the smart people flee .... and only the morons remain.
It’s self correcting only in that Seattle and other blue cities will eventually be a shadow of their former selves (like Detroit).
Seattle is in the west...
so...
it’s going to be like the good old times of the...
wild, wild, west.
They get the government that they elected
Who could have possibly predicted this?
When police can't or won't do their jobs because they've been defunded, vigilantes and the angry mob will step in and do their jobs for them, for free.
Of course, then you'll get the criminal justice system that you pay for.
Looking forward to some great videos on Twitter.
Clearly they need to enact much stricter gun control. And raise taxes.
It’s not high crime ..so much as they are transitioning to a “democracy”
They need more men,dressed as women,to roll around on the floor,and have tickle fights, with 5 and 6 y/o,too.
Maybe Seattle will become the first federalized local police department. Portland will follow. That’s where it seems to be heading.
Criminals do not realize that law enforcement are there to protect them just as much as anyone else. Once that protection is removed, then street justice will be the norm. They will not like what comes after the police are all “defunded” and have moved out of Seattle to more welcoming and law abiding states.
The Liberals run Census taking in the U.S. too so trying to figure out what is happening with Seattle’s population is impossible. Some say it’s going up and some say it’s going down.
I personally see no change coming down the road. The town is chock full of communists and they are determined create chaos and maintain their power.
😎
People who don't vote for Democrats are a threat to democracy.
That sounds about as true as a passenger on the Titanic as they are knee deep in ice water, "This has the potential to be bad."
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