Council News Release

Council President Nick Licata
Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck

COUNCIL PASSES STRATEGIC PUBLIC SAFETY PLAN
Steinbrueck and Licata praise police staffing plan and performance measures

SEATTLE- The Council, today, unanimously passed two pieces of legislation that will create a strategic plan to establish as a matter of policy the goal of increasing the number of Seattle’s police officers and establishing new performance measures for the Seattle Police Department. Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck said, “This legislation is a multi-prong strategy for better, more visible police enforcement. It is about public accountability and the Council responding to Seattleites’ demand for greater police presence.” Council President Nick Licata said, “As Seattle grows, our policing must become smarter and more efficient. These measures will not only put more police on the streets, but it will serve to increase police effectiveness.”

The first resolution passed today by the Full Council, the Neighborhood Policing Staffing Plan, set forth a plan for adding 105 officers between 2008 and 2012 to the City’s police force. The legislation establishes new patrol officers’ work shifts in order to make officers available when they are most needed. It also redraws patrol beats in order to improve the workload balance among beats and allow more flexibility in deployment.

The second resolution passed today established performance measures for the Seattle Police Department that will be the subject of annual reports to the Council. There are nine major dimensions of the performance measures including reducing crime, increasing traffic safety, providing good customer service, holding offenders accountable, using authority and force fairly and only as reasonably necessary, and strengthening emergency prevention and response.

Council President Licata said, “Only by combining more police resources and performance measures for public safety can we achieve our goal: a Seattle that feels, and is in fact, safer for its residents.” Councilmember Steinbrueck said, “These two measures are linked-if we don’t have ways to measure police performance we cannot tell whether adding more officers has been effective.”

-30-

City Council