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August 14, 2008 National Night Out: Stimulated by the recent National Night Out, I wanted to share some thoughts and observations on that event, on crime in general and crime and public safety here in Seattle. Each year on National Night Out, I have had the great honor to travel throughout Seattle’s neighborhoods, along with the Executive Staff and Captains, to visit various venues participating in the event. Night Out in 2008 here in Seattle had over 1,000 registered neighborhood events - a record number – of all sizes and in every section of the city. 2008 marked the first year I did not participate in the local festivities for Night Out. This is because Mayor Nickels asked me to attend a special meeting in Philadelphia sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The purpose of the meeting was to set an agenda around crime in our cities to be presented to and addressed by the presidential candidates. With economic conditions and the war in Iraq consuming most of the attention in the campaign, crime issues are not being addressed and the Mayors want to make sure that the public safety of our communities is not forgotten. Since the meeting spanned the date of National Night Out, I had the chance to attend the event in Philadelphia with Mayor Michael Nutter and Police Commissioner Chuck Ramsey. I was able to spend about 2.5 hours walking in downtown Philadelphia, along Chestnut, Market, and Walnut streets and through Rittenhouse Square, before the evening’s events. Here are some of my impressions. When we drove in from the airport and exited the expressway, there was an individual with a cardboard sign asking for money. He was not standing on the side of the roadway; he was in between two lanes of traffic standing on the white line. During my walk I came across a wide array of people, tourists, shoppers, and business people, as one finds here in Seattle. I also saw folks who appeared homeless, or suffering from mental health problems or substance abuse. They were sometimes sitting on sidewalks or on newspaper racks asking for money; again, not much of a departure from our experience here. I also saw two police officers on a corner. The early evening started out on a sad note because of a tragedy in the park located adjacent to City Hall. Two homeless women began to fight and one of them died after being stabbed. As we went from neighborhood to neighborhood I had the chance to talk to residents. They clearly recognized and understood the importance of neighbors knowing and caring for each other. Regardless of where I was, these residents were proud of their community and they expressed support for the Mayor and the police. Again I thought of Seattle. I routinely hear similar expressions of support and gratitude from community members here about SPD. To hear such comments in Philadelphia may seem surprising, since, as many of you may know, that city has difficult crime problems. So far this year, there have been 188 murders in Philadelphia, but that is down significantly from the same period last year when there were 250 murders. When I was asked about crime in Seattle I was proud of our low crime rate but I was very careful in talking about it. Every life lost to violent crime, whether in Philadelphia or Seattle is a tragic loss. Looking at individual losses, particularly of youth, is a reminder that we must all be committed to preventing these kinds of crimes. In Philadelphia I was struck by the courage and commitment of the residents to work with their police department to make the community safer, and appreciative of the same type of community support we can count on here in Seattle. I also gained some perspective on media coverage of crime and public safety issues from two mayors involved in the Conference of Mayors meeting. One mayor told me that in his experience every media outlet believes that the only crime that exists is in their city. The other mayor told me that when he tried to encourage local media outlets to report crime in the context of other cities and of longer-term trends, he had been criticized for being “in denial” and refusing to accept responsibility for crime in his own community. These observations reminded me what researchers have found consistently and what my own observations and walkabouts throughout Seattle tell me: community members are neither particularly impressed by, nor highly focused on, crime statistics. In 2007 Seattle experienced the lowest rate of crime in 40 years. The fact that violent crime is down here by 12% for the first four months of 2008 and that Seattle is one of the safest big cities in the country, are not the things that concern residents the most. What does concern people are lower level crimes such as vagrancy, drug-dealing, and public alcohol consumption that gnaw at and work to erode the community’s sense of safety over time. As Professor Wes Skogan has written for the National Research Council, it is “disorder . . .[that] may loom larger in any given neighborhood than a concern for serious violence.” The one sure thing about policing disorder is that if someone proposes a solution to the problem, at least five others will rise to proclaim it to be wrong. For example, a frequent comment is that the police should be more visible and that would take care of the problem. I have never been in a community or neighborhood in any city that did not want an officer driving by or on the corner. But as we all know, that does not and cannot exist anywhere. So what is the answer to this complex and multi-faceted problem of policing disorder? Based upon a review of the policing and crime control research done in the last four decades, the National Research Council concluded that problem-oriented policing offers the most effective approach as compared to all other strategies. Particularly effective about this strategy is its intensive (and often narrow) focus in specific crime areas and its emphasis on listening to and working with community members. And that, I am pleased to say, is the way policing is done in Seattle. Moreover, the Neighborhood Policing Project, which both the Mayor and City Council have supported, and to which the Department is now transitioning, will serve to sharpen our focus within neighborhoods and enhance our capacity to work with individual communities. For example, when it comes to visibility the department currently has more officers than at any other time (over 1,300), our recruiting is above our goals, and we are putting those officers out in our neighborhoods as quickly as possible. Our approach to crime and the community is somewhat analogous to Steven Flynn’s assessment of the true lesson to be learned from the events of 9/11. Flynn suggests that the most important lesson to be drawn from that fateful day was not the planes going into the Pentagon and the World Trade Centers, but rather the dynamics behind the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. On that plane a group of ordinary, but informed citizens - told by cell phone that the plane was being used as weapon - took the necessary and courageous action to protect others. We are not asking Seattle residents to enter a dangerous situation, that is why you have the police, but we do believe that the most effective approach for addressing chronic disorder as well as new challenges, is through open communication and working together in partnership. For the problems we confront, there is typically no single answer, or combination of strategies and tactics, that will result in a panacea. But a clear-eyed and responsible look at the problems and an overwhelming commitment to reduce and eliminate them, are far more effective than a shrill voice or newspaper headline. So, I return again to the National Night Out. We hold this event each year, but perhaps we fail to grasp its significance for us and for the community we serve. It is a symbol, I think, that the public remains willing and eager to support our efforts and take steps to enhance public safety; and that we, for our part, stand ready to listen, engage and serve. Thank you for your time. If you wish to comment, I can be contacted at the following webform: https://www.seattle.gov/police/contact_form.htm #### |
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