HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month. 

Source: Seattle City Council central staff report

Seattle Police 911 response times have reached new highs according to data presented Tuesday morning to the Seattle City Council’s public safety committee.

According to the report, the median response time for the highest priority 911 calls so far in 2022 in the East Precinct has clocked in at six and a half minutes. That is up from six minutes and five seconds in 2021, and just over four and half minutes in 2020.

“Average and Median Response Times up in nearly every precinct when compared with the last four years of data,” according to the city council analysis.

UPDATE: The data compares first quarter, partial-year 2022 totals with averages and medians for the first quarters in previous years.

The report, part of required quarterly assessments provided to the council, also shows the department is on pace to be over budget on overtime costs in 2022.

The numbers SPD officials say indicate an overtaxed, under resourced police force come as Seattle tangles with ongoing worries over staffing levels and recruitment for its hardest to fill city jobs including policing. It also comes amid the ongoing efforts to forge a new contract with the union representing more than 1,300 sworn SPD officers.

Seattle leaders have also continued efforts to fund resources and alternatives to policing as well as reduce spending on the department including downsizing SPD by moving parking enforcement officers out of the department. That maneuver hit a major bump this spring as interim Chief Adrian Diaz’s office failed to properly commission the officers after their move to the Seattle Department of Transportation.

You can view the full quarterly report here.

HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.