Faced with a spike in shootings headed into summer and pushed forward by the attention brought by the murder of a pregnant business owner on a Belltown street, the Seattle Police Department is moving officers from across the city into a new task force hoped to quell gun violence in four areas of the city: downtown, Aurora Ave, South Seattle, and the Central District.

“I want the people of Seattle to know that we’re committed to taking action,” Chief Adrian Diaz said in his announcement of the effort. “I’m marshaling the efforts of every bureau across our department to include our regional and federal partners because violence isn’t only just in Seattle but events outside of Seattle can and do affect us. This task force will stem the tide of gun violence, which we know only increases over the summer months.”

The announcement comes in the wake of outrage over the murder of 34-year-old Eina Kwon and her unborn child and comes as gun violence has again flared in areas including the Central District in a surge that has carried on from the pandemic. CHS reported here on Diaz’s efforts to address concerns around a series of shootings near Garfield High School in May and June with added patrols while the school district has also added extras security around the 23rd Ave campus.

In the announcement, Diaz emphasized the addition of federal resources to the task force. In the past, SPD’s efforts to target gun violence around the Central District have included federal partners like the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the ATF Regional Gun Crime Task Force who have provided everything from surveillance and intelligence to assistance in arrests and standoffs.

In 2015, federal agents confirmed they had secretly installed surveillance cameras above 23rd Ave “to support an ongoing federal criminal investigation” as part of the Puget Sound Regional Crime Gun Task Force.

The efforts also have included seizing illegal firearms. Five years ago, SPD said it recovered 1,408 firearms with federal assistance. This year, SPD says 629 firearms have already been “taken into custody,” the highest total for the first five months of the year, exceeding 2018’s totals of 621 guns.

SPD has said the city’s Extreme Risk Protection Order program has also helped it take firearms out of the hands of people in crisis.

While the Kwon murder has focused attention on the surge in shootings and homicides, there have been nearly 30 killings on Seattle streets already in 2023. Included in the totals is the shooting that took the lives of brothers Terrance and Raylando Wilford at Cal Anderson Park in late April and the Capitol Hill road rage killing of Elijah Lewis earlier that month.

The area around Nagle Place and Cal Anderson was not included in Diaz’s task force announcement despite complaints from a community group and businesses that the area is a “drug market” that draws violence to the park.

For the Central District, past task forces have targeted gangs and family disputes over sometimes personal vendettas.

Diaz says the new task force will include around 50 officers and will mean fewer officers and slower response times for low priority calls.

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