(Image: CHS)

After incidents across District 3 including a deadly shooting last week, gunfire in a fight at Garfield High School, and shots fired in a Broadway parking lot, the candidates to represent D3 on the Seattle City Council addressed the city’s gun violence and possible solutions in a candidate forum Wednesday night in the Leschi neighborhood. One of the candidates experienced the worry from the incident at Garfield only hours before the forum first hand:

“I’m a mom at Garfield, so I had the worst hour-and-a-half of my life this afternoon because I couldn’t get ahold of my kid,” candidate Alex Hudson said.

District 3 candidates Hudson and Joy Hollingsworth discussed public safety and gun violence in the Wednesday night Leschi Community Candidate Forum and explained their positions and proposals for making the district safer including alternatives to police.

“I’m a really big proponent of our community gun violence prevention programs,” Hollingsworth said, talking about Safe Passages, a non-arrest intervention program that provides guardianship in the neighborhood by adults from the community. “They deescalate a lot of the gun violence that’s going on in our community…we feel the heat of all the gun violence that’s ravaging our community.”

Hollingsworth said she believes partnering with additional community gun violence prevention programs and organizations would help stem gun violence.

Hollingsworth said she is also a proponent of returning Seattle Police to the city’s schools. “If schools want them, also community resource officers,” Hollingsworth said.

Hudson has said she would not support a return of police to the city’s schools.

Hudson’s platform calls for “on-demand health, housing, and social services to create root cause, lasting solutions,”  a “co-responder model of housing connectors, behavioral and mental health specialists, and social workers,” more spending on community violence prevention programs, and “a reformed and accountable police force.”

Hollingsworth, meanwhile, has led with public safety in her campaign and has said she believes SPD’s staffing needs to be fully restored. Her priorities include reducing 911 response times “for all priority calls,” addressing Fire, EMT, Police and CARE team staffing shortages, spending more on Health One funding and treatment resources for the Seattle Fire Department, expanding the community resource officer program. She has also said she will “prioritize police accountability, upholding high standards, and providing transparent oversight” but has not offered specific plans.

Both have said they would support increased funding for city “violence intervention” programs, and would oppose a new police officer contract that doesn’t grant the Office of Police Accountability and Office of Inspector General subpoena powers in conduct investigations.

Hollingsworth also does not support the move of parking enforcement out of SPD while Hudson is a proponent.

Seattle City Council District 3 Lightning Round 6/12 pic.twitter.com/qxbd9ueRLL

— Hacks & Wonks (@HacksWonks) September 28, 2023

Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz has continued to advocate for the return of officers to school campuses. In the summer of 2020, the Seattle School Board suspended a partnership with SPD that provided five armed officers at Seattle schools. The program — which cost the district about $120,000 a year — remains on hold. Earlier this year, district Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones formed a new “community action team” consisting of safety, civic leaders, and community action groups to evaluate data and assess the experiences at schools and surrounding communities. The team comprises SPS school leaders, Seattle Police Department, City of Seattle, and community groups and partners that provide enrichment opportunities before and after school. The district said it was also conducting a safety review of every campus including the school building management and capital improvement teams.

In addition to youth mentorship and collaborations, Hudson said the city needs to increase gun buyback programs. Alex cited both Health One and LEAD as being beneficial programs within the city. For police officers to focus on crime, she said the community needs to think more urgently about scaling up social workers, and counselors for those with substance use disorders.

Hudson said that over 40% of SPD calls are related to a medical or behavioral health issue, and that those are currently being pushed through 911. Hudson has said she would also work to cutback on SPD overtime costs and push for more “beat cops” on the streets.

Wednesday, Hollingsworth focused on the neighborhoods around Garfield, suggesting creating late-night activities to provide youth with something to do, in addition to increasing after-school programs. She said she would like to see more brick and mortar community centers in the area.

Social media plays a major role in youth gun violence, Hollingsworth said. She said sometimes youth engage with each other negatively, or have “beef,” on platforms such as TikTok.  “And then they literally go to that corner, that street, and they engage in some activity and someone gets shot,” Hollingsworth said.

Hudson added her positions based on research and evidence from other cities and focused many of her comments Wednesday night on gun violence work that’s been taking place elsewhere on the West Coast including a reduction in gun violence in Oakland, California.

“It is about opportunities for youth, and mentorship,” Hudson said, also agreeing with Hollingsworth on the need for community-based partnerships. “We need to be able to support these nonprofit organizations that are doing living-based work.”

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