Harrell at last week’s mayoral public safety forum (Image: City of Seattle)

With reporting by Hannah Saunders

A flurry of community meetings are adding to efforts to address a spate of gun violence that left a student injured and a woman killed in separate Central District shootings last week.

Tuesday night, District 3 representative on the Seattle City Council Joy Hollingsworth will hold her first community safety meeting with constituents since the shootings in a session at Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central College.

Hollingsworth stepped forward to take the microphone at a public safety forum held by Mayor Bruce Harrell that had been organized before the shootings but ended up being dominated by the issues related to gun violence in the city.

“When we can’t keep our kids safe, it’s a failure on us as adults and I really take that very seriously being in this role,” Hollingsworth said at Harrell’s forum last week. “Any time a child is hurt—especially at school—I take that very personally.”

SPD Chief Adrian Diaz told the audience at last Thursday night’s public safety forum that he expects “resolution soon” in the Wednesday afternoon shootout between two vehicles that sent a 17-year-old Garfield student caught in the crossfire to the hospital with serious injuries to her leg.

Diaz said prospects are more dim for bringing justice in the shooting that followed hours later and only blocks away that left a woman in her 30s dead on the sidewalk at 23rd and Main. SPD has asked anyone with information to call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at (206) 233-5000.

The gun violence and killing came as Harrell was launching a series of public safety forums amid efforts to increase hiring and secure a new contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild union.

Thursday night, Harrell said he hopes to pilot ShotSpotter, an acoustic gun location system, into select parts of Seattle, and while he acknowledged its controversy, the mayor said better results will not be achieved unless SPD tries something new. Officers currently rely on 911 complaints from residents to locate gunshots, Harrell said.

“I demand the police department give me data on where there are gunshots in the city. They know I’m bullish—I want good data,” said Harrell, who promised he would not use the technology to surveil Black or Brown communities.

Part of the response to gun violence is upping SPD’s staffing levels. Harrell wants the city to have 1,400 officers but said those levels are under 1,000. The mayor hopes to keep SPD motivated in their work and to swiftly secure the new contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

“The fact of the matter is we just lost an incredible amount of officers and I say this is the opportunity to rebuild the dream department,” Harrell said.“People quitting is going down significantly…I want to say like 30 to 40 percent improvement on attrition rates.”

Diaz said SPD is setting high standards for the department. Prior to the George Floyd protests in 2020, officer-involved shootings were averaging at six to seven per year.

“Right now and overall, we run about 400,000 to 500,000 calls for service, and right now we’re about 1.25 to 1.4% that result in some level of police force,” Diaz said. “So officers are going out and de-escalating situations at the highest rate.”

Hollingsworth’s Tuesday meeting fits into a smaller but important effort as the first-time councilmember campaigned on a platform that included a focus on public safety and increased police spending and resources — especially in underserved areas of the city. Tuesday’s meeting at Seattle Central is a part of a series held by Hollingsworth around the district that have included officials from the mayor’s off and SPD to hear feedback and concerns from neighborhoods across the district. A recent session a few weeks back on the North Capitol Hill area included debate over a plan for a “Technology Assisted Crime Prevention Pilot” that would include deploying cameras and acoustic gunshot location technologies in hot spot areas of the city.

Tuesday’s session at Seattle Central will likely include follow-up to the Central District shootings as well as discussions about ongoing nightlife gun violence on Capitol Hill including this shooting outside the Garage earlier this month that injured three people.

Meanwhile, residents and community members around Garfield are also continuing to organize. Monday night will bring a Garfield Community Safety Meeting organized by the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct Advisory Council to be held at Byrd Barr Place. The school’s PTSA board also will hold its regular meeting Tuesday night that will include a discussion of school safety issues and the response from school and district leadership, police, and city officials.

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