After several violent incidents in South Seattle, Seattle Police are partnering with South Precinct residents to make community members’ presence felt and let criminals know they’re not wanted in the neighborhood.
“We’re taking back our community,” says South Precinct Crime Prevention Council Chair Pat Murakami. “We want [the neighborhood] to take ownership to the fact that there’s a problem down here.”
In December, Murakami began working with South Precinct Lieutenant John Hayes to organize neighborhood walks, where South Seattle residents could document graffiti, broken windows, litter, overgrown bushes and “places where somebody could hide and jump you,” Murakami says.
Those dead streetlights and overgrown bushes also make it tough on officers while they’re out on patrol, says Lt. Hayes, who regularly attends the South Precinct walks with community members. “We found so many street lights that were out,” he says. “If everything’s dark and the trees are overgrown, officers can’t see” if there’s trouble afoot in alleyways or darkened parking lots.
So far, Murakami says the walks have been a success. “It may only be a temporary respite, but crime has gone down in areas that have the walks,” she says.
In response to South Precincts’ residents concerns, SPD has also assigned Community Police Team officers to foot patrols in business districts in South Seattle, and deployed SWAT, Anti-Crime Teams, and bike patrol officers to focus on violence prevention in the South Precinct.