5 ms·

According to the article you've cited the SPD budget was 401, 363, and 355 for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022 respectively. That seems like three years of succ

According to the article you've cited the SPD budget was 401, 363, and 355 for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022 respectively. That seems like three years of successive cuts to me. Your article mentions that the council says "there are no cuts functionally for SPD". So, on the one hand, we have the steadily declining raw number, and, on the other hand, we have the preferred phrasing of some politicians. To me, the number seems more significant.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago
Again, the number arises based on how many police the SPD was able to hire and their realistic hiring targets for 2022 (that they could still fail to meet). If the council allowed for more incentives with the money they aren’t spending on people they haven’t been able to hire (the real gist of this bill), then they could probably hire more. That they’ve been losing people for three years is the problem.
- ALittleLight 5y ago
  It's possible that what you're saying is true, but that doesn't change the basic facts from my original comment. Members of the Seattle City Council espouse the "Defund the police" idea and they are acting on it - to wit, they have decreased the SPD budget at least three years in a row. They have caused the dissolution of the Navigation team and caused a recent police chief to resign by cutting her salary. I suspect a contributing reason to SPD losing and not being able to recruit people is the openly hostile attitude of city leadership towards law enforcement. Ineffective criminal justice in the city likely contributes as well.
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    First, when it was proposed to eliminate some of the open head count for the police, it was soundly defeated by a SCC vote. They aren’t going to defund the police so explicitly, even if their support has a lacking. Second, if you haven’t noticed, everyone is having trouble hiring right now. The negative vibes for the job are definitely significant, but this is also part of a more broad labor shortage.
    - ALittleLight 5y ago
      Seattle City Council members explicitly defunded the police by reducing the funding of the police for three years in a row. Some Seattle City Council members explicitly advocate for things like "Defund the police" - e.g. Kshama Sawant. https://twitter.com/search?q=defund%20(from%3Acmkshama)&src=typed_query https://twitter.com/search?q=defund%20(from%3Acmkshama)&src=...
      - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
        I wouldn't trust anything Sawant says, she has issues.
  - swearwolf 5y ago
    I don’t know if this is true in Seattle, but in Portland we’re having a huge problem hiring police officers despite having the budget to do it. The reason is the police culture. It’s well known that our police force tolerates a lot of bad behavior, including open racism, and nobody wants to work there because of it. It also doesn’t help that because of that behavior, lots of people in the city hate the police.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

Again, the number arises based on how many police the SPD was able to hire and their realistic hiring targets for 2022 (that they could still fail to meet). If the council allowed for more incentives with the money they aren’t spending on people they haven’t been able to hire (the real gist of this bill), then they could probably hire more. That they’ve been losing people for three years is the problem.

ALittleLight 5y ago
It's possible that what you're saying is true, but that doesn't change the basic facts from my original comment. Members of the Seattle City Council espouse the "Defund the police" idea and they are acting on it - to wit, they have decreased the SPD budget at least three years in a row. They have caused the dissolution of the Navigation team and caused a recent police chief to resign by cutting her salary. I suspect a contributing reason to SPD losing and not being able to recruit people is the openly hostile attitude of city leadership towards law enforcement. Ineffective criminal justice in the city likely contributes as well.
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  First, when it was proposed to eliminate some of the open head count for the police, it was soundly defeated by a SCC vote. They aren’t going to defund the police so explicitly, even if their support has a lacking. Second, if you haven’t noticed, everyone is having trouble hiring right now. The negative vibes for the job are definitely significant, but this is also part of a more broad labor shortage.
  - ALittleLight 5y ago
    Seattle City Council members explicitly defunded the police by reducing the funding of the police for three years in a row. Some Seattle City Council members explicitly advocate for things like "Defund the police" - e.g. Kshama Sawant. https://twitter.com/search?q=defund%20(from%3Acmkshama)&src=typed_query https://twitter.com/search?q=defund%20(from%3Acmkshama)&src=...
    - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
      I wouldn't trust anything Sawant says, she has issues.
- swearwolf 5y ago
  I don’t know if this is true in Seattle, but in Portland we’re having a huge problem hiring police officers despite having the budget to do it. The reason is the police culture. It’s well known that our police force tolerates a lot of bad behavior, including open racism, and nobody wants to work there because of it. It also doesn’t help that because of that behavior, lots of people in the city hate the police.