Despite mayor’s efforts, Seattle police force is shrinking
By: David Kroman, crosscut.com
There’s a whiteboard hanging in the Seattle Police Department’s evidence unit on north Beacon Hill, where officers go to drop off crime-scene items they’ve collected. In the upper right hand corner of the board, someone has written “resignations since 1/1/18” with a tally beneath it. At last check, it was up to 90.
For an unscientific calculation, the whiteboard’s 2018 count was almost perfect: 92 fully trained officers left the department last year, according to a report sent to the Seattle City Council in late January. On top of that, 17 Seattle recruits left either the state police academy or field training prematurely — a combined total of 109 departures in 2018. That’s 30 more than left in 2017 and 42 more than in 2016.
Meanwhile, SPD added just 68 new officers last year to replace them, meaning the entire department shrunk by 41 people.
Full story: https://crosscut.com/2019/02/despite-mayors-efforts-seattle-police-force-shrinking
