An online Public Safety meeting on Tuesday, Oct 19 focused on White Center crime, fires and economic revitalization. The meeting was in part a response to a Move.org petition that was published on behalf of the White Center business community which has suffered in the wake of a series of fires, five since July 5, and crimes ranging from vandalism, to break-ins, to violent assaults

The full slide deck can be seen here.

The participant list was impressive and included King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins, King County Sheriff's Precinct Commander Joe Hodgson, Chief of Patrol Operations Jesse Anderson, North Highline Fire District Chief Mike Marrs, King County Permitting Director Jim Chan, Fire Marshal Chris Ricketts and several others. The meeting saw around 60 people including local business owners take part.

Executive Constantine was out of the blocks quick with a list of measures he's behind meant to address the situation. He said of the fires and ongoing economic impacts, "it is really in many ways unprecedented in a year and a half of unprecedented events, so I deeply appreciate how concerning this is for not just the affected businesses, which of course it is, but the broader community."

He first noted that he and King County Councilmember Joe McDermott as well as Director of Local Services John Taylor were on site July 5 the morning after the fire that destroyed the Lumberyard Bar and 7 other businesses on 16th SW. 

"From my own economic development staff in my office and from the department local services outreach staff, all of it to align possible support today. They've been successful in channeling $108,000 to fire effective businesses through the county's small business grant program and more broadly we've delivered approximately $1.3 million dollars in direct grant assistance to white center, through that grant program."

The measures include:

The County is just about to hire a Technical Assistance Director to help fire affected businesses and others in the district.

Request expanded over time for the County sheriff's office. The Executive will work with the county council, and with the sheriff's office to add funding to the mid biennial budget.

The County will launch a second round of small business grants providing access to grants up to $25,000

They will seek a disaster declaration for the affected businesses (already submitted). Such a declaration would make the businesses eligible for low interest loans of up to $2 million.

The County will provide enhanced code enforcement meaning that in the commercial district of White Center all businesses are brought into compliance. And they urge reports of those businesses not in compliance with fire and safety codes.

The Department of Local Services is creating a position to create an economic recovery plan for White Center who will work with key community groups. That plan will be developed by the community.

Chief of Patrol Operations for the Sheriff's office Jesse Anderson talked about the crime issues in the community and said, "Public Safety is more than just the sheriff's office, it's all of us it's other human services, its community members all engaging getting together to address problems so we're looking at developing some co risk models in downtown White Center ... and working with the fire department...  to better address some of the concerns that we're seeing down there."

Anderson spoke about addressing some of the mental health issues as well that might help prevent crime from happening in the first place.

Commander Hodgson confessed that he was still learning about the situation on the ground today in White Center. He served in the community in the late 90's but has since served elsewhere. "I am still kind of getting the feel of the ground underneath my feet and kind of learning what's going on here," he said.

He presented statistics on crime reports, based on the calls his deputies responded to from July August and September of 2020, compared to July August in September of 2021 in the core business district of White Center.

He noted that the alarming rise in aggravated assaults, meaning firearms assaults was the one crime that really increased dramatically but pointed out that this is not just a White Center issue but in fact a "a regional concern and frankly a national concern." 

He also mentioned an increase in vandalism in White Center since last year.

Commander Hodgson said that reporting crime is important regardless of the outcome. "There's a lot of crimes that occur there's very little evidence on, and we are limited on how we can respond.The issue and the benefit of those crimes being reported is that it makes us aware that something is actually going on and then a crime has occurred there." He said that reports help focus resource allocation and enforcement.

Like many other kinds of employment, even the Sheriff's office is facing challenges. "We don't have unlimited resources. Staffing right now is a bigger challenge for us. we have a number of people who are retiring and attracting people to this line of work has been become more of a challenge," he said.

A question came up regarding a break in last week at the Bizzarro Italian Cafe which is currently closed due to the fire next door. It's been the victim of a series of break ins in recent months. Two suspects forced their way in, using a pry bar but finding nothing left quickly. The incident was recorded on a security camera and the images shared on social media. 911 was called and while a response was made within a few minutes, no arrest was immediately possible. The images were seen by one of the suspects, who then approached the cafe owner, wanting to turn himself in. 911 was called, but despite the fact the suspect was willing to come forward, no police showed up. Texts were sent to Councilmember Joe McDermott who then called Commander Hodgson. Five hours after the suspect came forward, Deputies arrived. Commander Hodgson said, "When we were called, the deputy who first had this call was actually rerouted for a higher priority. Again with the staffing being what it is, crimes in progress are generally going to come against or come up, or get elevated above reports of past actions. I don't know what better way to put that."

Later, the second suspect was spotted in the community and again 911 was called. No police showed up. Coincidentally the Commander said, deputies were re-routed to a more serious matter. "There was not enough information for them to confirm probable cause at that time, they identified him, got photos of what he was dressed in and what he looked like and, and certainly some other members of the community have also gotten photos, which we've received, but all of that information has been compiled and there is an investigation into the original offense, which was taken by one deputy in the follow up in with the individual who turned himself in reported to us. And then the ultimate tracking down of the other suspect and identifying him. Currently that's being investigated by the detectives here at the precinct....they're still there still working through the video and trying to decide whether the video that's available gives us enough to go ahead and say yes this is the guy I think we are very close but I can't, you know I'm not i'm not the investigator and I haven't immersed myself in that so I hope that covers it."

Local business owner Aminta owner of the Salvadorean Bakery spoke in the meeting and said that many of the ethnic business owners are afraid to call the police. Shoplifters come and steal things and the business owner can do nothing to stop them. "These bums know the law more than we do, they know how to attack.... I'm very scared and very soon I'll be closing earlier and I will be losing business. I need to pay my bills and all the employees... please help us."

Arson Investigator Tim Devine for the King County Sheriff's office spoke about the fires. 

"We've actually had five fires in the White Center area since July, actually, before July we had the lumberyard, we had the locker room fire. We had the building next to the Gerber Collision Center. I can tell you this right now that the Lumberyard fire is currently under investigation and to keep the integrity of the case. I can't tell you a whole lot, other than we are actively pursuing all leads and anything that community can help us out with would be greatly appreciated. The Locker Room fire, the two fires we've had....Unfortunately, they weren't criminal in nature. They were generally reckless acts, and they're not for survival as crimes were obviously we're keeping up with that and managing and monitoring what's going on there.

And we based our information on the totality of the circumstances, and the very good surveillance videos that we received for 24 hours prior and after both fires occurred, which verified what we determined in the long run.

The fire at the abandoned building next to the barbershop, we believe was not an intentional act. It would involve some homeless people staying in there and some recklessness."

Lieutenant Dorothy Kim with the Seattle Police Department, was part of the meeting and talked about crime that takes place in the the South Delridge area just adjacent to White Center. She pointed out that Westwood Village is the 4th highest location in terms of crime reports in the City of Seattle. She noted that the police are aware of the public frustration with low level crimes but said, "The King County Jail doesn't take any misdemeanor crimes unless it's a domestic violence related or we get special permission. So a lot of times at that call, with no other information about it it's just you know, it's not going to result in an arrest because there's nowhere to take them."

She too shared some stats on crimes in South Delridge.

She pointed out that crime is up 15% which is indicative of the situation across the entire City of Seattle. But violent crime is up 109%. 

Mike Marrs, Fire Chief of the North Highline Fire Department, urged people to always call saying,"All fires start small." He concentrated primarily on fire prevention tips.

King County Permitting Director Jim Chan talked about helping to prevent fires by identifying potential code violations. 

"When there's an incident, a fire incident in any of these areas, what we do is we send out our subject matter experts our fire deputies are building inspectors, and we conduct a safety inspection. And we identify those buildings that are safe to enter for the business owner to remove valuables. And we tag those that are not, and we keep up with that information and share and support the property owners in obtaining the necessary engineering or studies or repairs in order to let them enter that building at some point later in the process. And for those that are impacted by fires and are required to obtain permits to do the repairs or to reconstruct, we do expedite those services for those for those applicants.

And we do that not only for fire related damages would do that for any natural disaster.

With storms and floods, we do expedite the services to try to get people and businesses back back working and into their homes as soon as possible. In terms of code enforcement or a complaint driven organization, mainly because of our limited capacity. So we count on the community to identify potential or alleged violations to call them in, report them, and then we investigate and our, our charge is to really work with those property owners who may inadvertently or didn't know that they weren't violating code, and then try to get them into compliance.

We will take compliance cases very seriously, especially life safety complaints, and we will work with the property aren't make sure they get compliance, as soon as possible."

Marcus Stubblefield, Criminal Justice Strategy and Policy Manager for the King County Executive spoke about how his office looks at public safety.

"Public safety is not just law enforcement, either all the upstream conditions that cause dysfunction or things that happen in community right, and so we have to look at all of those things in order to see how we impact those moving forward.

Our approach is to take a holistic approach, looking at the entire ecosystem, from community conditions to systemic responses, looking at it from the prevention, the intervention and the restoration phases of the work, focused upstream where needs are the greatest combining innovation, with best and promising practices, partnering with community.

And then aligning resources to maximize impact. And I think what you've heard today is just some of the things that go along with us being able to create these partnerships that allow us to have a better reach a better stronghold in a better response to the communities in crisis. And I think that's one of the main things there. So, a couple of efforts around the public safety is the that the executive mentioned that the transition of the King County Sheriff's Office that we're going through right now.

And what that means is that the sheriff currently is an elected position is going to go to an appointed position in all the services therefore are going to be transferred over and transition into the executive department, which is a whole body of work and so we're working through that to address all of those. We also have a regional approach to gun violence that I wanted to talk to and how that relates to this work is the homicides and the shots fired that city mentioned and the shootings that happened is there's a community based in driven response that's out there that has violence interrupters, case managers, outreach family support hospital based intervention that connects people that have been shot or have done shootings to resources and supports, or, the proper channels in doing that, to develop a regional approach. What we do know is that people don't see boundaries. We have created those boundaries and interactions that kind of dictate our response. And as you mentioned that Roxbury corridor is kind of one of those corridors where there's a different Seattle and King County jurisdiction line that we have to kind of work through.

We also have the Health Through Housing Program that I think a few of you may be aware of that was able to remove some of the unstable homeless folks that were next to the triangle right there, get them connected to housing support case management, developmental services and things like that that can plug them into making sure they're able to move in a different phase of their life. So all of those things are are kind of a collective part of our plan, as well as metros safe Work Safe having safe and accessible transportation for folks to do that. and in White Center you have what they call the LEAD model that is doing that health to housing kind of community based response, where there's outreach intervention and supports to support those folks that are unstable. I'll briefly mention some of the initiatives that I think tie into this, that, really have an impact that have some dedicated funding, and so things that will be tapping into leverage the mental illness and dependency fund which is called mid, and that's where we get one 10th of 1% of the sales tax that comes into the county is delivered to support behavioral health services and supports in community. 

We will also be tapping into the Best Starts for Kids Levy, which is a Department of Community Human Services levy that also helps us get some of those prevention services upstream and up front and community.veterans seniors and human services levy is also another levy that will be using some of those funds to support our work in various integrated ways.

Rashid Ibrahim who is the Safety Engagement Liason for the Executive's office said, "Several departments within the county, are working together to reimagine public safety in urban unincorporated King County, our work and our mission, have been made possible due to those changes to the charter that involve the King County Sheriff's Office. So after January 1, and I'll say that we've been doing the work before that to try to make this happen as smoothly as possible. But on January 1 King County residents will have more of a say and how their communities are kept safe.

And I'm leading the effort to include as many voices as possible so that together with community, the county can create a pilot program that will improve public safety. 

We're going to work with community, again, to help understand which proposals, which one of these pilot programs is going to best benefit the community and improve the level of quality and safety in our neighborhoods. So, your voice is critical, your voices matter. And your opinions matter. So I encourage you to please complete our reimagine public safety survey to again help us create your purchase of public safety in urban unincorporated County."

You can take the survey here

Manny Apostol, Community Engagement Specialist for King County Sheriff's Office spoke about White Center Core Business Projects.

He spoke about an upcoming Community Clean up Event which is a clean up effort for 16th SW. He's secured two large dumpsters for the clean up of the Locker Room site. He's seeking volunteers for this effort and urges people to reach out to him at manuel.apostol@kingcounty.gov

You can call him at 206-549-1994.

Next up was the Mural Project that will target specific problem areas but that requires permission from the building owners. He is also seeking volunteers and artists for that effort.

He is hoping to mount a Business Block Watch involving the WCCDA and the White Center Alliance Group.

You can watch the full presentation on FACEBOOK HERE