Defunding the Police Has Backfired in Seattle as They Now Scramble to Hire More Cops
“Mayor Bruce Harrell announced a $2 million plan to combat Seattle’s declining number of officers”
When it comes to stupid policy ideas pushed by the left, ‘defund the police’ belongs in a hall of fame somewhere.
In Seattle, a city that has never heard a progressive idea it didn’t immediately embrace, they’re now trying to revitalize the police department they defunded.
Sarah Arnold reports at Townhall:
Dem Mayor’s Support of the ‘Defund the Police’ Movement Comes Back to Bite Him
A Democratic mayor is making a desperate move to keep people from moving out of his city amid a crime spree caused by his woke, defund the police agenda.
Mayor Bruce Harrell announced a $2 million plan to combat Seattle’s declining number of officers in what he calls a “critical shortage” of police.
Since 2019, Seattle has lost more than 400 police officers, which Harrell said has led to a situation where “essential services cannot be delivered promptly and effectively.”
The plan will offer reimbursement of moving costs, recruitment bonuses and possible tuition assistance.
The city council has already approved $1 million for recruitment and hiring bonuses, which came from savings in unspent officer salaries.
Despite the mayor’s efforts, there are still people in the city who are clinging to the left’s narrative on policing.
KOMO News reports:
Some community members oppose the mayor’s hiring incentive plan.
During the racial justice protests in 2020, city leaders committed to developing a civilian response alternative to better handle behavioral health issues and non-criminal calls, but progress has been slow or stalled.
“I think we need more behavioral health people. The system is obviously very flawed and it needs to change,” said Hugh Haddox, who lives in Seattle.
City leaders have expanded the number of unarmed community service officers and police trained in crisis intervention work with a select number of mental health professionals. There is also the Health One program that pairs a social worker with firefighters. However, in each case the capacity is extremely limited compared to the volume of calls.
“They need social workers. They need people who know how to handle mental illness on the streets,” said Nathan Silva, who does not support additional funding for the Seattle Police Department.
Jason Rantz, a conservative talk host in Seattle, says the mayor’s plan isn’t going to work anyway.
He writes at KTTH Radio:
Mayor Harrell’s police staffing ‘plan’ is embarrassing, impossible, and not really a plan
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plan to bolster the Seattle Police Department by 500 officers by 2027 is embarrassing. It’s not really even a plan and the numbers make no sense.
Harrell’s plan is centered around recruitment bonuses with a maximum of $7,500 for recruits and $30,000 for lateral transfers from other departments. He also announced plans to hire more civilian recruitment specialists. But the spending plan depends entirely on the Seattle City Council’s approval. This obviously won’t cut it.
While public polling may sway most of the Council, Harrell hasn’t presented anything new. He’s going to incentivize applicants better? That’s been tried, and it’s largely failed. While more money can motivate some, officers are leaving the force to take jobs paying less because they don’t want to work in Seattle or Washington.
In the unlikely event the mayor is successful, the city will see 500 new officers over a five-year span. Perhaps the Mayor isn’t getting the updates, but we’re in the middle of a violent crime surge. With 30 homicides year-to-date, the city is on pace to exceed last year’s 43. We’ve already surpassed the ten-year average of 28.8.
It’s sad and maddening to see what the left has done to so many American cities.
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Comments
Liberal Playbook: Never think past the knee jerk.
The Democrat Party is now comprised of rich elitists WASP’s (Woke Anti Semitic Progressives).
Yeah! and an awful lot of them are Jewish
And why would anyone want to be a police officer in any of these places?
This is one more time to be glad I live in a “backward” Southern state. Thank you, Lord, that The Bride and I are in the opposite corner of the country.
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What pisses me off is that SPD is now waiving some of the requirements that hardcore leftists pushed. It is statutory that a law enforcement officer candidate in Washington state undergo a polygraph, but SPD is waiving that requirement now. It’s ironic that the leftists attacked police for poor quality policing only to turn around and lower requirements.
Now we have the answer to my earlier question of Who would want to be police in these places?
People unfit to be police officers.
How to destroy your public safety
1. Elect woke extremists to implement decriminalization
2. enact woke touchy feely policies that hamper morale
3. Seize any pretext to reduce traditional LEO policies and procedures; no car chase, practically eliminate non lethal force options
4. Constantly disparage LEO
5. Work with woke DA and woke legislators to create a climate which prioritizes criminals over victims
6. During civil unrest, aka riots and/or assaults on govt buildings/personal order a stand down
7. Allow a no go zone to be established, which is de facto secession, ruled by armed radicals
Probably a few other things but that seems like a pretty good way to run off any LEO past retirement age, LEO able to qualify for disability or any relatively new LEO who haven’t been there long enough to suffer substantial financial loss by transfer to another dept or another career entirely.
The same issue with the military, the quality is really low.
I’m willing to take the job. I just wouldn’t move to Seattle. But heck, given the very high probability that their cops won’t respond to 911 call or do anything about things like “crime” anyway, I should be able to do the job remotely. Set up a speed/red light cam and I’ll mail in the tickets.
“Defund the Police Backfired”
How did it backfire? You mean they had no earthly idea that police are needed? Aren’t these the same people who believe oil, coal and gas are not needed?
Or succeeded, depending on the goals of the instigators.
Some, Select [Baby] Lives Matter
At this point they should probably just use tax money to hire PMCs
WTF is a PMC?
Unless I am mistaken [not unheard of] it is the acronym for Private Military Contractor, or ‘mercs’. Loyal to them what pay them, and not the government, law, or any concept of a constitution.
Subotai Bahadur
I am sure our vaunted academic institutions are churning out sociologists, mostly jobless.
Hire them to replace the cops in Seattle as a test bed. Buy popcorn.
This is not a Backfire. This is all going as planned. First you create lots of open positions in the existing police force. Then you lower the standards and fill those vacant positions with loyalists who are on board with the struggle, but now have badges and guns, and authority that they did not have when they wore black lives matter uniforms. The new recruits will not even pretend to be “officer friendly”.
All this is so ironically risible when you hark back to the Founders’ original intentions, which is that a free, armed citizenry would serve as their own police… not some “select militia” answerable only to the people in power.
Leftists sure do love 5 year plans.
30 murders to date is not enough. They should have at least 300. Come on people, get with it.
Why would anyone want to be a Police Officer or Deputy Sheriff anywhere that wanted to defund the Police? They made their bed, let them suffer the consequences.
Even new recruiting efforts are not going to help, now. What kind of people are going to be willing to be a cop in Seattle? The only one’s who will want to do that are the bottom of the barrel who can’t get a job anywhere else. That will hardly improve the situation.
Something something good and hard.
Leftists, who always operate based on feelings not facts, still believe in that old adage that “if you are good to them, they will be good to you”. Unfortunately for the leftists, that adage does no apply to criminals, especially the violent ones. If you are good to them, they see it as a weakness and will proceed to rob you and sometimes kill you. But no matter how often that plays out in places like Seattle, they are still too stupid to recognize it…..so in the end, they get exactly what they deserve.
What a golden opportunity for a far Left jurisdiction to start building a thoroughly political and politicized police force.