The Full Council voted unanimously yesterday to approve the gun violence tax and mandatory reporting of lost and stolen firearms. Every day, the general public pays the enormous cost of gun violence. Gun violence is a public health crisis in...
Tag: Public Safety
Gun Safety Measures Pass Committee
The Council’s Education and Governance Committee voted this morning to approve two gun safety measures: a gun violence tax on the sellers of firearms and ammunition and a requirement to report lost and stolen firearms to the police. The gun...
The Hard Work of Innovative Policing
Two weeks ago I spoke on a panel at a White House forum on innovations in policing about Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program. The LEAD program allows the police and prosecutors to redirect nonviolent, low level adult offenders...
A Common Sense Public Health Approach to Gun Violence
The following op-ed article was published yesterday in the Slog. Every year taxpayers in Seattle pay for millions of dollars of emergency medical care for people who have been shot. It’s time for the gun industry to chip in to...
Tomorrow is Denim Day
Tomorrow the City Council will wear jeans for #denimday, part of Sexual Violence Awareness month. Join us! Councilmember Godden's office provided the following background on Denim Day: For the past 16 years, Peace Over Violence has run its Denim Day...
Town Hall about Rising Rents with Councilmember Sawant
Next week, on Thursday, 4/23, at 6:00 pm in City Council Chambers, Councilmember Kshama Sawant and I are co-hosting a Town Hall to discuss the impacts of rising rents on Seattle residents and what we can do about it. I hope that you can join us. Sponsoring organizations include the Community Housing Caucus, the Church […]
New Police Command Staff
Chief O’Toole has taken a significant step toward rebuilding the public’s trust and confidence in our Police Department in the hiring of four new assistant police chiefs and a new chief technology officer. It’s a bold step. A very correct...
January City Inside/Out: Council Edition
Earlier this month I joined Councilmembers Bagshaw and O'Brien and host Brian Callanan on the Seattle Channel to talk about Bertha, encampments and public safety issues. You can watch the video below.
The False Promise of the Death Penalty
Two high-profile death penalty trials are underway in King County Superior Court: the 2009 assassination of Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton and the 2007 Christmas Eve mass murders of three generations of the Anderson family in Carnation. Both crimes were...
One Night Count Numbers Jump 21%
Each year the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, organizes a one night count of people all over King County sleeping in their cars, in doorways, under bridges, in greenbelts, and in doorways. This year 1000 people participated in the count. This year, these volunteers counted 3,772 people without shelter in King County last night. This […]