-These are pre-remarks.
It's been a year since I've been in Seattle.
This has nothing to do with what I'm about to talk about.
But this has been one of the most amazing years of my life.
And it's because of everyone in this room,
the men and women you see back there in uniform.
Thank you so much for agreeing to be a part of this journey.
We're going to reflect just a little bit.
So I want to say that before I got started.
All right. Good morning. Thank you for being here.
I want to begin by acknowledging the deep pain
our community is carrying this morning.
On Friday afternoon,
two Rainier Beach High School students were tragically shot
and killed near a bus stop,
just steps away from what has always been off limits.
A public school.
All weekend,
we've been working closely with Seattle Public Schools
to support students, educators, and families
as they return to class,
under what I know firsthand
to be incredibly difficult circumstances.
Our community has become too familiar,
I think, with mourning young lives,
what I always call loss of potential.
And they gathered for a vigil to honor the families and victims
and to comfort each other, and also to call for change.
Less than 48 hours later,
another young man was killed after a party.
Three others were hospitalized after being shot.
Their losses underscore the truth that we cannot ignore.
Preventing gun violence requires all of us.
Everyone in this room to work together.
Law enforcement plays a critical role,
and we are committed to doing more.
But this challenge demands, in my opinion,
a whole of government response, a whole of community response,
every neighborhood, every partner, every system,
including our courts, our corrections,
our prosecutors play an important part
in reducing violent crime.
As we hold this moment for grief,
we recommit ourselves to the work ahead.
And now let's turn our attention to "2025: A Year in Review."
We have to understand that the progress we made,
we have to push further than that.
It is essential in building a safer community
that we all deserve.
As we gather to reflect on the importance of public safety,
I want to begin by honoring the legacy of the Greensboro Four.
66 years and one day ago, these young men,
whose courage at a Woolworth's lunch counter
helped to reshape the moral direction of our nation.
Their quiet existence and dignity
continue to remind us that progress is never accidental.
It is the result of extraordinary people choosing
extraordinary resolve.
And they just happen to be fellow alumni of my university,
North Carolina A&T State University.
Just throw that out there. [ Cheers and applause ]
That's my legacy.
I want to also acknowledge our meaningful partnership
with the Northwest African American Museum.
Almost a year ago, I was here for an event.
Their commitment to preserving
and elevating the stories that define our shared history
strengthens our work, deepens our resolve,
and my understanding of the Other communities that we serve,
and together we're building a safer,
more connected, and more just future for all.
Today I stand before you,
encouraged not only by what we accomplished in 2025,
but by the partnerships we strengthened
and the new ones that we will create in 2026.
Let me be clear. Let me be clear on this.
This is not a victory lap.
This is the first lap in a long marathon toward public safety.
And so today, I am fulfilling my obligation
to report on the progress and areas
of improvement to our community.
In this department,
everyone is accountable to our community,
and that begins with me.
This past year has been a testament to what can happen
when a city works together,
when a department embraces change and innovation,
and a southern accent.
And when the community refuses to settle for anything less
than safety, dignity, and of course, accountability.
At the Seattle Police Department,
our vision is simple and yet ambitious.
We want to build a police department
that you can be proud of.
We want to build a police department
that stands as a national model for exceptional policing.
We believe we can do this through four simple pillars:
A commitment to excellence,
a commitment to selfless public service,
community engagement,
and evidence-based policing practices.
But for us, these are not just slogans.
These are the expectations of myself
and of the leaders that you see in the back of the room.
It is the expectation of the culture
that we are building here at the Seattle Police Department.
Our quest to become a department you can be proud of,
and the national model of exceptional policing,
began by reimagining how we respond to crime and disorder.
Our Seattle-centric model divides community problems
into seven distinctive categories,
and then we apply a proven problem-solving method
to each of these categories -- scanning, analysis,
response, and assessment,
with a strong emphasis on sustainability and consistency,
something you will hear again and again
from everything that we say.
This accountability structure is outlined.
Our sergeants are accountable to our lieutenants,
officers to sergeants, lieutenants to captains,
captains to assistant chiefs, and deputy chiefs
are accountable to me, and I am accountable to the community.
We all have a reporting structure, and I am fulfilling
my obligation today to report to you.
Now, during my first months as chief,
I attended more than 300 meetings
with community members and staff.
Now, if I attended 300,
I know there's 300 people that I missed,
and if I missed those 600,
then there's probably another 12 that I missed.
I promise you, before I retire, I'm going to meet
with everyone in the city of Seattle individually.
So if I haven't met with you yet, it's coming.
The conversations that I had were honest.
[Indistinct] knows that .
They were direct. You know that.
And they were deeply valuable.
You know, I heard the issues that we faced,
and often in listening to those issues,
I also heard the solution.
I heard concerns about homicides, gun violence,
aggravated assault, robbery, burglary,
stolen vehicles, and theft from vehicles.
We now refer to these categories
as our significant incident categories.
And although we understand that no amount of crime
in our city is ever acceptable,
we are proud to report that in 2025,
we saw an 18% overall reduction in crime citywide.
Later, we'll break these down individually for those
who are interested.
This progress did not happen by accident.
It happened with the leadership of the people in this room
and several major initiatives that we advanced.
Not all of them, but these are some of them.
First, it has to begin with the retention
and the recruitment of a qualified workforce.
And I'm proud to announce that in 2025,
we hired 167 officers and had a net increase of 94 officers
in 2025, more officers hired than any other time
that we could find.
This is a credit to our recruiting team,
our background team, and the leaders and members of SPD
that came before my arrival.
Equally as important,
Seattle Police Department reduced the number
of officer separations from the department,
which has consistently peaked since 2020.
In 2025, we saw the fewest number of separations
since 2016, with only 62 officers leaving our department.
We also conducted a pilot program entitled
the "Police Neighborhood Resource Officer Program,"
Our PNR Officers were placed within a community
and dedicated to community concerns and crime reduction.
This occurred in our Magnuson Park area,
as well as 3rd and Pine and 12th and Jackson.
We enhance our crime pattern analysis,
how we understand how crime operates in our city.
We created a threshold for responding to crime,
which are four significant incidents
within a quarter mile radius within seven days
will automatically trigger a crime bulletin,
special emphasis patrol or increased patrol activity,
community education and investigative action.
We implemented the Summer Park Safety Plan,
which is a comprehensive plan,
which includes other city departments, including parks,
SDOT, fire. lights, just to name a few of those.
We increased our proactive efforts.
Proactive policing means engaging our community
without a 911 call for service.
My opinion this is one of the most meaningful ways
to prevent crime.
Each of these efforts contributed to reducing crime
and improving community satisfaction.
As we look at the data, the story becomes even clearer.
Our population continues to grow.
In fact,
over 110,000 additional residents
within the last decade,
and yet our violent and property
crimes are beginning to decrease.
This is a significant shift, and it shows
that we are making progress.
Let's take a look at some of those categories
that matter the most.
Homicides.
Any loss of life is too many,
and every person in Seattle deserves to live in a city
where the likelihood of death or serious injury is reduced.
In 2025, Seattle experienced a 36% reduction in homicides,
21 fewer lives lost than the year before,
and the lowest number of homicides
since before the pandemic, over five years ago.
This is meaningful progress,
and it reflects the dedication of our officers,
investigators, and our community partners.
Homicide clearance rates.
Homicide clearance rates,
or whether or not we're able to hold someone accountable,
is a measure of the entire system working together.
Patrol officers, crime scene investigators,
support staff, and our detectives
working alongside our real-time crime center,
which assisted in 17 of these cases and assisted in closing,
bringing someone to justice in ten of these cases last year.
But our community also plays a vital role.
Many of our cases are solved because someone stepped forward.
They pointed us in the right direction
and provided information when no other leads existed.
This level of trust signals
that we are improving in the most important category
of all -- community trust.
In 2025, our homicide clearance rate was 86%,
which means we brought some measure of closure
to 32 of 37 families that were affected by homicide.
This is a dramatic improvement from 57% in in 2024,
and it exceeds the national average of 61.4%.
Now, we cannot simply talk about homicides
without talking about gun violence more broadly.
One of the things that I promised myself years ago,
this is my fifth year as police chief --
was that I would not, I would never just talk about homicides
without talking about gun violence together,
because I think they're closely related.
Only eight of our homicides last year did not occur by firearm.
And in 2025,
the number of people struck by gunfire in our city
decreased by 36%.
Reports of shots fired,
a major driver of whether or not someone feels safe
in their neighborhoods, fell by 12%.
And for the first time in a very long time,
we did not see the traditional spike
that we see during the warm summer months.
These are encouraging signs, and they reflect
both the strong partnership and commitment.
Now we know that there are inherent dangers.
This work is not without its danger
in police work.
And while I respect, we respect the rights afforded
by the Second Amendment,
we also know that some individuals carry weapons
illegally or with harmful intent.
Last year, our officers recovered over 1,500 firearms,
an increase of 74%.
And while more analysis would be needed to determine causation,
as a scientist speaking,
I believe that removing firearms from those
who should not possess them
is directly connected to the reductions
that we're seeing in violent crime.
Or, at least every firearm recovered
represents one less opportunity
for someone to be affected by gun violence.
Aggravated assaults in the state of Washington,
as I have come to know, is a wide range of offenses,
from punching someone to shooting someone.
And in 2025, we saw an 8% reduction in these incidents.
Almost 320 less people were injured or assaulted,
or at least one less victim per day,
which shows that we are certainly trending
in the right direction.
Auto thefts.
Auto theft has challenged cities all across the country.
When I started being a police chief many years ago,
we were facing the same thing.
I don't think anyone imagined --
I think that a bunch of kids in Milwaukee
who determined how to hotwire a car
could lead to cars being hotwired in Seattle.
But we know that policing is certainly global,
and Seattle was no exception
to seeing the spikes in stolen cars.
Imagine you got it down to a science.
Get the kids up. Get your coffee.
Breakfast.
By the looks of this room,
you work out for about 25 to 40 minutes, I don't know.
And then you walk out that door, and your car is gone.
Can you imagine what that feels like?
Deeply personal. Stolen vehicles endanger motorists.
They're often used in other crimes,
and they impose financial and emotional burdens on people.
In 2025, we reduced stolen vehicles by 24%.
1,821 fewer vehicles stolen.
That represents individual people.
People who have to go to work,
pick up their kids,
that did not have to experience the loss
that I just imagined.
This success was driven by a crime analysis strategy
that we put together,
which was called a threshold analysis,
where we took a look at crime data, and we said,
when does one become four?
When does four become eight, when does eight become 16?
So on and so forth.
And what we found was four vehicles stolen
within a quarter mile radius over seven days
would automatically trigger what I spoke about
before the crime bulletin, the special emphasis patrol,
the community education, and investigative action.
I believe this threshold was directly related
from turning three crimes into six, and so on and so forth.
And because my good friend Chief Scoggin is here,
I got to shout out the fire department,
who have said this before,
prevent small fires from becoming large ones.
And that's the model that we are adapting.
So that's your next speech.
Please quote something from the police department.
I think we would all appreciate that.
Car prowling, or what we used to call larceny from autos.
People going through people's vehicles
remain a persistent frustration, trust me,
for neighborhoods.
We continue to encourage people to do what?
Lock your vehicles and remove your valuables,
jewelry, wallets, purses, firearms,
which are among the most commonly stolen items.
Since I've been a police officer,
I've been talking about removing your items and
your valuables.
I won't give the story about my wife,
but she's not here, so I can give it.
She once told me, she's like,
"Ah, you always talking about me removing my purse?"
She said, "I put it behind the seat."
I said, "It's still in the car."
So we want to make sure that we remove those
and listen to the police on that.
Also remove your firearms.
This is a daunting statistic.
Last year, we had 206 firearms stolen from cars.
Cars are not gun safes.
They should never be used as gun safes.
You have to remove them, or do not leave those unattended.
But even with these challenges,
we saw a 7% reduction in car prowls last year.
Burglaries are a crime
that really does have lasting impacts on neighborhoods,
has lasting impacts on people.
People never forget the story of having their home
or their business burglarized.
And as a former commercial crimes sergeant,
a detective sergeant, I've seen firsthand this impact
that it has on business owners, as well as residents.
In 2025, burglaries decreased by 18%.
1,571 less people
who had to experience the emotional sense of violation
from coming home and finding out
that someone has been in your house or your business.
This is a major win for our city.
I often hear about response times,
so I want to speak about that briefly.
Community members consistently tell us that
response times matter,
and they are correct. When it comes to response time,
you simply cannot do more with less.
Our officers are required to complete more paperwork
than they have in any other time in modern history
that I can think of.
They are expected to provide good customer service,
not to rush their calls,
while also remaining visible and proactive in our community.
And in 2025, we saw some improvements in response times,
but it's not good enough.
These improvements are encouraging,
but we know we have more work to do.
We need additional staff.
And we need to look at more innovative approaches,
like the priority three dedicated teams
that we're trying to pilot now.
Proactivity is an expectation for every officer
in our department.
Proactivity for us is defined as being intentional about
when and where you police too little,
and crime is unchanged, and too much,
and people feel oppressed or overpoliced.
From day one,
I emphasized the importance of reengaging with our community.
The data shows that our officers have embraced this challenge,
and self-initiated activity is increasing,
and our officers are taking ownership of community problems.
I'm proud of their initiative,
and it is my responsibility, and everyone else's
in the back,
they're standing up in uniform to support their efforts.
One of my core beliefs is that officers work best
when they are assigned to a specific area,
and given the responsibility of taking care of that area.
That's one of the things that I heard in some of those meetings.
Chief, I remember a time
when you knew your neighborhood officers,
people walked the beat.
You had someone you can, you could trust.
And that is a big part of what we did last year.
We launched a 90-day pilot with two volunteer officers,
Officers Zhu and Hughes,
who were assigned to our Magnuson Park area.
And they did a phenomenal job.
During that pilot,
we saw a 4% decrease in community members calling 911.
We saw a 9% decrease in property crime,
and 64% of all arrests that occurred in that area
were credited to Officers Zhu and Hughes.
This includes the recovery of a handgun
and the arrest of a homicide suspect.
Officers Zhu and Hughes could not be with us today,
but I would be remiss if I did not thank them
for their service, their professionalism,
and for their dedication.
And I'm also proud to announce
that this pilot is now a permanent assignment
within the North Precinct.
Someone wrote, "Smile and breathe."
Oh, I wasn't supposed to -- Who's been up here?
Who came up here?
[ Audience laughs ]
As we look forward,
we recognize that our work is far from finished.
We will continue to expand our proactive efforts
while focusing on those significant incident categories,
which will remain the same in 2026.
We will continue to innovate and be problem solvers together.
We have launched the "Our City, Our Safety" meetings,
where we're meeting with each precinct,
and we're bringing the community in.
We're having problem solving sessions,
and then we report back in three months
about the things that we could do and what we could not do,
and the areas for improvement.
I really enjoyed that.
We had the first one in the South Precinct,
which was very well attended.
The Neighborhood Officer program that I spoke about
will be expanded this year to include Third and Pine,
Belltown, and 12th and Jackson areas
that are historically been challenges for us.
And before you say anything,
we're going to get to your neighborhood eventually.
I promise you, because someone's saying, "Why not me?"
We're going to get there eventually.
But as we add in new officers,
we have to fill our patrol efforts
so we can answer those calls in a timely manner.
But I'm also concerned about proactivity,
especially in some of the areas
that have historically been problems for us.
So be patient with us.
We want to partner with other city departments
in a collective effort to reduce crime.
We will continue to support programs like LEAD
and any other initiative
that supports sustainable crime prevention.
The idea is consistency.
If I haven't said that already,
we will continue to investigate
and bring cases against persons
who use firearms to harm our city.
We will continue our Summer Park Safety plan,
which is already in progress now.
We want to be ready, have the pieces in place,
have the [inaudible].
We want to be ready, so that when it gets warm,
which is coming soon, I promise you, we will be ready.
That's very important.
We will continue to prepare for FIFA World Cup.
We want everyone to have a safe and enjoyable experience before,
during, and after.
So the things that we're put in place are not just about FIFA,
it's about our city as a whole.
We will continue our retention and our recruitment efforts,
and we want to keep pace with the number of officers
that we are hiring now.
We want to continue to be transparent with our data
and give you information to keep yourself safe,
so that you can participate in your own public safety as well.
While no department is perfect,
we understand that we are committed.
I am committed to getting better and better each and every day.
So my marching orders are simple.
"Police forward."
Policing forward means more integrated partnerships,
a community-centered approach.
I focus on reducing crime and the harms
that contribute to whether you feel safe
and whether you are safe.
Strong support from our other city partners
and a commitment to selfless public service,
which is a non-negotiable standard for me.
And to do all of this, we have to remain consistent.
I want to express my gratitude to everyone
at the Seattle Police Department,
our patrol officers who do an amazing job each and every day,
our detectives and investigators,
who do an amazing job working together
to bring some semblance of clearance on some of these cases,
and all of our leadership who are here today.
Our officers are working hard, and they're being led,
I believe, in the right direction.
I'm grateful for our City Council members.
There are council members here
from the Public Safety Committee.
Thank you for being here.
I want to thank our city attorney who is here.
Thank you, City Attorney Evans.
The King County prosecutor is here.
Thank you for being here as well.
Our partners with the FBI.
Thank you for being here as well,
for your continued support to Mayor Wilson,
for believing in this vision.
Her team, for their partnership,
as we work toward a safer Seattle.
And most importantly, to our community.
Thank you to the residents, business owners,
students, and visitors that call Seattle home.
You stand with us, you support us, and you hold us accountable.
We are committed to continuing this work in 2026,
and I understand
that the road to public safety is not straight.
It's not.
There's going to be peaks and valleys.
There's going to be turns and things that you don't see.
But we are committed.
I think we're starting off committed.
And to demonstrate that, just the short anecdote
from earlier this year,
we had an officer in one of our precincts
take a report of a rape.
Forcible rape.
The officers and the group did not
just write the report,
which they were required to do and give it to investigators.
They kept going back to the area,
looking for that suspect vehicle,
just hoping or thinking
that maybe this dangerous stranger might return.
And indeed, that vehicle did show up.
The officers were following the vehicle.
The officer was not knowing
whether or not he had probable cause to stop the vehicle.
He immediately called our real time crime center and said,
"Can you pull up the footage from from yesterday?"
I want to see if this is the same vehicle
that was described by our witness.
And it was same vehicle, but that's not enough.
"I want to know whether or
not the registration tag is the same."
So they pulled up the registration tag
and confirmed it was the same vehicle.
A traffic stop was initiated.
Ultimately, the person driving was arrested
and charged for that crime.
And why he was back in that neighborhood,
I can only assume was to find more victims.
But he did not.
He found the police doing their job.
This is the work that they do each and every day.
And I'm so proud to lead this department
and proud of your continued support
and your continued partnership.
And I look forward to the work that we have ahead of us
in the new Year 2026.
Thank you so much.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Chief, thank you very much for our media partners.
We will now begin our Q&A portion.
We're going to take questions for ten minutes,
and I will call on journalists starting from my left.
So show, show your hands, and I'll call on you.
Jeremy. -Chief, it stands out to me,
you mentioned the Real-Time
Crime Center had assisted in 17 homicide arrests.
Can you just talk about your feedback from detectives
on that Real-Time Crime Center
and your thoughts on the expansion of those cameras?
-Yeah, I think it's -- has been invaluable to them.
There's a lot of work that has to be done.
They're not only looking at Real-Time Crime Center footage,
but they're analysts.
So if a business come forward and say,
hey, here is what my business showed for the two hours
that this thing may have happened,
the analysts will go in because they have the time
to look for indicators of that crime,
to maybe find the suspect
or what may have led up to that crime.
So the cameras are being expanded to Capitol Hill,
to the area in front of Garfield and to Pioneer Square.
There's no other plans for any other expansions.
We have approximately 62 cameras,
which, you know,
quite frankly, is a small number of cameras
compared to cities our size.
For example, the third largest city, Chicago,
they have over 30,000 cameras.
We have 62.
-Yes.
-Chief, can you speak at all to the director for Mayor Wilson
around documenting federal immigration enforcement?
The head of the police union, Mike Solon,
essentially said, "No, we won't be doing that."
-We're already doing that. That's in our current policy.
If a community member calls and says,
"Hey, I think something is happening,
I'm not sure whether or not this person is
a law enforcement officer."
When we go to that scene, Officers have their body worn
cameras activated.
They seek to determine if this is a law enforcement purpose.
If it is, they get the documentation
and they do a report.
We've always done that, and there's really no change.
-Do you disagree with the statement
that this is pitting two law enforcement agencies
against each other?
-I don't disagree that someone has a right
to say what they want to say,
but what I will tell you is that our policy is unchanged.
-Okay, Next. Yes... -Chief,
I've seen some anecdotal evidence of a low cost plan
to help with public safety.
And that's been installing lights downtown 3rd Avenue
through Occidental Park.
Do you have any data
to suggest that that has actually worked as a way
to lower the public safety concerns?
And if so,
why not work with DSA in the city to try
and install new lights in places like 12th and Jackson?
-Yeah, we work with everyone and anyone.
And I think what you're referring to,
maybe a relation to whether or not someone feels safe.
You know, a lot of analysis goes into the things
that are causal relationships
and controlling for different variables.
So we can never really say
if one thing is causing crime to go down.
We can only look at the trend lines that we're seeing,
but we are certainly not opposed.
I'm not opposed to any effort,
whether it's lights, whether it's additional people,
whether it's graffiti removal,
whether it's trash removal,
whatever we have to do as a city so people can feel safe,
I think is important.
And if we can reduce the likelihood,
the likelihood that someone will commit a crime,
especially a property crime that sometimes occurs in low light,
I'm all for that, 110%.
They've been great partners with me,
and so I hope that that will continue.
I believe it will. That was, go ahead.
-Yes.
-I don't know if this is the appropriate time or related,
but does the Seattle Police Department have any advice
for those individuals,
protesters in specifically
as it relates to the ongoing presence of ICE.
-You know, this has always been a welcoming city for people
who wish to demonstrate
and exercise their First Amendment privileges
and their rights.
And I hope that that will not change.
Certainly,
you know, we're here to support whoever in their efforts.
And so, you know,
the only advice I can give
is continue to exercise your First Amendment right in a way
that is respectful, in a way that is abiding by the law.
And I think, in a way, that's meaningful.
You know, the the first slide
that I showed of the Greensboro Four,
they were protesting in their own way.
And later on,
we should talk about actually what happened
when the police showed up.
They were not arrested. Did you know that?
Did you know that the manager of the Woolworth Lunch Counter
walked to the police station to demand
that the chief order his officers to arrest him,
and he didn't -- He did not.
It was an exercise, I think,
in civic compromise, civic engagement,
and we can learn a lot from that on both sides.
I know I have learned a lot from it, so.
This one here. You couldn't see her.
She's hiding back there.
-You just went over a lot of the stats.
You began your remarks talking about some
of the shootings over the weekend.
What do we know about the numbers
when it comes to youth involved with some of that gun violence
in 2025?
And moving into 2026, are there initiatives
that you're looking at working with schools,
community groups to address it?
-Yeah, so I've been working constantly with schools,
the former administration and the new administration.
The superintendent and I were on a phone call,
many phone calls this week talking
about community partnerships and what that looks like.
And so we're definitely wanting to expand our efforts
in working with our communities, as well as our school.
Listen, I'm a former school teacher,
former SRO, and someone who navigated a school shooting.
There is no other person suited for this task than me.
Because I care deeply about our students.
I care deeply about them.
My son is 17, and so this is not something
that we're going to take lightly.
I do have the numbers that you want.
As soon as we do our one offs, I'll make sure you get those.
-Okay.
I'm just curious what priority you're putting on
recruiting female officers,
and, you know, SPD committed to the 30 by 30 initiative.
Are you looking at any tangible changes
around mentorship or part-time shifts or things
that seem to maybe make a difference in hiring more women?
-Yeah, we've already started that.
And so, to be clear, 30 by 30,
for those of you who may not have heard of it,
it is a commitment to increasing the number of women
in policing to 30% by the year 2030.
But that's not the -- just it.
It's more than just recruiting.
It's about retaining the females that you have.
It's about their work experience and their work environment.
So we're looking at everything from childcare
to how we mentor and how we train.
We recently partnered with the company
to provide uniforms that are specially designed
and cut for women.
It's called Law Enforcement Hers or Policing Hers.
And we can give you some information about that,
because you would be surprised
that some of these uniforms are not designed by anyone
who went to design school, probably.
But they're certainly not designed by women, for women.
And throughout the course of my career,
I've seen women find special tailors for their uniforms.
I've seen women, especially when I was in detectives,
where they had tailors that would put belt loops
on the dress pants or whatever,
so that they can wear their badge and gun.
So we haven't always thought holistically about this,
and we're trying to change that.
We're also expanding our mentorship.
We will --
Soon we'll be having a program
for women defensive tactics, a women-only class.
And so we can get you all of that information specifically.
But we're certainly committed to increasing
the experience of women in the workforce
of hiring women this year or last year, in 2025.
Only 10% of of our hires were women.
And so that tells me that we have a long ways to go,
but we're committed.
-Can I follow up on that? -Yes, please.
-Because I did hear Chief/Sheriff Rahr bring up
previously, that the idea of part-time officers,
female officers that may want to work on weekends
while they raise a family.
Are you open to something like that to increase the force?
-Yeah, I've seen different models of it.
Obviously, we have a collective bargaining agreement.
We would have to clear that through collective bargaining.
But it is not unheard of, by the way.
A lot of departments do that,
not just with female officers, too.
Because there are some men
who are taking on that role of the primary child care.
So I'm certainly not opposed to it.
I just don't have enough information at this time
to answer that question intelligently.
-Okay.
-Yeah. Chief, when you talk about the reduction last year
in gun crimes, gun violence, violent crimes,
What have you found?
Now, I know you're big on data and research.
What have you found outside of the police?
Outside of the police department?
What strategies have worked with them?
What, like, community initiatives,
what partnerships have worked?
And then, what are you finding now that hasn't worked?
-Yeah, I think some of the things that have worked
that I've seen in my career.
Number one is focused deterrence.
It's a strategy that the community comes together
with a small group,
and it's a small number of people
who are carrying weapons or associated with violence,
and you basically give them really a two-part message.
And the first message is, "We want to support you.
We want to provide the things
that you need through the community
to get your life on track."
But the other part is,
if you don't take our services
and you hurt someone with a firearm,
you have to be held accountable in a court of law.
And it works best when the community commits to that.
And when people call you and say, "Hey,
I'm having a problem, I need my license.
I need a job. I'm having issues filling out this thing."
You have to be there for them.
If you can do that, it works.
Another initiative that I'm highly in support of
is community violence interrupters
when it's done correctly.
And it's not just the street violence interrupters.
There are three levels to street or community
violence interrupters.
There's the street level interrupters
that you will see out making sure people can get
places safely, reducing harm, reducing agitation.
And then there's another level,
which is an outreach worker,
someone that goes to someone's house or home
when there's nothing going on to make sure
that they're on the right path.
And if there is something going on, buy time and cooling down.
And then it's the third level,
which is what's called the community therapist.
This is a person that commits to working with the person
that's gone through those two levels
for at least six months to a year,
to ensure that they are on the right track,
and they can reframe and re-norm the path that they were on
that's going to cost them.
But again, that's a total community buy-in.
And I think that with the city as well-resourced
and caring as Seattle, we should be able to do that very easily.
-Okay. With that, we'll conclude. -Okay.
-Thank you so much.
[ Cheers and applause ]