(The Center Square) – Starting next month, the Seattle Police Department will not dispatch officers to calls from alarm companies unless there is enough evidence of a person attempting to break into property.
Interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr announced the new policy change on Sept. 13 in a letter sent to alarm companies
According to Rahr, the Seattle 911 Center receives approximately 13,000 residential and commercial burglary alarm calls from alarm monitoring companies each year. However, the majority of those calls are the result of an accidental sensor trip by a homeowner or employee of a business.
Other calls are a result of old and failing alarm sensor equipment.
Rahr pointed to data from 2023 that showed out of 13,000 alarm calls, less than 4% were confirmed to have a crime associated with them that resulted in an arrest or a report being written.
The policy change will go into effect on Oct. 1.
Any calls to the SPD regarding alarm activations will have to include supporting evidence such as audio, video, panic alarms or eyewitness evidence of a person illegally entering a property in order for an officer to be dispatched to the scene.
Rahr blames the department’s historically-low staffing levels.
“With depleted resources we cannot prioritize a patrol response when there is a very low probability that criminal activity is taking place,” Rahr said in the letter.
Since the beginning of 2020, the number of fully trained officers within the Seattle Police Department has decreased by roughly 360 officers. Through the first six months of 2024, SPD hired 21 officers, while 55 separated from the department.
The net loss of officers has continued through September 2024.
This is not an uncommon policy among major U.S. cities. According to the home defense technology company Deep Sentinel, the police departments of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston, among other major cities, will not prioritize an alarm call unless it can be verified.
