(The Center Square) – Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has issued an executive order focusing on public safety amid a recent spike in cases of violent crime in residential neighborhoods.
Harrell’s Friday executive order establishes an expanded use of the “Downtown Activation Team” pilot program, which seeks to provide cleaning and safety operations in the city’s more crime-riddled neighborhoods.
The Downtown Activation Team is a multi-departmental team modeled after Seattle’s Unified Care Team. The Unified Care Team focuses on resident complaints on encampments, trash in their neighborhoods and other issues.
Initial Downtown Activation Team operations began in early September in the downtown core along 3rd Avenue, a notorious street within the city.
Harrell’s office reported that the pilot program has seen positive early results with the treatment area seeing a 27% decrease in violent crime and an overall 14% decrease in emergency service calls, as well as a 30% decrease in emergency medical responses compared to last year.
“We are already seeing very positive results from our Downtown Activation Team pilot working to restore and activate spaces while connecting people with services, and we are excited to continue expanding this work to more neighborhoods,” Harrell said at a Friday press conference.
The Downtown Activation Team will now expand to more parts of downtown, the Chinatown-International District, and the Little Saigon neighborhood.
Harrell’s expansion of the pilot program comes at a time when violent crime is increasing at a concerning rate in the three areas.
The most notable incident recently came on Nov. 8, when Seattle police officers arrested a man after he allegedly stabbed five people in the Chinatown-International District.
There were also a series of five similar stabbings in the area over the same 36 hours in which the mass stabbing occurred. Detectives are working to confirm if the five other stabbings are related.
Violence in the area continued Monday morning when police officers found a woman with a gunshot wound to the abdomen after a report of a burglary in the Chinatown-International District. The suspect fled the scene with stolen cash.
Seattle’s Chinatown-International District saw 225 reports of violent crime including three homicides through October 2024, according to the Seattle Police Department’s crime dashboard. The downtown commercial area had 319 cases including one homicide through 10 months.
Crime is not exclusive to the Chinatown and downtown general area. In fact, Capitol Hill is the Seattle neighborhood with the highest reports of violent crime through October with 389, including three homicides.
Harrell’s executive order also includes two ordinances supporting the pilot program, which will be sent to the Seattle City Council. The dual pieces of legislation focus on reducing retail theft, facilitating ongoing maintenance operations, and providing additional support and protections for city employees that work to restore Seattle.
According to the executive order, the Downtown Activation Team model may expand to even more neighborhoods if the pilot program reports more success in reducing crime.
