(The Center Square) – Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office is defending its work to address gun violence amid an audit report that found the city lacks a framework to solve the problem.
On Tuesday, the Seattle Office of the City Auditor released an audit report that includes four recommendations to better understand and address the current gun violence patterns in Seattle.
The recommendations would have the city improve organization related to gun violence data, as well as coordination with city departments, other government entities and community partners to address the issue.
“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel on this. Our report offers examples from other jurisdictions that have led to declines in gun violence,” Seattle Office of City Auditor Research Director Claudia Gross Schader said during a committee meeting on Thursday.
Jurisdictions mentioned in the report include Baltimore, Indianapolis and Milwaukee, which saw reductions in gun violence after implementing comprehensive evidence-based strategies to address gun violence
According to data from the Seattle Police Department, between 2020 and 2024, shots fired increased by 71%. Looking more closely, non-fatal shootings increased 58%, while fatal shootings increased 23%.
The audit found that Seattle does not have a framework for collaboration with city agencies and partners to discuss gun violence solutions.
Gross Schader said that the city is missing out on opportunities of greater understanding and action without a systematic framework in place. For example, Baltimore saw a 23% drop in fatal shootings from 2023-2024.
The report correlates the drop in shootings with its framework, which sees the police department participate in information sharing, arther than withholding data from other city departments.
The audit report suggests that Seattle’s CARE Department could be a convener for information sharing around gun violence.
The second finding from the report was that Seattle does not routinely engage other city departments and entities in an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to addressing gun violence.
In order to better engage with these entities, the audit’s third recommendation is that the city improve its capacity for problem analysis to address gun violence.
The fourth recommendation was to provide an update to the Seattle City Council on the CARE Department’s ordinance-mandated initiative to integrate violence intervention programs.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s Office agrees with all four of the recommendations. Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington notes that the office is currently implementing initiatives that align with the recommendations.
“I would say the mayor’s office agrees with the audit findings, but we were already doing the things that were in the audit findings,” Washington said. “We have a lot of work to do, but we do need to recognize the work that has been done.”
Reducing gun violence is a major component of Harrell’s “One Seattle Restoration Framework,” which affirms collaboration across city departments to address gun violence.
The city is also partnering with Seattle Public Schools and King County to implement a three-part strategy that targets 11 middle and high schools considered at high risk of violence.
The Seattle Police Department does track incidents of shots fired in the city and reports them on its crime dashboard.
Washington said she believes that there is some miscommunication between mayor’s office and city auditor that led to the audit findings.
