Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz said in a letter to the council last month<\/a> that SPD \u201cis required to submit quarterly reports on the department\u2019s efforts to identify a non\u2010sworn response for 911 call types that the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) categorized as appropriate for a civilian response.\u201d<\/p>\nAccording to a Seattle City Council Statement of Legislative Intent, the quarterly reports are submitted April 1, July 1, and Oct. 1, and they address the types of calls SPD responds to, the percentage of calls that could be handled without SPD involvement, and other calls that would not require a \u201csworn response,\u201d such as traffic collision reports.<\/p>\n
Diaz continued to push back on the NICJR report, saying that 97% of calls received by the department are resolved differently than they are initially classified. \u201cIn reality, it\u2019s not possible to accurately predict the outcome of every call,\u201d he said. \u201cConsequently, until now, 911 call centers have treated all calls as High or Extreme risk and sent an all-hazard officer, i.e., a police officer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diaz says that the department has begun the Risk Managed Project, meant to help determine which calls can be responded to in alternative ways. \u201cThis in turn will help decision-makers better understand the nature and scale of these types of calls so that an appropriate alternative response can be identified.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a committee meeting on Tuesday, though, city councilmember Andrew Lewis disagreed with the police chief\u2019s idea, citing another American city that is making big changes to its 911 response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I just don\u2019t understand is Denver has been doing this for two years; Denver has responded to 2,700 calls without any incident or problem dispatched through 911, and they have been able to triage those calls in a way that sends an appropriate response during their pilot,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cDid they go through a similar data analysis project like this? Why haven\u2019t I heard from any of the panels over the last two years of a site visit or a discussion with anyone from Denver about how they respond to these calls?\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell\u2019s Director of Public Safety Andrew Myerberg says that the city is doing research into cities and programs across the county, Denver included.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working very vigilantly with a broad swathe of department heads to develop the understanding, and if possible, pivot-to pilot,\u201d Myerberg said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure Denver and how they\u2019re doing their thing should dictate how Seattle does it \u2013 it\u2019s going to be relevant information, but I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s dispositive about how we roll out our resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a92022 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<\/div>\n