Seattle was one of the hotbeds of anti-police sentiment during the movement to defund police departments. Two years later, the effects are still looming over victims of crime.
According to an internal memo from Captain Steve Hirjak from May 17, the Seattle Police Department has not been able to assign detectives to sexual abuse cases with adult victims due to a police shortage. “With our current shortages, we are currently leaving an average of 4.6 cases unassigned per week,” the memo read. The sexual assault unit typically had 10 to 12 detectives before the pandemic. Now it has just five, with one of them being added just two months ago.
Chief Adrian Diaz has said that the police department has lost nearly 100 detectives compared to four years ago. The city is on track to lose nearly 200 officers by the end of the year. The police department has a goal of 1,400 officers but currently has 838, with recruiting lagging as more departures loom.
In August 2020, Seattle slashed the police department’s funding and laid off several officers. The department then saw 39 officers quit or retire in September, far more than the usual five to seven departures. The 110 departures through the first nine months of 2020 were more than any full year since at least 2012, and the city has still been unable to keep officers on the job or convince recruits to sign up.
Meanwhile, the city has seen a surge in homicides and shootings. Now, adult abuse victims have to be put on the backburner as the police department tries to ration its available detectives.
Democrat-run cities have found out the hard way that it is far easier to destroy public safety than it is to build it. These cities were quick to villainize their police departments and strip them of their funding, and they quickly saw homicides and violent crime spike. Nearly two years later, cities from Seattle to Minneapolis to New York City are still picking up the pieces. To their credit, Seattle voters have tried to turn the page, but the damage has already been done.
These stories will continue to emerge in the coming years, all because a toxic anti-police movement was allowed to take over legacy media, cultural institutions, and the Democratic Party. City leaders allowed themselves to be caught in the moment and made their cities less safe as a result. Residents will be paying for that failure of leadership for years to come, including in Seattle.
