the south park news

Southwest Precinct’s summer changes: ‘All hands on deck’ for patrol

This summer, some changes for how local police are assigned – so, to explain them, Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Steve Paulsen has this message for everybody in the precinct’s coverage area (South Park/West Seattle):

The summer months are historically very busy for us due to numerous special events as well an increase in emergency calls for service. We have noticed that City-wide, our response times for priority 1 calls have edged into our 7 minute expectations. This increase is due to several factors which includes staffing, summer 911 call loads as well as an increase in crimes of violence which the Department has responded with Safety Emphasis patrols in many parts of the City. The emphasis patrols are gleaned from each precinct and centralized for City-Wide deployments.

Given these recent demands, we have put “all hands on deck” and reassigned our Community Police Team officers and other precinct staff into patrol cars for 911 response.

This decision was difficult and has caused us a great amount of dissonance because we firmly believe that keeping our precinct open and available to our community is very important in maintaining that partnership we value.

We will make every attempt to staff a precinct desk officer so folks can personally stop by for questions as well as get needed assistance. I would like to apologize in advance that our hours of availability will be limited and sporadic at best. Most likely if the precinct is actually open, it will be weekdays between 8 am and 2 pm. Outside of those hours, there is a telephone next to the main entrance where folks will be directed to our Communications Dispatch Center who can assess individual calls and send an officer for assistance.