♪♪
-Robert very, very much touched so many people.
-Michelle's son Robert was shot and killed
on Seattle's Capitol Hill on September 17th.
-I've cried for 74 days.
-And she's calling on city leaders
to curb street violence
in one of Seattle's most populated neighborhoods.
-The most vulnerable people over here
are getting attacked.
-I see progress and room for improvement.
-Police say they have work to do,
but neighborhood crime is down.
-We've had a great deal of success
when it comes to investigating gun violence.
-And yet, plans to open a new crisis CARE center
in the old Polyclinic building
has some neighbors concerned,
even with broad agreement
that more drug and mental health treatment is urgently needed.
-I think public safety is top of mind for everyone.
-Plus, Capitol Hill restaurants are struggling to hang on
as their neighbors go under.
-I think we're at a crossroads right now.
-How are city leaders responding to growing community concerns?
-Any life that's lost in the city is too much.
-Our panel weighs in.
-We've been having a lot of challenges
with, like, broken glass.
-Confronting challenges on Capitol Hill...
-Policing alone will not fix this.
-...next on "City Inside/Out."
♪♪
Welcome to this edition of "City Inside/Out."
I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
After a series of deadly shootings
over the past few months on Capitol Hill,
the families of gun violence victims
and local businesses
are looking for answers
from the city of Seattle.
The mayor and City Council have responded
with a new public safety plan,
including added outreach from crisis CARE teams
and more police patrols.
The SPD says overall crime statistics
in this neighborhood and across Seattle
are falling,
but these gun violence cases
and other persistent signs of street disorder
are fueling a perception that Seattle is unsafe,
a perception city leaders and neighborhood advocates
are fighting to change.
-I've cried for 74 days.
-Michelle Reese's 26-year-old son
Robert Fleeks Jr.
was shot and killed
near the corner of 10th and Pike more than two months ago.
Yet the tears keep coming.
-It's hurtful, you know, hurtful to -- to the core.
-It's been hurtful to Reese,
the Capitol Hill neighborhood and beyond.
Fleeks' murder, which police say
stemmed from an argument Fleeks had with someone he knew,
happened less than three weeks before another fatal shooting
just a few blocks away.
-Gun violence overall in the city
is a problem.
-Though one arrest has been made in her son's case,
Reese is worried the others involved in the crime
may try to retaliate against her.
-I've brought it up before to the advocates
that I am very concerned for my own safety
and my family's safety.
-We need to do a better job of making people feel safe.
-Captain Jim Britt is the commander
of the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct,
which runs from Lake Washington up to Capitol Hill.
He says that crime rates in every category
are falling precinct-wide.
But the statistics don't tell the whole story.
-And you can't stand in front of a person
who was just a victim of a crime
and tell them, "Yeah, but crime is down."
So while crime may be down, the appearance of crime,
how people feel about it is sometimes more important
than just the numbers.
-Britt, a 23-year SPD veteran
who's new to the East Precinct leadership job,
says new surveillance cameras coming soon near Pike and Pine,
plus a renewed effort towards community-wide communications,
will help prevent criminal activity
and change the public's perception
of safety on Capitol Hill.
-The downstream effect of that is word gets out
that this isn't the place you want to go
to commit your crimes.
-I think we're really hopeful with some new leadership
of the East Precinct.
-Ellen Greene, executive director
of the First Hill Improvement Association,
is reckoning with gun violence,
open-air drug deals
and many other similar concerns
to what she calls a sister hill.
in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
-Public safety is top of mind for everyone.
-She lives next door to Harborview Medical Center
and sees this area as a place of healing,
especially with a new crisis CARE clinic
going into the old Polyclinic building
offering help to people in crisis
with no appointment and no insurance necessary.
-I've heard the whole range from "absolutely not right here"
to "please can we have it yesterday?"
-And more resources are coming to this neighborhood --
from a five-point plan for added public safety investments
from City Council Member Joy Hollingsworth
to Seattle Theatre Group's revitalization of Kerry Hall.
-I think the economic development piece
is especially important.
-Linda Di Lello Morton owns Terra Plata,
a restaurant near Pike and Melrose.
She says her neighborhood is at a crossroads.
-We definitely aren't there yet
in terms of public safety issues,
but I do think that there's been progress made
the last few years.
-The hot issue for her right now?
Making sure city leaders are keeping an eye on
not just crime, but local business health too,
as a key to Seattle's success.
-It activates neighborhoods, which is what we need.
I think that's a critical piece to having a vibrant city,
and to having less public safety issues.
-In one of Seattle's most densely populated
and diverse neighborhoods,
creating a vibrant city is a shared goal,
with many voices anxious to see some progress.
-What is being done?
-And joining us to further discuss
these issues of public safety on Capitol Hill,
we have with us Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth,
the representative from District 3,
which covers Capitol Hill, First Hill,
the Central District, and so much more.
Thank you for being here. -Thanks for having me.
-We also have with us Chris Paulus,
Chair of the Capitol Hill Community Council.
Chris, great to have you here, too.
-Yeah. Thank you so much.
-Also with us,
Chief Amy Barden of Seattle's CARE Department,
Community Assisted Response & Engagement.
CARE handles the city's 911 calls.
Also is in charge of the CARE teams
of civilian crisis responders that are now working citywide.
Chief Barden, a pleasure, as always.
-Good to be back.
-Chris, let me start with you
and get your help identifying
some of the main concerns you have
when it comes to public safety on Capitol Hill.
We touched on gun violence, open-air drug deals
and general street disorder in our setup piece.
These are issues in just about every part of the city.
But I think in a densely populated area
like Capitol Hill,
they can really hit home.
Talk to me about this.
What problems are you hearing about
from the community? -I'm hearing a lot of problems
with exactly what you just said.
The open-air drug use, some of the crime,
you know, theft issues that kind of go along with that,
you know, and then violent crime as well.
You know, and just how that goes into people's minds
of how they perceive, you know, what's going on.
-Yeah, crime numbers are one thing.
Perception is another, right? -Exactly.
And a shooting is going to be covered,
you know, everywhere.
And you're going to think about that.
And that's going to cause people to think --
or maybe have second thoughts about going out
and doing something.
And that leads into the next piece of perception.
So there's definitely issues.
And it's also challenging, you know,
in areas as diverse as Capitol Hill.
You know, you have the Pike and Pine corridor.
And that's entirely different
from areas like North Capitol Hill.
But we've all got to try to figure out
how to balance that all together.
-Okay. All right. Thank you for that.
Councilmember Hollingsworth,
we're going to talk about your five-point plan
to respond to some of these issues in a bit.
But I do want to talk about what prompted you to get there.
There was a deadly shooting on October 9th.
Jaydon Jameson was killed.
And this was about three weeks after another deadly shooting
where Robert Fleeks Jr. was killed.
I have two questions.
What spurred you into action that night in October?
And also, what do you say to families
who've been victimized by gun violence,
who say the city hasn't done right by them?
-Yeah, so let me first address,
any life that's lost in the city is too much.
And it's something that I take very personally
when people are gunned down to gun violence.
And then the aftermath of that.
It's not only that person.
It's sometimes I know the family.
Sometimes I also know the community.
And that's unfortunate.
The things that we've been dealing with on Capitol Hill
that Chris had mentioned
are stuff that we came into, we inherited.
It was a lot of things that were happening.
-When you came into office. -Absolutely. Two years ago.
And then the other piece to that --
we see a lot of mental health crisis going on
on Capitol Hill and First Hill.
I don't want to forget First Hill as well.
That's -- You know, they're joined at the hip.
They're joined at the hip.
And also to some of the traffic safety issues
that are going on the Hill.
And so there are whole different things.
The five-point plan that we talked about,
and I'm more than happy to dive into detail,
but the piece that spurred that wasn't necessarily
someone got killed on gun violence.
This is stuff that we have heard from the community
that they've wanted since day one,
things that we know that will continue
to help the community move forward in our efforts
to create a safe environment, a holistic approach.
And then also stuff that we had in the works.
When you're governing, you have governance,
you have -- we're also doing budget stuff as well.
And so as a council member,
I'm responsible for those two things as well.
-Okay. Chief Barden, I wanted to make sure
I talked about what the data is telling us
when it comes to public safety on Capitol Hill.
Are there more calls for service?
Is there more crime in that neighborhood?
What is the CARE Department seeing?
What trends are you keeping an eye on?
-Yeah, I mean, it's not going well, right?
I run 911, and what we see uniquely
is this sort of wash, rinse, repeat.
You have very few people causing harm,
but they're causing a lot of harm.
And I always talk about,
you've got a coercive system, right?
So you've got law enforcement and jails
and the criminal legal system
that is not designed to break these cycles.
It's not. It's not rehabilitating people generally.
And then you've got the voluntary system --
behavioral health crisis, social services,
community-based organizations
who are also not adequately funded
or there's not a good reimbursement model
to get people the help that they need.
And so, you know, I often say it's going to be hard
if you're in a decades-long pattern
or you have a really profound mental health issue,
we're not going to solve that in 72 hours.
And, you know, so these are structural things
that need to change.
Policing alone will not fix this.
It will not.
Nor will a crisis CARE center.
You know, we need consistent leadership and investment
in the interventions
that will actually break the cycle for people.
-Let's talk about this five-point plan
a little bit further,
because part of the plan
involves expanding the reach of CARE teams,
the civilian crisis responsers --
uh, responders, I should say.
I know you're calling for more of a police presence too.
Plus, maybe an ambassador program
like Chinatown-ID has going on.
Talk about this plan, what you were able to get.
I know that during
the budget process, this was tough.
But talk about this plan and what's coming out of it.
-Yeah, so I have a great relationship
with Chief Barden and the CARE team.
And they've been doing a phenomenal job
within their boundaries that they're restricted in.
And so I talked about expanding that piece
and making sure that we have a visible presence as well.
And SPD, the East Precinct,
to have more of a visible presence
out in the community,
whether that's on bike, on foot --
just being visible, introducing themselves to folks.
The second piece, and I took notes here --
the King County Crisis CARE Clinic
is coming to Capitol Hill.
Um, so we were, I think --
We give a big shout-out to, uh, Dembowski,
to Balducci, to Mosqueda --
-All King County council members.
-All King County council members,
and then also the King County Executive Zahilay
because they were able to secure 1 million in funding.
We sent a letter and asked for more,
and we were able to get $2 million total for that,
which is great.
The third thing, the Capitol Hill ambassadors,
that was last year that we secured.
So those will be implemented next year as well.
We have a safety coordinator
that we were able to secure funding for last year.
They've been up and running for a year through the GSBA.
Third thing or fourth thing, sanctioned encampments.
Um, that was a big thing.
We need more low-barrier entry levels
to take people off the street and get them into help.
Sometimes people can't --
We want to be able to meet people where they are.
-Tiny houses? What are we talking about?
-Tiny house. It could be a tiny house.
It could be, like, Tent City
where you have different resources available.
We want all the resources to get people into shelter.
And last but not least, the environmental designs
that we're really big on --
cleaning up bike lanes, lighting, signage,
just making it feel safer.
And that's something that we can control --
the cleanliness of Capitol Hill.
-Got it. Chris, you're hearing this.
I wanted to know what you think about this plan
and what role will the Community Council play in it?
-Well, I think the Community Council,
one of the places that it plays,
is the fact that it can bring the neighborhood
and the community together to engage with those city groups
and those city organizations.
So many times I hear from groups, you know,
or from individuals
that they don't know that this service is available
from the city, you know,
or that the city --
"Why can't the city do this?"
The answer is, well, actually, they're already doing that.
And so the more that we can kind of,
you know, allow that and make it easier
for the city to keep doing some of the great things
and encourage them to do certain things a little bit better,
I think is a big piece for it.
You know, really the answer is all of it and more.
You know, I think all of those pieces
that were brought up in the five point plan,
you know, nobody's going to say
that we have done enough of that.
So I'm going to just echo that and more.
-Okay. Got it.
Chief Barden,
I know that a lot has been happening with CARE this year.
CARE teams, these crisis responders now working citywide.
The number of those teams will be doubled thanks to
a $9.5 million investment in the recent city budget.
You got a new headquarters on First Hill
for your East Precinct team.
And recently,
after some negotiations between the city
and the Seattle Police Officers Guild
CARE teams will now be able to respond on their own
in some cases, meaning they won't have to go with police
on calls through what's called a dual dispatch system.
What are these changes to CARE
going to mean for public safety on Capitol Hill?
Maybe citywide. Where do you want to take this?
-Yeah, every time I can send CARE responders to a call
and free up law enforcement, that's a win every single time.
So simply thought of, you know,
if it's 10,000 calls we've been to which it has
and it's about an hour on a call
that's 10,000 hours back to law enforcement.
We've been operating for 26 months now with no incident.
No incident.
So we've called law enforcement back
a couple of times to help us.
Generally if we think somebody might be escalating,
but it's again, a fraction of 1% that that's happened.
So we know that this is safe and we know that it's effective.
There is no path to public safety
without building out civilian response.
There's just not.
Even at the high water mark for SPD,
when they were closer to 1,500 in that department,
you still had a 72 minute response time
to priority three calls.
Priority three, those are the crisis calls.
Those are the folks that we see who are not doing well.
Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right.
Where we know this is probably going to get worse
if we don't get somebody out here to intervene.
And so it's just a false narrative that again,
you could staff up SPD and then everything would be fine.
It never was.
And we have cities like Boston with 3,100 officers.
There's still crime, right?
And so I think that's what people are starting
to understand,
that you can't talk about public safety
without talking about our unsheltered neighbors,
the impact to their safety
when they're living outside,
and without talking about addiction
and rates of substance use.
And I always say, anybody who's doing crimes,
who's causing harm or self-destructing,
that is mental health.
There's a mental or behavioral health issue
that's not a healthy person.
And so we have got to get over this idea
that there's bad people and then there's good people.
There's just people.
And when somebody is doing something destructive,
we need to intervene in a way
that again helps the person to repattern.
-There's been a lot of talk
of some surveillance cameras coming in the area.
Do you have any insight on
when those are actually going to be going in around Pike/Pine
and what kind of difference they could make?
-Yeah, I believe you talked to Captain Britt about this.
I've watched the development,
sort of the re-emergence and investment
in the real time Crime Center.
I, like most Seattleites,
I'm very trepidatious about surveillance.
I'm also very pro tech.
So I think you need outstanding governance measures.
Um, you need very ethical leaders
to have oversight of technology.
But if you want to mitigate,
especially discrimination and bias in law enforcement
and in 911, then you use tech, right?
And so I like drones as first responders,
actually, for that reason.
I know it's better to have more information.
So I know even who to send to begin with.
But as far as deployment, I don't --
you would have to ask Captain Britt.
Or, Joy, do you know?
-Yeah. What do we got? -Yeah. Good question.
That would be definitely a Captain Britt question.
-Okay. We're still working on it.
-Yes, absolutely, but, you know,
like Chief Barden said,
like, I voted on the the use of the cameras
for us to help solve violent crimes.
Full stop.
The additional stuff and I know other folks
have concerns about federal overreach.
Not one person on the council wants that.
And so, you know,
we try to put in different guardrails to make sure
that that doesn't happen.
And we'll be watching closely
and getting reports from SPD,
making sure that that does not happen.
But those are some of the things that we heard.
And it's a split.
We know it was a very tense conversation.
and we want to make sure that we are implementing that correctly
so we can have a positive impact on the community.
-Chris, any thoughts about surveillance cameras?
-Yeah, I mean, it's a complicated issue, you know,
and especially we're just putting together plans for future meetings
and Japanese American Remembrance Day is coming up,
I think February 18th.
You know, with the internment of Japanese Americans
during World War II.
And I think surveillance cameras are something that,
unfortunately, now, is in that mix of that conversation.
So I think it's a complicated issue
and something that needs to be reviewed and oversight.
And, you know, look at those concerns 'cause they are real.
-Are you hearing that from the community?
Is there a pushback? What have we got?
-Yeah, I mean, like any diverse community,
you're going to have different points of view on this.
But that's definitely one of the pieces that's been brought up,
with some of the federal actions that have been going on,
concerns about can this camera data
actually be secured, you know.
And the different leaks that are available to it.
And the speed of the rollout has concerned some people
of how quickly it's rolled out.
That being said, some people, of course,
are upset that it's not rolling out faster.
-I have a similar issue I want to talk about with you
when it comes to the King County Crisis CARE Center,
which is set to go into the old polyclinic building
at Broadway and Union.
Walk-in clinic for people in crisis.
So no appointment, no insurance necessary.
How are you approaching this new facility?
Because I know some people are saying we want this yesterday.
Others are saying we don't want this at all.
How are you looking at this?
-Well, so that's something
that we're working along with First Hill
and other community partners
and figuring out ways
to engage the community to help them to understand
what's going on with the crisis center
and what are those follow-up pieces.
And I think one of the biggest concerns,
is that it's just like the borders of the neighborhoods
are not as defined as people think they are.
You know, it's not that inside the building is one place,
and outside the building is an entirely different place.
And I think that's one of the biggest concerns
that people have is that the people who are running,
they just selected a partner
to run that -- a provider to run that.
You know, they're from the community standpoint,
you know, the responsibility of that building
doesn't end as soon as the person enters the building
or leaves the building.
And that's one of our our biggest concerns.
-Can you speak to this?
Because I know this issue has been brought up
in front of the city council, the county council as well.
This idea of people coming to the clinic for services
and then leave the facility and go where?
Help me out with how the city is going to be working
with the county on this,
trying to make sure everyone's being a good neighbor here,
-Absolutely, so I think for the general public should know
that this is a regional center.
This is not just for Seattle.
So this is folks throughout the region that will come to us.
-Central King County. -Central King County.
And so one of the things that we heard
is that when people had concerns,
it's not that they didn't want it.
They wanted a properly cited crisis CARE clinic
at the polyclinic.
You know, when people after they come in,
where do they go?
How do we get them that transition?
We don't want things to exacerbate what's currently
in the neighborhood.
And for also to,
for us and the county to recognize
that there are serious issues on Capitol Hill
and just actually say,
"Hey, we actually understand there are issues
and let's address that first."
So you got a lot of that mixed.
You also had communication pieces,
that we needed to have better communication with folks,
and that was at the county level.
And we've had really tense conversations.
But oftentimes when you are attacking these problems,
it feels like you're bringing a mop to the ocean and you're not,
you know, we're not going anywhere.
And so that's one thing that I listen to.
I heard people and said, "Okay,
what are some tangible goals and measurable goals
that we can have?"
And one of them was we need funding to make sure
that we can start to clean this up.
So when we're citing the crisis CARE clinic,
we can start from a good place.
-Okay. Chief Barden, can you shed some light on this?
I know you're on King County executive
Girmay Zahilay's transition team.
It's an important issue for the county to get right here.
What role will CARE,
maybe other public safety partners be playing
as this crisis CARE center comes online?
-Yeah, I was in a lot of those meetings as well.
Um, that debate.
And I really like executive Zahilay a lot.
He, I think shares my perspective
that you've got to actually show up and listen to people
and answer their questions in a forthright way,
where I can make a case for and I can make a case against.
And we should have that conversation.
I thought it was unfair anytime somebody raised a concern to go,
"Oh, that's NIMBYism."
Those are valid concerns, right?
Again, just through the lens of 911 data,
I know where my hot spots are.
And if you feel like we're not seeing any functional improvement
in this neighborhood, and you say,
"We're going to add yet
another vulnerable population," valid concern.
Have the conversation.
And if the way the decision is made is, you know,
that that location is advantageous for these reasons,
and we're waiting these reasons more than these concerns.
Just say that, don't act like it's not a valid concern.
And so I really like the leaders
who have been recently elected, all of them.
I think that they're very sincere in their engagement.
And I think people want public servants that will show up
and that will have a candid conversation about
how these decisions are being made.
-Do you have an idea of
how public safety agencies like yours will be involved?
-The piece that I am trying to solve for
is again that exit strategy.
So I'm entering an MOU,
an agreement right now with the King County Jail
that people do not exit at 11 p.m.,
right back into crime or crisis.
Just call us. Call CARE directly.
We can come and at least try to get somebody to the right place,
to the right resource,
rather than setting them up for failure.
So it's my intention to do the same thing
with the crisis CARE centers.
Again, county level, I want the whole county
to have the same resources basically.
So the King County Sheriff's Office has a co-responder team.
They can do the same thing in unincorporated King County.
-Thank you for that.
Chris, I want to talk about local business for a minute,
if I could.
We've seen a lot of established Capitol Hill spots
closing in the past few months.
I'm thinking about Skillet, Mamnoon, the Starbucks Roastery,
just to name a few here.
The restaurants who are hanging in there want to stay open.
I've talked with a few of them.
They want to keep their block activated,
which can be a boost for public safety too.
What are you hearing from local businesses
and what kind of support are they asking for?
-We've been having a lot of challenges with broken glass,
and I know the city has some programs to help with that.
It's a question of whether or not the businesses
are aware of those. -Storefront repair.
You bet. -Storefront repair.
And that it's challenging for the businesses late at night.
Some of these crime issues, they affect the way
that people think they're going to do something
or want to do something which has that follow on effect.
If the restaurant doesn't have enough people showing up,
the restaurant's not going to stay open.
Which is going to stop people from going to the restaurant
that's next door.
And so I think that's something that we as a community,
the city, and all the different pieces in the county
and everything really need to come together
to figure out different ways to engage that.
-Yeah. Do you have some thoughts about this?
I know you've been walking the district a lot,
too, and talking to businesses.
-A lot of it stems from the public safety piece.
Also the cleanliness of the city,
lighting, those things can change the mood.
-There's been some economic issues, too.
You can't overlook that. -Absolutely.
You can't. Economic issues. There's inflation.
There's food costs, there's labor, there's rent.
There's so many different things
that go into a business operational,
a whole bunch of stuff.
-You can't pay the rent, but you could probably help
fix their storefronts it sounds like.
-You can, but you can also
if we have public safety at a certain level
where maybe a business isn't getting broken into,
they don't have to deal with mental health crisis
that's spilling out on the streets,
their workers feel safe to come to work.
It's different in different neighborhoods
I'm dealing with in East Lake,
you have a lot of construction.
I have businesses doing $200 for lunch.
Overall revenue because of the construction impact.
So in different neighborhoods, it's different.
And then you layer that all the other stuff on.
It's not crime over there,
it's the impact of construction. -I see, I see.
-So there's a lot of different issues
that we are having to navigate.
But specifically on Capitol Hill with the crime,
that is the number one thing that we hear from businesses.
And just the broken glass from their business.
-Okay. All right. We need to start wrapping up.
And I want to try to figure out what kind of discussion
do you think we're going to be having about safety
on Capitol Hill next year?
Chief, can I start with you and we'll go down the line.
-We're going to solve it.
It's going to be great. -You heard it here first.
-Yeah.
No, I actually am very optimistic
right now about next year.
I think that there is -- I think just the city
and the county working closely together
is going to change everything.
Since I arrived, I thought,
"Oh, I think the city blames the county,
and the county blames the city for everything,"
and that is not appropriate and it slows us down.
I think that we're getting
a much more nuanced understanding
of the crisis population on the street,
and that we do have an epidemic level
of substance use in this city.
And so we need to solve for that.
SFD having buprenorphine, the ORCA center, you know
that no wrong door into treatment.
People are starting to self-refer.
-Opioid deaths are going down. -They are.
And so I think that is the game changer.
If we can get treatment to people,
make it really, really easy, simplify the process,
our city really will look different.
You know, every time we intervene
and break that cycle of addiction,
you're saving a whole bunch of crimes and a lot of crisis
and a lot of public safety dollars and a life.
-Okay. Yeah. Which is what it's all centered on here.
Chris, some thoughts about where we're looking at this next year.
-I think next year it's going to be super fun.
We have "Hilloween" coming up in October for Halloween.
-He's got the calendar going. -Yeah, exactly.
I think that's one of the things that activates people
to keep these businesses is you know that it's a fun
and it's an engaging place.
And I love Seattle and I love Capitol Hill.
-Yeah, talk to me about the public safety piece though.
Where do you think we're going?
-Well, I think the public safety piece kind of feeds into that.
I think the numbers are looking better than they have been.
And I think people's perception of that leads into that.
The number of people I've seen who've talked to me about
seeing cop cars around,
but also knowing that there's other services
that are available.
You can walk into the Capitol Hill library right now
and pick up Narcan, you know,
without having to engage with anybody.
I think those pieces all lead to
a better public safety environment.
-Okay, Councilmember Hollingsworth,
I know you were talking about this right
when you came into office.
Where are we going to be on this issue next year?
What do you think? -Yeah.
Well, the first thing I want to say,
I love that the county and the city
are going to be working hand in hand.
I heard a joke.
Someone said that there are two elephants --
The county and the city are two elephants
looking at each other through a straw.
So I want to remove the straw,
so now we're just looking at each other.
-Okay. All right. -So that's the first piece.
The second thing is we have ambassadors
coming to Capitol Hill.
We had a ton of investment where, you know,
after you do -- last year you do an investment
for funding and money.
Now you start seeing the programs happen.
So 2026 is going to be great because let me tell you,
it's the only way that we can improve.
We have to look up and ensure that we're making sure
that we're meeting people's needs.
But the other piece to that I want to highlight,
besides ambassadors is the safety coordinator
that we have on Capitol Hill.
Just having a little bit more of a cohesive response to that
as well, so they can help elevate people's concerns.
-All right. We will see what's next.
Thank you for all of that. And we will be right back.
What are people saying online
about public safety on Capitol Hill?
One person writes...
Another person says...
We'd like to know what you think.
Send us an email at contact@seattlechannel.org.
Or find us on social media.
Great to get that input.
And a big thanks to Chief Amy Barden from the CARE Department.
Also, Chris Paul is chair of the Capitol Hill Community Council
and also Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth
from District 3.
Really appreciate you being here.
And we will see you next time on "City Inside Out."
♪♪