♪♪
-Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for gathering today
to mark the really important expansion of
the CARE responders citywide into South and Southwest.
We're going to get this started with my mayor, Bruce Harrell.
I've often said he is the one who recruited me.
He talked me into this.
I didn't know what it was going to be,
and it's turned out to be the real joy and honor
of my life to advance this important movement.
And so, with that, I give you the Mayor.
-Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Chief.
So we will -- I'll say a few general words,
and then we'll hand it back to the Chief to ask --
to provide some specific details.
I'm very, very excited.
Thanks for being here at Delridge Community Center,
otherwise known as Kiki's home, over there.
She runs this place and runs it the way
we like our place to be run.
An outstanding city employee, and we have a great staff here.
So we wanted to choose this area and this place
when we talk about the expansion of our team here.
Many of you have followed what we're trying
to do with our CARE team.
And the employees standing with us today
and those employees that are doing this work
just optimize and epitomize what we're trying
to do in terms of keeping everyone safe.
I want to ground us in a quote
that was a Frederick Douglass quote
that I've used once before, and that is,
"If there's no struggle, there's no progress."
You know, we are sort of making it up as we go, to some extent.
We follow what's happening around this country.
We study best practices.
We recruit the best talent, and then we implement.
And we learn as we go.
So today we're celebrating the expansion
of the CARE Department Dual Dispatch Pilots
that are now serving communities citywide,
not just in the regions before.
This is exciting.
[ Applause ]
Let's talk a little bit about what this team
has already accomplished.
They've responded to over 1700 incidents
with an average response time of less than 12 minutes
and an average time on the scene of approximately 33 minutes.
Over a quarter of those requests
involve transport to shelters and day centers,
a time-intensive ask
which would have taken police away from other priorities.
CARE is providing people the help
that they need through behavioral interventions
and crisis deescalation --
and that word will come up often in the work that they do --
deescalation, resource navigation,
and assistance finding services and, to a large extent,
just providing basic supplies like food and water
and clothing and hygiene items.
You would be surprised at what simple things
sometimes will do for a human being in crisis.
Now, getting today was not a guarantee.
And, of course, there's still a lot of work to do.
I want to recognize Councilmember Mark Solomon
for being here after what I understand was
a marathon meeting yesterday on some important issues.
Thank you for being here.
A lot of intention and thought
went into the CARE design structure.
And, again, I can't thank enough Chief Barden for her expertise
and her thoughtful and almost academic approach
in doing this kind of work.
Now, what we know and the data clearly would support the fact
that CARE responders are able to provide people in crisis
the help that they need and free up, once again,
the limited police resources
and allows us as a city to use our critical resources
where they are needed most.
I've said on other occasions,
we are making incredible progress
in our police recruiting.
In 2025, we're on track to close --
we're on track for close
to double the applicants per day at this point last year.
This is tremendous work done by our police department
and our staff and other city employees.
And, quite honestly, I'm excited to be out here in West Seattle
to sort of talk about this.
I have a lot of fond memories here as a --
I was young once -- as a young man and with my family here.
And when we talk about this kind of news
that we're spreading out throughout the city,
no better place to talk about our One Seattle vision
than here in West Seattle.
You've heard me say on other occasions
there's no One Seattle without West Seattle.
These CARE responders, I can't speak enough about them.
They're well-trained,
well-practiced in behavioral health.
They understand the communities that they serve.
They spend time in the communities that they serve.
When they see someone in crisis,
they are trained, trained to see someone that needs help,
that epitomizes our values
within our One Seattle structure.
But that's not what this is all about.
Whether they are city employee or neighbor,
service provider,
we are here simply because we care about community.
We care about a human being in crisis.
So, again, I want to thank Chief Barden.
I'll turn it back over to her.
And I have to tell, I just went in,
in preparation for this press event inside the center,
Kiki, and what I saw was beautiful.
I saw the kids in there with excitement to learn, curiosity.
And then I saw, how should I say,
more seasoned people, like myself, saying,
"Welcome to my house."
That makes us feel good as a city.
Makes us feel like we're heading in the right direction.
And with our CARE expansion, I know that we are.
And, with that, I'll reintroduce Chief Barden.
[ Applause ]
-Yeah. I can confirm --
Some of you know my first career was teacher.
And, as I heard the kids,
I really had to discipline myself to not wander
into that familiar, happy space
where everyone seemed to be getting along.
So, I am Chief of Seattle's
third public safety department called CARE.
I was recently criticized a little bit
for focusing so much on the challenges in our community
and not taking time to really celebrate the achievements
of this young department.
And I accepted that critique,
but I can also tell you I'm not that likely to change.
I was always the kid
who was really excited to build the tree house
and not play in the tree house.
And generally, one problem's done and I'm on to the next.
But we should take time to be grateful.
And I'm really happy to be here today with so many of you
who are truly advancing the movement that I get to amplify.
I do appreciate Mayor Harrell.
What I've learned all across the country is the only way
these programs really can start to have impact
is when there is consistent conviction in leadership
all across levels of government.
And I appreciate him.
I have been with many of you in community.
And I am grateful that every time I am, invariably,
whether it's a small group or a big group,
the question I get is, How can we help?
What do you need? What can we do?
And I appreciate that.
So I want to share with you, last year,
one of my favorite occasions,
actually, was attending the ribbon cutting
of the new overlook walk in the park
that's down by Pike Place Market.
And I was marveling, I remember, at the stunning views,
at the landscape design.
I was sort of tracking the progress,
but I didn't understand.
I wasn't prepared for the grandeur of that day.
And as I looked around, all the people smiling and laughing,
my mind naturally went back
to the Great Alaska Way Viaduct debate years before.
You recall that roadway was a seemingly intractable barrier
between downtown and the waterfront.
And, as I understand it, new proposals started
to be considered all the way back in the '60s.
Now, the state and city considered
all of these different options,
and then eventually the deep-bored tunnel was selected
as the best solution.
And so the southern part of the viaduct was demolished in 2011
and replace with our current freeway.
Now, I had moved to Seattle in 2010,
and I did not at all understand the nostalgia and loss
actually expressed as people were commuting
on the viaduct one last time.
I personally didn't have any sentimentality around it.
And then I remembered the adventures of Bertha,
of the boring machine, back in 2013, 2014, 2015.
So you'll recall Bertha had launched with great celebration
and was cruising along for about four months
until it hit a steel pipe near South Main Street.
I think I'm triggering some of you here,
so I'm sorry about that.
Three days later, Bertha overheated;
and this led to a massive repair effort
costing more than $100 million.
Crews had to excavate a 120-foot-deep hole in order
to rescue and repair that giant drill's front end.
And then, meanwhile, Pioneer Square began to sink.
All these misadventures attracted a lot
of criticism, local attention.
I moved out of Washington State in 2015
and still recall hearing back east from time to time
tales of Seattle's misguided leaders
and this misguided project.
One councilmember was quoted in The Seattle Times saying,
"I'm not sure anyone wants to talk about this.
It is a nightmare. There is no happy ending."
Well, workers finally recommenced
after a two-year delay.
And, true to Bertha fashion, all these problems kept popping up.
There were more delays, more sinkholes,
and a lot more bad press.
In spite of all the travails,
that tunnel was eventually complete.
And that infrastructure redesign is what enabled
the waterfront to go forward.
So, as I listened on that day
to the ribbon-cutting remarks about our Coast Salish heritage
and thought about those who had kept the faith
and protected that vision,
more than 10,000 people participated
in planning sessions and community meetings,
walking tours, environmental reviews.
I felt reverent.
I realized when I used to hear about the viaduct plans
and read the headlines,
I did not at all grasp the vision of what this could be.
I didn't understand.
It wasn't a conversation about efficient transportation
and easy access to tourist destinations.
The vision was to recapture
and acknowledge the spirit of our ancestry,
the essence of our shared values,
to reaffirm our connection to nature and to each other.
And so, then, my thoughts naturally
turned to the past two years, to my adventures
and the questions and comments
and skepticism and incredulity I've encountered.
What if a social worker gets shot?
We already have CIT trained officers.
We already have Health One.
We shouldn't spend more money on services.
It was recently suggested
that CARE was a failing experiment in districts
where we have had two CARE responders for one month
and in districts where we have not yet begun the work.
And the truth is, today, I don't have any Bertha debacles
to share with you.
Those first 1,768 encounters have gone extraordinarily well,
and we have had no adverse outcomes or incidents.
Every single time CARE can respond to
a behavioral health need without any incident, that is a win.
I freed up officers in that moment.
And we should always want to send --
regardless of police or fire staffing,
you should want to send the correct discipline to the call.
Every time we deploy CARE responders instead of police,
we spend about half as much.
And this has real impact on the general fund.
And I've learned to speak in terms of hours saved
and dollars and cents
because I know people care about these things.
But the vision the Mayor and I share
is not simply to improve
public safety operations and efficiency.
The vision is a society
where every public safety intervention and interaction
is designed to heal and to redirect
and improve individual lives. And I can imagine a world
where we invest in prevention first
and then early intervention and then diversion
before we go to the coercive arm of the law.
We must collectively insist
that we invest in diversified response
but also that we develop a system that will predictably
and successfully re-pattern behavior,
improve and promote mental health and stability,
and support people in redirecting their lives
and reaching their potential.
The vision is to rebuild the village,
to let go of what divides and to embrace what connects.
And the success of this movement
will hinge on individual community members remaining
deeply anchored in the moral imperative of this work
and not faltering in the face
of shifting narratives and budget shortfalls
and self-interested tactics
by people prioritizing profit and power over the greater good.
So, to our amazing CARE responders --
many of them are working -- to the managers,
Catriona Hernandez and Rose Nakano,
I thank you for blazing the trail to that future state.
You are digging the hole right now,
digging that tunnel, and it is hard.
And I acknowledge that.
We remind each other all the time for whom we work
and to whom we are really accountable.
It's our neighbors languishing on the street
and our neighbors who are suffering out of sight.
We work for the family members
who implore us to help their people,
and we work on behalf of the thousands of family members
who have lost their loved ones to suicide
or to overdose or to the impacts of having no place to call home.
On a personal note,
I express such gratitude to all of those
who have lived through the conditions
and the circumstances I so often speak about.
You inform my perspectives and our strategy
and our recommendations.
To me, One Seattle does not mean one unified government entity.
It means we are one with those who are left behind,
and we're one with those
who have been rendered invisible and voiceless.
And I will tell you the best messages
I get every day say things like, Thank you for really seeing us.
Thank you for believing in us.
Thank you for knowing that we do recover.
So I do look forward to the day
of our metaphorical overlook walk ribbon cutting
when all of Seattle can see and enjoy the work,
the tenacity, the grit,
and the abiding compassion that preceded that moment.
And sometimes I think the next generation
is probably going to look back at all these pictures of us
smiling and laughing and think it was really fun and easy.
But, privately, we will know the travails,
and we will know what the progress cost us.
And I treasure these days working with you
and working for you.
So onward.
[ Applause ]
So, a few of my favorite community leaders
are going to speak next.
I hope I warmed up the crowd for you.
The first is Charlotte Starck.
Will you come up here?
So Charlotte is the President of the Alki Community Council.
She invited me to speak to that group some time ago.
It was one of my favorite occasions,
and I learned Alki is active.
West Seattle is engaged.
I have had many meeting requests
since and been able to walk along with people,
and you're one of the best leaders in the city.
So thank you for being here.
-Thank you, thank you.
I'm humbled by that comment, so...
And thank you on behalf of West Seattle, as well.
I have to say, Chief Amy Barden --
Chief Barden, pardon me. -Just Amy.
-No.
You have the education, the experience,
the commitment, the passion.
It is Chief Barden for me, always.
This means a lot...
...for personal and neighborhood reasons.
The personal, I'm not going to go into today,
because I know many of you have experienced it.
Amy doesn't even know my story in my family.
But, on a happy note first,
I wrote that I was going to lead off
that this is highly anticipated because, for a year and a half,
I've been saying the one-word question, which is "When?"
You know, when does West Seattle get CARE?
And so, on behalf of all the West Seattle neighborhoods
that attended,
especially the West Seattle Precinct meeting last night,
it was very, very vivid that all of us are excited.
And we just imagine the role -- red carpet, Chief Barden,
for all your people and all the work
that's to come, because it's here.
No doubt our neighborhoods from Alki and Admiral
to the Junction to South Park and West Seattle
is still emerging from an unprecedented level of crime
that includes gun violence, smash and grabs,
carjackings, and more
that you all see in the news
that has taken a toll on our residents,
from young and old
to the small businesses impacted at unsustainable levels.
Police officers have been battling
amid their staff shortage, and they still do.
And things are improving, and we see that improvement coming.
And there's still a lot of work to do,
and we're committed to that.
And it's going to take this multidisciplinary,
multi-prong approach to right the ship.
But do you feel it? Because I do. I feel it.
Our police department is supported,
as we said, in West Seattle
by neighborhood leaders across north to south
and supported and depended upon in West Seattle
as the guardians of public safety.
They are skilled.
They are called with courage to face down
the worst predators and bad actors.
And, for those reasons,
we need police on the front lines managing
high-level emergency calls, hands down.
As the police department works to expand their bandwidth
and hire more officers --
and the Mayor is definitely committed to that as well --
there have been naturally longer waits on
those nonemergency calls in these last years,
winding up as needs have been higher.
And they can take considerable time from officers.
They said the average is 33 minutes,
but we've also heard some can take hours.
So to people who wonder why do we need CARE in West Seattle?
The arrival of the CARE crisis responders brings
a lever that West Seattle residents can feel
more comfortable pulling right now, because,
sometimes, me included, people hesitate.
And they walk by a person in a mental or addiction crisis
because we've become too used to seeing the behaviors
and feeling like we can't do anything about it.
Or it's just the new norm.
But we shouldn't accept it, and today is a good day
to reset our thinking.
If you've hesitated to call 911,
not wanting to burden the police department knowing
how short-staffed they are, now you know to just call.
Call 911 because the dispatchers will get the right person there.
And we now have the people
who can handle those nonemergency responses.
So some -- pardon me. It's chilly out here.
Some may question whether CARE is necessary,
because there's lots of nonprofits.
We've seen lots of money move in the direction of the streets
to the homeless and those that are challenged, other resources.
However, they don't provide the bandwidth to the police
that the CARE team will be able to do in the same way.
They don't have a dispatch system
to reach the nonemergency in that exact moment
when someone flags the crisis.
So this synergism between CARE and police
offers more hope for us in West Seattle
and across the city, and a potential lifeline to those
who somehow, somewhere along the line...
fell into addiction and couldn't get out.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge that,
as I mentioned, it's not just a them issue.
Most people know someone in their family,
their friends, their circle of colleagues
that is struggling with an issue,
perhaps with mental illness, addiction
in the post-COVID and a very drug-infused society.
And we as humans are not kryptonite.
We as a city are not a heartless city.
We are resilient.
In West Seattle,
we've seen the human spirit demonstrate
that resilience and strength as people heal,
and we continue to move forward with tangible solutions.
And the CARE team is a tangible part of the solution
to promote public safety, civility,
and healing in the places where we need it.
And is all that aspirational as an outcome? Yes.
Should it be? Yes.
And I'm proud to stand with the people who leaned in hard,
starting with Mayor Harrell, to do this hard work.
So to our Southwest Precinct police
and all the Seattle police officers,
thank you for your tenacious commitment to protect and serve.
And to Chief Barden, thank you ahead for the work
that you and your team are going to do.
[ Applause ]
-Thank you, Charlotte.
Next up, similarly, we have Erin Goodman.
I met Erin, I think,
probably three weeks into the job and latched on to her.
She is a fierce advocate for what is right in this city.
She's been running the SODO BIA, was the founder.
It's been ten years.
She's not aging in the time that I've known her,
and I'm aging rapidly, and so...
But thank you for being here and for being an advocate.
-Thank you, Amy.
And that's not what my mirror tells me,
but I'll take it. Good morning.
I'm Erin Goodman,
Executive Director of the SODO Business Improvement Area,
and I am really happy to be here this morning
for this announcement.
As many of you know, SODO,
it really is an epicenter of our city's unsheltered crisis
and the accompanying complex challenges related
to public safety, public health, and community well-being.
Every day, we see individuals struggling
with mental health issues, addiction,
and a lack of basic resources like food and shelter.
And these are issues that cannot be addressed
by law enforcement alone.
This long-awaited expansion of the CARE team
into the South and Southwest Precincts
is an essential part of beginning
to address those issues.
This initiative has shown success downtown,
and we welcome CARE to SODO.
This will ensure that people in crisis
get care from trained professionals in deescalation
and mental health support,
while allowing sworn law enforcement officers to focus
on calls and situations that require their expertise.
And I want to be clear.
My support for expanding
civilian-led crisis response teams
does not take away from my long-standing support
for the Seattle Police Department.
Our officers are essential, and I have always stood behind them.
However, we know that not all 911 calls are
for violent incidents
or necessarily require a sworn officer response.
Often, these calls involve someone
in a mental health crisis or just in need of services.
And in this period of short -- staffing shortages at SPD
and in significant property crime issues in SODO,
we need to make sure that we are using our resources wisely
and sending the right response to calls.
This expansion will provide a compassionate,
specialized response to those in need,
complementing, not replacing, our police and fire departments.
This is a crucial step in rethinking
how we respond to crisis situation,
ensuring the right care is delivered at the right time.
So I want to thank Mayor Harrell, Chief Barden,
and the entire CARE team who has thought outside the box
and leads the nation in bringing this new type of crisis response
into reality and look forward to working with them in SODO.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-Thank you, Erin.
And last up, we have Carolanne Sanders Lundgren.
Come on up.
Carolanne works for Purpose. Dignity. Action., PDA,
and is here also representing, I know,
Lisa Dugard and other leaders.
This is really important to understand these.
Some of the LEAD and the REACH contracts,
those are being looked at.
I've often said CARE, we're first responders.
I want to rapidly triage and then hand off.
And so LEAD has been here for a dozen years doing this work,
really advocating we need community and care
and not punishment, which is, again,
the message that I amplify.
So thank you for being here, Carolanne.
[ Applause ]
-Good morning.
My name is Carolanne Sanders Lundgren,
and I'm very pleased to be representing
Purpose. Dignity. Action. this morning
as its chief campaign officer.
Thank you so much to Mayor Harrell
for including us in the celebration
of the CARE department and its expansion.
And we share your enthusiasm in bringing such needed resources
to south and southwest Seattle communities.
This morning, I'm reminded of a point
that actually Chief Barden made last week,
which has really stuck with me since then.
This is in a conversation to City Council.
She made the point that public health is public safety.
We share that belief at PDA.
It is our collective job to create the conditions
in which people can chart their own path to stability, purpose,
to joy, no matter where their starting point.
And so what an honor
to be able to partner with this literal award-winning
CARE department to bring that vision to life.
I want to talk about where PDA's programs,
like LEAD, prebooking diversion,
and CoLEAD intensive case management,
come into the equation alongside the CARE department.
We work together like puzzle pieces
to constitute a whole system of care,
as Chief Barden just described.
Where CARE coordinates and deploys our first responders
who are really purposefully focused on deescalating
and stabilizing that moment of crisis,
you might think about LEAD or CoLEAD
as a kind of second responder.
We come along after that point of crisis
as uniquely skilled professionals
who are equipped to provide a long-term response
to a person's chronic and ongoing health,
legal, socioeconomic challenges,
because, if you think about it,
what we are asking people to do on the other side
of that moment of crisis when we first encounter them,
when the CARE department first encounters them,
is, quite literally, to re-engineer their entire lives.
We are asking people to re-engineer their entire lives.
And if we want them to get there,
if we want to experience a true sea change
in the dynamics of public health and safety in our community,
then we owe people the sustained evidence-based care,
accountability, and companionship
that realistically it takes to get them there.
This is our moral imperative, as Chief Barden said.
And so we look forward to the Mayor's future endeavors
to streamline the work of the CARE department
and the many community based organizations like PDA
that are working in this space of public health and safety.
We're really excited about the potential integration
of PDA's work more directly into the CARE department portfolio.
But, most of all,
I just want to say, I cannot emphasize this enough --
I cannot emphasize this enough.
We are so glad to have you, Chief Barden,
as a partner in this work, as a visionary leader.
Thank you for working so intentionally,
so diligently to staff up a team of true experts.
LEAD is standing by to take your referrals.
We're ready to partner here in south and southwest Seattle,
and we are energized for the journey ahead.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
-Thank you, Carolanne.
This is good for my well-being.
This is like formal peer support.
I appreciate it.
I think now we get to take some questions.
You can ask the Mayor, any of us.
Erica.
-Can you describe the elements of this expansion?
My understanding is there's 24 people currently on your team.
Is it redistributing them into these areas?
And then, I guess, second, this would be a follow-up.
But does it require --
do you have to get SPOG approval to go beyond 24?
-Yeah. So the first point,
we've had six responders piloting downtown
for the first year.
We're really studying those calls.
We were most often dispatching the team alongside police,
which I maintain was a very good approach
because I could assess, are they safe?
They filed a report after every single occasion.
Was there any adverse impact?
Did you connect people to services?
Are we basically responding to the right types of calls?
So very quickly, after about 600 calls,
it became clear we were getting it right.
I much more frequently send fire out who need
police alongside or backup.
That happens every day.
So we know how to do that in first response.
We're all on police channels, and we can easily redirect.
The team then -- Last summer,
the Mayor announced would expand to the 24 responders.
That is the limiting factor in the original SPOG MOU.
So we have 24 responders now hired.
They just finished their academy.
We've got three supervisors,
which is sort of like the sergeant equivalent
in the CARE department -- a training manager, Rose,
who's brilliant, and then Cat is the manager over the unit,
kind of like a lieutenant
or really like a chief, if we're honest.
It is true that in that MOU,
which expires at the end of the year,
the limiting number was 24, as we studied it.
To this point, we've been to,
again, as of yesterday, 1,768 calls.
We have called for police to come back
and assist three times,
which actually I'm shocked at how low that is.
I would have accepted -- you know,
expected it to be a little bit more frequent than that.
So, yeah. What else?
Hi. -Hey.
Tracy Record, West Seattle Blog.
How soon will the local CARE responders
be actually working out of this area?
As they told me last week,
they're still being dispatched from downtown.
-Yeah. That -- hey, Cat. Come on up.
I just remembered somebody knows more about this,
and she did really well last summer.
And so now -- that's the trouble with being confident.
So it was actually much easier to staff
and to train the responders than to do all the paperwork,
get the MOUs to be colocated in precincts and at other places.
So do you want to give a status
on geographically where they are?
-I thought I was going to get away with it.
I thought Amy was going to handle this.
So our team has been at each stage hiring
and training new folks.
Then, when they deploy into field training,
we issue them into their new area.
That's one of the areas they train in.
So, in January, that was North Precinct.
And then now, actually starting March 10th, is
when our latest class of people deployed into field training
and begin staffing South and Southwest Precincts.
So while our office is over at Third South and South Horton,
for now, we're also working with Captain Bear,
who's kind enough to work with us
to offer space inside Southwest Precinct as well.
So we're already able to take calls in Southwest,
but we'll also be even more responsive and readily available
once we have space a little more centrally located too.
-Is there a timeline for that?
-I would say probably before April 1st
would be our expectation to move in there.
But we're lucky that the space that we found,
actually with Erin's assistance through SODO BIA,
is very centrally located to I-5 and the West Seattle bridge,
so we're still able to respond pretty quickly from
where we are now in the meantime.
-I was looking at Captain Bear.
Does that sound real? Yeah. Fact check.
Thank you, Tracy. Anything else?
Hi. -Yeah.
Are there plans to expand at some point beyond...
[ Speaking indistinctly ]
-It is my strong contention that it should.
I think Seattle doesn't always realize we've had
the RCR response up north in five jurisdictions since 2017.
There are teams that are successful in Bellingham.
We've been doing this work all across the country.
I love it that I'm being given so much praise for being novel.
It's not novel. It's not novel.
I'm flying to Albuquerque next weekend to speak
at their press event.
Their CARE responders, that unit, ACS,
has responded to 100,000 calls in three years.
And, if you look at their police data and listen to Chief Medina,
he says dramatic improvement to police staffing,
police morale, reduction in property crime,
reduction in violent crime. And this is logical to me.
If you free out law enforcement --
free up law enforcement to do law enforcement work,
you're going to see improvements in public safety.
So, yes.
If it's up to me -- Mayor, do you have anything to add?
Is he nodding behind me, or is he shaking his head?
Yeah, yeah. Thank you for the question.
Anything else? Yes.
-Just to clarify, how many calls total has the team
over the period of time --
-1,768. -1,778?
-68 as of yesterday.
-1,768. Thank you. -Yes.
And, again, it is quite a high number, because,
overwhelmingly, it was only six people on staff.
And you need to remember, this is line work, right?
So, if I say have 24 responders,
that means I have 12 to 18 responders active
only 10 hours a day on any given day.
And what we're trying to do is really study
the crisis hot spots.
It's predictable
where these crisis calls are going to come from,
when they're going to occur.
And so I'm saying, let's get out there proactively and see
if we can't actually reduce the calls coming in to 911.
What else? Yes. Go ahead, Deb.
-Deb Barker here asking -- saying welcome.
And, Chief Barden, what do you need from the community?
-My favorite question. Yeah.
I mean, I think the main thing is just hope and conviction
that we need this.
Don't let it be political. I always say this.
It -- when I arrived, you know, I was an outsider.
I hadn't been in Seattle.
And I was thinking, what am I solving for?
And it was just very literal. I'm getting 900,000 calls.
If you take a step back
and think about what the person is describing
or what they're needing, who would you send?
And so I reject the notion that it's about, you know,
whether or not we want law enforcement.
Of course we need law enforcement.
By the data, we had escalating violent crime 2020 to 2023,
and now it's improving.
Thank you, Mayor, for that and to police leadership.
But we just need to be pragmatic about it and iterative.
At a future state, if we see a trend -- again,
if Chief Scoggins and company can solve the fentanyl crisis,
that would be awesome with Health 99,
then you would likely reduce that and repurpose that unit.
So we don't want these rigid structures.
The other thing I always say is take care of one another.
That's why I love the BIAs.
I love community groups.
We do need to rebuild the village.
So many of the calls
that we respond to relate to intense loneliness and isolation
and despair and despondence.
We are social creatures,
and we do best in environments like this.
We need that.
That's fundamental to what it is to be human.
So everybody should be volunteering.
Everybody should be engaging.
And, again, I want us to focus on what works
and let go of the past.
Thank you for my favorite question.
Yeah. Erica. -Question for the Mayor.
-I thought we're going to have a first --
my presser where I didn't get asked one question.
I was -- great, Erica.
Let me -- before I answer your question,
I did want to thank Charlotte, Erin,
and Carolanne for being vocal
and committed to your communities
and to the safety of everyone.
Thank you very much.
I know it's nerve-wracking sometimes
speaking in front of cameras.
I have to do it all the time.
Thank you very much. Erica, please.
-City Council was expressing some skepticism
about the results from CARE the other day.
I'm wondering, from your perspective,
how confident are you in this pilot,
and do you want to expand it beyond 24?
-Yeah. So a great question.
I have to be a little careful because,
as Erica's first question sort of suggested,
we are in negotiations with a SPOG contract right now.
And, of course, this is part of that negotiation.
So I don't want to get in front of my skis
to talk too much about what we're trying to do with this.
As Chief Barden said very clearly...
...this should help our police department, simply put.
And it should help the community
because we're freeing up resources
and getting a different skill set in this situation.
I think last week,
Erica is referring to a very robust discussion
by the City Council,
and I thought you did a great job in responding
on what we are doing.
There's often a misunderstanding
about what these fine people can do --
we have 24 CARE responders, three managers --
that they are not empowered to arrest anyone.
They are not there to take the place of a police officer.
And I think often, in that exchange,
I think that there was somewhat of a misunderstanding
of the role and scope of these fine people.
So we will take the feedback.
And I always say feedback is not definition.
It's just information to get better.
And we have a great team of CARE responders, committed.
So we listen to the City Council.
We'll get better.
We have fine leadership in place, fine policies in place.
And, hopefully, a year from now,
we'll have even more success stories on the lives we saved.
Thank you, Erica.
Okay. I'm going to count us down.
I got one more question.
-Just a couple things.
-Okay.
Yeah, I didn't think I was going to get out of here
without any questions, so go ahead.
-City Council approved the rezoning part of SODO
for resident housing.
Half of that housing going to be --
supposed to be affordable housing.
What are your thoughts on that? -Sure.
-And how does that align with what you've been vocal about,
you know, getting downtown revitalized.
-Sure. I'll just give a little context for those
that aren't following it.
Yesterday, the City Council,
after I was referring to a marathon meeting
with Councilmember Solomon's input.
They had a long meeting yesterday
on what I'll call stadium housing.
Last night, it passed 6 to 3.
And the thrust was to have housing in this area
that was formerly zoned for more industrial use.
I'll just put it that way.
And there could be hotels as a possibility.
So I think the vote reflected the need to have housing.
We are in a housing crisis. We want baristas and teachers
and social workers to be able to live in this city.
I think the work now needs to be to demonstrate to the port
and to the longshoremen and to those that are --
work so feverishly in the cargo industry
that we remain committed to a maritime industry part
of our ecosystem.
And I heard comments
from Councilmember Solomon and others.
I loved your beta quote, by the way.
I actually watch this stuff.
I think it was come together because it's pretty contentious.
And I loved it.
I love when people take chances like that.
I screw up sometimes, and I take chances, by the way.
So I think, again, I want to thank the Council.
It was a tough decision. They deliberated.
It was 6 to 3.
And so I will have discussions with the port
and the longshoremen and others
to make sure that they have the assurances
that their industry remains a strong part of our ecosystem.
I think Councilmember Bob Kettle said it best on the dais
about how we remain committed to that area.
Thank you for the question.
-I have another one.
-Okay. -March Madness is here.
You're a basketball fan. Are you excited about it?
This is -- and also just kind of a test
for maybe what we're going to see
with the World Cup coming here, albeit larger crowds, for that.
But here we are.
-So my comms team told me
no jokes about basketball for a while.
So I will say that, yes, we are excited about the games.
I'm going to try to attend them this -- at the end of the week.
Again, we are a sports city.
And personal privilege here, if I may.
I attended last week in a memorial service
for Gus Williams, who we lost.
And, on that same day, we lost Slick Watts.
Legends.
And in that event that I attended,
you had the greats there, like Lenny Wilkens and
Fred Brown and Jack Sigmon and all these folks.
We are excited about basketball here.
And, again, this gives us an opportunity to show
when the fans come out.
I'm really sorry the University of Washington is not in play.
Now, that would have been a success story.
But we're going to root on the teams.
We're going to make sure everyone has a safe experience.
And, again, we have basketball fever in this region.
I think everyone knows that.
So thank you very much.
CARE team, thank you for the work.
Let's save some lives and do some good work.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]