Despite state-wide violent crime trends and a tragic seven-day stretch of homicides throughout Washington last month, Chief Diaz believes his jurisdiction — the 142 square miles that incorporate the metropolis — is becoming a safer place for its residents.
Now, Diaz’s optimism might finally be settling in. Despite nagging issues within the department, December 2022 turned over a new leaf. 2022’s final month had the fewest violent crimes reported since March 2020, as violent crimes dropped 18% over the last three months of 2022 in comparison to 2021, according toOut of the six reported homicides Seattle witnessed last month, four were related to homeless, according to Diaz.
This practice, alongside the many other public service tasks Seattle police officers are responsible for, has led to the overall exhaustion and ensuing depleted morale within the thinning department. “Morale was just so low. It was hard to just get into the car to go to work. I felt that the department did not fight hard enough to defend officers after the riots. And now department personnel is depleted, and officer detectives are paying for that.”While acknowledging that morale still needs improvement, Diaz disagreed with some of the complaints found in the exit interviews, believing that the department is on a progressive incline.
“We hope that we lose less officers than we hire and that we’re able to really make an improvement in the amount of and retention of officers,” Diaz said. “If that’s the case, it’ll take us probably about anywhere from four to six years for us to get up to an adequate staffing level where there’s a relief coming in, and that we’re able to start filling some of the needed positions throughout the department.
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