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Renton police officer near McKnight Middle School after a motorist racing at high speed flipped their car and landed partially in the playfield (fortunately they survived). Police are typically the first professional responders to reach serious car accidents and other dangerous situations.
Yesterday we learned that Priority 1 (highest priority) police response times in the City of Seattle are now averaging ten minutes, a terrifyingly-long amount of time if an intruder is breaking into your home, threatening you on the street, or robbing your business. It’s not surprising that residents and businesses have been purchasing more guns than ever in our region out of fear that the police won’t come in time. With proper political leadership and planning, these police responses should be occurring in one to two minutes, not ten minutes.
When I was on city council we tracked Priority 1 response times as one of our most important city metrics. We worked to ensure our police had the staff and resources to be anywhere in town in an extreme emergency within 60-90 seconds, sometimes even faster, and we were able to achieve this goal in most cases.
To accomplish this we divided Renton up into sectors and divisions, and kept patrol officers circulating in spread-out defensive positions so every neighborhood and business district is covered 24/7. If a resident is awakened by an intruder, and an alert officer, who is armed and trained (and insured) can be on the scene in less than 90 seconds, the police response can beat the resident sleepily pulling a gun from a safe and loading it. Such fast police response times reduce the number of people that feel they need to keep weapons at home to be safe. To maintain fast priority 1 response, officers can’t stray too far from their sectors, so priority three and four calls may take a bit longer at times when a sector sees a lot of activity– but it’s worth it to know that in life and death situations an officer is on scene in seconds anywhere in the city.
While the chief, the police officers, the Mayor, and some Council Members still take this metric seriously, there are some Council Members that seem to feel this is too much policing.
As a result, the response time metric is not getting the important focus that it deserves, and both crime and gun sales are going up. (I’m working on getting the latest response time data for Renton, and when I do I’ll add it to this article; I know it’s gone up, but I’m not sure how much.) If we want to keep more people from arming themselves, and taking dangerous vigilante actions, we need to have a city-wide focus on maintaining these lightning-fast police response times.
In my last year on Council we added more social services specialists that could aid our Police officers with sensitive calls in which people were in behavioral crisis. But we did not eliminate officers to do this as the defund the police advocates would suggest. There is value in having more social workers and psychological experts ready to respond to certain crises, but you can’t replace police officers with these specialists and still get the quick commissioned-officer response time you need for people to feel safe. I urge anyone concerned about crime in their area, or who feels they need to carry a weapon when they didn’t before, to contact the City Council and share your concerns.
Send email to council@rentonwa.gov
On Monday the Mayor and Council proclaimed June 2, 2023 as Gun Violence Awareness Day in Renton, joining cities across the nation. Representatives from Renton Moms Demand Action accepted the proclamation.
We heard an interesting statistic. Of all the states, we’re at the bottom 5% on police per capita. That can be a good thing in that sometimes the police do things that are not good, but generally, we’re suffering from a lack of policing.
For example, we have less that 1/3 the police that NYC does per capita.
Those are interesting statistics AC. I knew we had less police officers than the average US city, but I did not realize it was that much less than NYC per capita. And I agree few if any residents want to live in a “police state,” where every error or miss-step results in a confrontation with police. Most of us want to be free to live our lives on our own terms, not hurting anyone else, while being safe and protected ourselves. So it’s okay for police officers to be investigating past crimes, patrolling their sector, visiting with residents, or even on standby, and not writing tickets or busting someone every minute of the day. And if there are laws that are too onerous, rather than getting frustrated with police officers for enforcing them, we should rewrite them. In any case, and I can tell you understand my point here, we need officers spread out in defense 24/7 to deter serious crime and defend us when we desperately need it.
One final point is that for every officer we want in position 24/7 we need to hire five people. There are 168 hours per week, so it takes about five 40-hour regular shifts on average to cover the 168 hours when you include training time, sick time, and vacation time.
With all the crime in Renton, we need more police not less. Our police work very hard. They deserve as much help as they can get.
I know the main concern is violent crime but I am concerned with red light running and road rage as well.
I live in off of Duvall Ave/CoalCreek. We call it 405 East. When the light exiting our neighborhood (Summerwind)turns green for us to exit. We have to wait a few seconds or risk getting broadsided by the red light runners.
I would love to see more police in Renton!!!!
It’s deeply unsettling to hear that in Seattle, emergency police response times are averaging ten minutes. Think about it: ten full minutes in the face of an immediate threat, a home invasion, or a public safety incident. This kind of delay leads to fear. With the right leadership and planning, response times could and should be one to two minutes.
Quick response times mean residents felt safer and less inclined to keep weapons at home for self-defence.
Some Renton Council Members seem to think that this level of policing isn’t necessary. This leads to more crime, higher gun sales, and a community that doesn’t feel safe. If we want to discourage residents from taking matters into their own hands, we need to keep our police response times swift and reliable.
Anyone concerned about rising crime rates or who feels the need to be armed for their own protection should let the City Council know about their concerns, and vote appropriately in the upcoming election.
Greg
Did anybody notice Carmen’s lack of new TikTock’s? That’s no fun. We need the crazy! It’s not like shutting down the production will do any good; we have over 600 of them to bury her next election. So might as well get that clout, eh, Carmen?
She’s being forced to be quiet. Ed and Ryan’s campaigns depend on the public forgetting the links between them and Carmen.
What connections?
Ed and Carmen are like two little peas in a pod. She’s got him wrapped around her finger and got him to sign that stupid letter opposing the south-sound mayors wanting to keep public drug use illegal.
We should have seen this coming when Ed endorsed Joseph Todd and his explicit defund the police campaign. From a distance, it looked like he stayed away from Carmen’s campaign just in case Ben won, but He was helping her campaign behind the scenes. All the other council members that love Renton are against Carmen and were helping Ben. They saw that crazy girl from a mile away.
It’s quite fascinating to observe the dynamics between Ed Prince and Carmen Rivera. While Ed perceives himself as Carmen’s mentor, the reality seems to be quite the contrary. Carmen has been skillfully steering him to align with her views. The forthcoming election has certainly shaken them up, compelling them to vote in favor of criminalizing drug use, a stance they would normally resist.
In a deft political maneuver, they, along with Ryan, have managed to signal their allegiance to the ultra-left through their letter, while simultaneously avoiding significant scrutiny from the broader electorate. Their political acumen is undeniably sharp; they’ve been adept at tailoring their narrative to suit both their ideological comrades and the general public. However, we must stay vigilant and critically evaluate their actions and motives. Their maneuverings should not distract us from the core issues that affect Renton and its residents.