Should SPD Do It?
Should SPD Do It?
In this issue: tell council to stop ShotSpotter and defund SPD's ghost cops. Also, take a quiz to answer the question of whether SPD should be doing so much.
Remaining Budget Timeline
Budget Chair Mosqueda released the council’s balancing package yesterday, Monday 11/14.
Final public budget hearing is today, Tuesday 11/15 at 5 pm.
Sign-up to speak remotely beginning at 3 pm. You can also show up in person.
350 Seattle is supporting a youth-led rally at City Hall at 4 pm before the hearing (see post below).
Final meeting of the Budget Committee and vote on balancing package (with another opportunity for public comment) will be Monday 11/21 at 9:30 am.
Final action and full council vote will be Monday 11/29.
Key Messages to City Council
“Stop ShotSpotter”
“Abrogate (eliminate) position authority for all 120 ghost cop positions and reclaim the associated $17M from SPD.”
“I support the Solidarity Budget!”
More talking points at https://bit.ly/sbtakeaction.
Surveillance Isn’t Safety
The Mayor wants to spend $1M of SPD’s “ghost cop” money on “ShotSpotter,” a problematic gunshot detection system. This Decriminalize Seattle post elaborates:
Independent research on gunshot detection systems has shown that it rarely leads to evidence of a gun-related crime and does not prevent gun violence [page 10 of Central Staff’s overview of the proposed budget].
You can watch folks from Seattle, Portland, & Chicago speak on the impacts of ShotSpotter and its alternatives: Stop ShotSpotter: Surveillance isn’t Safety.
Say “No” to Ghost Cops
Ghost cops are positions SPD has no plans or ability to fill. The department is being allowed to use those unaccountable salary dollars for “other SPD priorities” [page 262 of the balancing package]. Ghost cops inflate the SPD’s budget by $17M and prohibit those dollars from being spent on housing, green new deal, education, food security and more.
Tell city council to abrogate (eliminate) SPD’s position authority for all 120 ghost cop positions and reclaim the associated $17M for other city needs.
Want more?
Watch all three film reels here: video files
Read the write-up by Hannah Krieg in The Stranger: Seattle’s Left Pressures Council to Cut Funding for Cops and Sweeps - The Stranger
Should SPD Do It?
If you had control over Seattle’s dispatch system, when would you send an armed police officer, and when would you prefer another option? Though non-police options are not yet robustly funded, city budget deliberations are an opportunity to change that. Last week, PB Creators (a group of artists and researchers working to promote nonviolent and democratic use of public resources) launched Should SPD Do It?, a website where YOU get to make the call.
Check out the website and take the two minute survey.
Email City Council your results encourage them to try it, too.
Safety Starts When Family Policing Ends
On Thursday, Nov 10, Dean Spade hosted a panel discussion with Erin Miles Cloud, Shannon Perez-Darby, and Jasmine Wali on how the family policing system perpetuates abuse and what to do about it (1.5 hours).
Join Seattle Abolition Support
Like this newsletter and want to help create it? Join our Google group! You can find ways to connect with people and get support for your own abolitionist ideas. Look over our organizing principles here and click through to the “request to join” link.