After Rescinding Covid-Era Policy, Seattle Police Begin Jailing Petty Criminals Again

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Posted on 11/17/2024 4:04:23 AM PST by george76

In 2022, Seattle Police spent 18,615 hours responding to organized retail crime calls, equivalent to a year’s worth of work for nine officers...

The damage from COVID-era policies has lingered for many years.

For example, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) could not book individuals arrested for minor offenses, including shoplifting and other non-violent property crimes, into the King County Jail. The COVID era rules, designed to “slow the spread,” resulted in a de facto “catch and release” program.

Now, years after the contagion has morphed into an endemic disease that people will contract many times over the course of their lives, the city has rescinded this policy.

The change, which went into effect earlier this month, reverses pandemic-era restrictions by King County that kept Seattle police from booking all but the most serious misdemeanors into the slammer.

Officials in the Emerald City argued the policy hamstrung prosecutors and cops.

But now Seattle’s ne’re-do-wells will face a jail cell if they flaunt the law.

The move is a win for local law enforcement, which has long pushed for more tools to fight a four-year crime wave that has continued since the pandemic — despite crime in nearly every other major city declining, an analysis by the Seattle Times showed.

The city became an epicenter of organized retail theft as a result. In 2022, Seattle Police spent 18,615 hours responding to organized retail crime calls, equivalent to a year’s worth of work for nine officers. This high volume of incidents strained police resources and made it challenging to prevent even more crime.

With no consequences, the problem became continually worse.

FOX 13 News spoke to Seattle retail workers who say they are constantly dealing with thieves.

“Growing into an exorbitant issue that really we don’t know how to get a handle on,” said Derek Pinder.

Derek Pinder is the assistant manager for Simply Seattle. He says on any given day, he’ll have three to five people come into the store trying to shoplift.

“There’s no real consequences for their actions. So, it is just continuing to expand,” he claimed.

There are so many valuable lessons to be learned related to pandemic polices. Perhaps one of the most important is to not sacrifice effective criminal justice programs due to pseudoscience and press-induced fear.

Hopefully, the businesses in the Seattle area will fully recover from this poor decision and public safety from criminals will be prioritized in the future.

1 posted on 11/17/2024 4:04:23 AM PST by george76

To: george76

2 posted on 11/17/2024 4:40:23 AM PST by albie (U)

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