Seattle Public Safety Committee Meeting: June 23, 2026 - CARE Ordinance, SPD Report, Emergency Street Closures
Seattle Public Safety Committee Meeting: June 23, 2026
The Seattle City Council Public Safety Committee met on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, from 9:36 a.m. to 11:34 a.m. in the Council Chamber at City Hall. Chaired by Councilmember Robert Kettle, the committee addressed three main items: a CARE department ordinance, the SPD 2026 Q1 sworn staffing and performance report, and an emergency street closure ordinance for public safety. Key decisions included unanimous passage of both ordinances.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Jeff Silverman (in-person) urged the city not to rush to quick solutions on Aurora Avenue but also not to be paralyzed seeking perfection, praising Chair Kettle's comments.
- Rick Fordyce (in-person) argued that decriminalizing prostitution had worsened the situation on Aurora, creating a large sex market, and called for stronger law enforcement and accountability.
- Peter Orr (in-person, Aurora resident) described seeing a young girl trafficked on Aurora, criticized lack of follow-through on city funding for victim services, and advocated for a satellite police precinct and a dedicated prosecutor for Aurora.
- Aaron Gardner (remote, Aurora neighbor) echoed Orr's concerns, thanked the committee for publicly addressing human trafficking, pressed for timely street closures, and noted the mayor's two-week deadline had nearly expired.
- David Haynes (remote) expressed frustration with city leadership, alleging the police chief and city attorney were not doing enough to combat crime on Aurora, and called for federal and state involvement.
Discussion Items
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CARE Department Ordinance (CB 121232) – Council Central Staff Tamaso Johnson briefed the committee on an ordinance to amend the Seattle Municipal Code to define the duties of the Community Crisis Responder (CCR) team within the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) Department. The ordinance codifies the CCR team's role, which has expanded significantly since 2023, including doubling from 24 to 48 FTE responders. CARE Chief Barden expressed support, noting the ordinance aligns with state legislation and improves coordination across public safety and health systems. Chair Kettle emphasized the need for accountability and proactive crisis response. No amendments were offered.
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SPD 2026 Q1 Staffing, Overtime, and Performance Metrics – Greg Doss (Council Central Staff) presented the quarterly report. Hiring remains strong (41 hires, 19 separations in Q1), but a bottleneck in field training officers (FTOs) has created a backlog of officers awaiting field training. As of April, 135 officers were in field training (vs. historical average of 56); 21 were waiting for FTOs, reduced to 16 by late June. SPD budget director Dan Eater noted plans to certify 20 new FTOs in July and another 20 in November, funded through overtime (an extra hour per day for report writing). Overtime spending is on track despite a 112% budget increase since 2022, driven by the new SPOG contract and events like the Super Bowl parade (reimbursed). Patrol staffing has remained around 490 officers since 2023, though 911 call volume increased 12%. Response times for priority 1 calls hold at about 10 minutes average. The department faces a projected $1.7 million unfunded salary cost if hiring continues at the current pace; possible mitigation includes slowing hiring or cutting non-sworn spending. Councilmembers discussed the 30×30 initiative (female officers: 17% of 2026 hires so far, up from 10% since fall 2024) and the need for continued hiring to meet community demands for emphasis patrols.
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Emergency Street Closure Ordinance (CB 121233) – Sponsored by Councilmember Debora Juarez, this ordinance authorizes the Director of Transportation (SDOT) to close public streets upon recommendation of the Seattle Police Chief to prevent criminal activity, amending SMC 11.16.125. The ordinance declares an emergency and requires a 3/4 council vote for immediate effect. Councilmember Juarez cited an 82% increase in gun violence on Aurora in May 2024, community-led street blockades, and a need to address sex trafficking, drug activity, and shootings. The mayor's office had already announced planned closures (95th to 102nd) on June 11 after a joint press conference. Council members Saka and Lynn praised the bill as a common-sense tool for community safety. No amendments were offered.
Key Outcomes
- CB 121232 (CARE Department ordinance) passed committee 5-0 (Kettle, Saka, Juarez, Lin, Rivera all in favor) and will be sent to the full City Council on June 30, 2026.
- CB 121233 (Emergency street closure ordinance) passed committee 4-0 (Kettle, Saka, Juarez, Lin in favor; Rivera excused) and will be sent to the full City Council on June 30, 2026. The ordinance takes effect immediately upon the mayor's signature due to the emergency clause.
- SPD 2026 Q1 Report was received and discussed. No formal committee action was taken, but the briefing highlighted the ongoing need to address the FTO bottleneck, manage overtime costs, and sustain officer hiring to meet future deployment needs.
Meeting Transcript
Committee meeting will come to order. It's 9 36 a.m. June 23rd, 2026. I'm Robert Kettle, Chair of the Public Safety Committee. Will the committee clerk please call the roll? Councilmember Juarez. Here. Councilmember Lynn. Here. Councilmember Rivera. President. Councilmember Sacco. President. Here. Chair Kettle. Here. Chair, there are five members present. Thank you. And uh welcome and good morning and welcome to everyone to here to the public safety committee meeting. Just a quick note on chair comment this morning. I just wanted to note as a follow-up to North Aurora that it's interesting, but already I'm hearing you know different words in different sectors saying, oh, but prostitution's been here forever. It's the second oldest profession. You know, it is what it is, kind of thing. Or oh, these are misdemeanors. We shouldn't be bothering with misdemeanors. Um, you know, this is the situation, and and I say this because this is the start. You know, previously, and in chair comment and also at the press conference on North Aurora, I mentioned that we are a city of two minds, and this is how it starts. But instead, we should be focused. So, you know, rather than these are the voices I hear sometimes too. Like rather than continuing to waste limited resources on a failed and harmful carceral and criminal legal um resources to low-level misdemeanor offenses, you know, that we should be taking a different approach. And and by the way, these low-level offenses include obviously things like theft obstruction, property destruction, but also prostitution. And you know, so we're in a situation on North Aurora where there's there's definitely going to be individuals and groups that will be you know basically countering and basically creating that situation where I speak of being of two minds, but instead we should be focused on our framework. You know, police staffing is very important to this, a functional criminal justice system, which is our second pillar, and then our third pillar is gun violence reduction, prevention, and community safety. These are the things that we should be working through. You know, our fourth one is crime reduction through urban blight remediation, vacant buildings, lots and graffiti. Um, and then important for this as well is uh addressing the scene between public safety, public health, housing, and human services. That's where we have to have the other side in terms of in terms of the uh the women, the young girls, the minors, particularly, um, the services in order to allow them to escape the situation that they found. And then the sixth pillar that we have is collaboration with county and state. You know, I had a meeting. Uh, I've had meetings follow-up on this issue in terms of like functional criminal justice system, working with council member Juarez, you know, and the idea of getting a 0.5 FTE city attorney, you know, uh felony prosecutor, basically a partnership between the King County prosecuting attorney and our city attorney, you know, to basically work this this area, which is so important. Uh, you heard the city city attorney talk about ERPO, um, the extreme risk protection order uh pieces. So these are the things that we need to do in addition to ensure you know police staffing is where it needs to be, and then also that the programs that are designed to help the women, particularly again the minors, is are there and important there too is I've been to North Precinct, all of us go to the various precincts, and I remember being North Precinct uh talking to a couple lieutenants, and they said the hard part is a lot of these groups don't show up, you know, when it's second and third watch. So we need to be working with service providers that are there at second and third watch because 9 a.m. the next day is too late. So these are the things that we need to be working through and and not get carried away with the varying voices that are basically going to create that of two mines challenge that we have in our city. So that's my commitment uh to my colleagues here in the council, but also importantly to the various communities in this case specifically North Seattle. Okay. That is the chair comment. If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted. Hearing seeing uh no objection, the agenda is adopted.
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