Not so surprising news from the Seattle Post Intelligencer:
Leaked memo: SPD ignoring most N. Seattle burglaries
A confidential memo leaked to KOMO/4 News contains a bombshell admission by the city's police department. The document says North Precinct detectives are too short-staffed to investigate most burglaries.
A police source said that unless burglary detectives have a suspect's name, evidence photos or surveillance footage, and complete witness interviews, it's unlikely a case will even get worked, let alone solved.
Pete Rogerson works with Seattle police through the North Precinct Advisory Council, where he offers citizen input on police operations. Rogerson said in all his years in that role, he's never seen anything like this memo.
"I think this memo is very troubling," he said.
The memo is marked confidential and not for public display, but what it says about burglary investigations could trouble anyone.
"It's very surprising," Rogerson said. "I cannot believe this is the case."
The memo says at one point, 14 detectives worked burglary, theft and juvenile cases for the North Precinct. Today it's down to two detectives and an on-loan patrol officer, even though the memo says cases have climbed to 1,500 a month. The memo concludes, "misdemeanor and even many felony crimes can no longer be investigated except on a very rare, case by case basis."
This is nothing new to me...
Back in 2008, my parents were living in Seattle in the Windermere area (very tony - houses in the million+ range). I was visiting for a blacksmithing conference and was planning to pick up two pieces of artwork they had in their garden. They were there when I drove down but when I went to pick it up at the end of the conference, they (and a number of other pieces) were gone. The garden was in the back of their house and not visible from the street. My guess is that it was one of the work people they hired - at their age, they were not careful about checking credentials of people who knocked at their door.
I called 911 and explained the loss to the officer and they did not even offer to send anyone out or ask for a description of the pieces. One of them was over 100 years old (bronze sculpture) and was valued around $10K. I got zero response from them.
My impression of the Seattle police was not good then and it is not good now. All P.R. and show - a careful management of appearances instead of the appearance of careful management...
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