Looks like Seattle will have even fewer police - from Jason Rantz at Seattle station KTTH:
Seattle Police could lose 200+ officers over vaccine mandate terminations
The Seattle Police Department has lost roughly 300 officers since last year’s push to defund. It may lose 200 more officers over Mayor Jenny Durkan’s COVID vaccine mandate.
The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH has learned that there are just over 200 officers who say they either haven’t been vaccinated against COVID or refuse to turn over their private medical data. That represents roughly 20% of the SPD’s deployable staff.
Under the vaccine mandate, city workers who do not get the shots will be terminated. The SPD, already stretched dangerously thin, cannot stand to lose any more officers.
And this is right now - not after the 200+ are fired:
The SPD is already staffed at record lows not seen since the 1980s. Consequently, proactive policing is non-existent for the majority of Seattle.
Many times, there are only about 70 officers patrolling the city on any given night. This has helped lead to a surge in violent crime with the city on pace to break the 26-year-high homicide rate set in 2020. With just over 1,000 deployable officers, the city is about 300-500 officers shy of where they hope to be.
Glad I no longer live there. Not visiting anytime soon. Same with Portland. There is an amateur radio conference next June on the Oregon Coast and I will go out of my way to drive around Portland on my way there. Used to stop at Powell's Books but not any more.
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