SPD Chief: "We Don't Have An Effective Treatment System"
Council Plans Quarter Billion in Cuts This Fall Anyway
Key Takeaways
The Seattle Police Chief says we don’t have nearly enough services for the people who will be arrested under proposals to expand criminalization for prostitution and drug use.
The Police Chief also admits that arrest and jail are cruel and add further trauma for the targeted folks.
But Seattle City Council still plans to make services worse with huge budget cuts in the fall.
The Interview
Interim Police Chief Sure Rahr sat down with The Stranger’s Public Safety reporter Ashley Nerbovig–in one of the best local interviews I’ve seen in a few years–to discuss the council’s attempt to criminalize prostitution loitering and other expansions of prostitution and drug laws.
Nerbovig’s interview questions were direct, tough and fair, and Rahr’s responses were refreshingly candid, even if I draw different conclusions.
I will write about the issues themselves in a later piece.
We Don’t Have the Services
The main takeaway from this interview is that Rahr admits we don’t have the service and treatment options people need, so the only options on the table are jail or nothing.
Many of our citizens do not know this and need to know it–please tell your friends.
Council Plans to Make it Worse
The second main takeaway is that the Mayor and the Council plan to make it worse. They have made it clear they plan to cut hundreds of millions in city spending this fall–even the more moderate Mayor’s plans include cuts from human services, and likely lots, lots of the money will be cut from affordable housing.
Please tell your friends that too.
Rahr Tells the Truth Conservatives Try to Hide
Rahr’s admission that we don’t have the services we need puts paid to the overtly false pretenses of Seattle’s conservatives, who refuse to admit that we have never had enough services to come remotely close to addressing the problems on our streets.
They love to talk about better coordination–which may be needed–but they use it to dodge the massive gap in services and housing so they can keep corporate taxes low.
Sadly, the disinformation campaign has impacted the way some citizens think.
When I knocked doors last year, I found–particularly in wealthy neighborhoods, a surprising number of people believe we have gobs of underutilized services and affordable housing just sitting idle–but we are just so bad at telling people what to do, and so bad at coordination, and there is all this Newt Gingrichy sounding “waste, fraud and abuse,” and so it all just sits there empty while people in the “homeless industrial complex” (social workers!) get rich.
Fortunately, Rahr is far more honest than, say, Councilmember Bob Kettle, who seems to think repeating false and vapid talking points is somehow going to make the city safer.
Acknowledges Cruelty Of Jailing For Addiction
The Chief noted that the goal is not to put targeted folks jail, but confessed that she “do[es]n’t know how we’re going to manage that yet…We have jail and we have the emergency room. We need a third place . . . We don’t have that yet.”
Nerbovig questioned whether it is fair to frame these laws as rescuing anyone, given that arrest and jail are known to be traumatizing.
Rahr responded “It sounds really cruel, doesn't it? I agree with you. We need to have a better way to do this.”
Nerbovig also mentioned a comment from former Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes regarding prostitution, who said that “using cops is like trying to use a chainsaw to cut butter.” Rahr noted that unfortunately, “we don’t have a butter knife . . . we don’t have an effective treatment system as a substitute.” This, she agreed, is because the movement for funding treatment was never successful.
When pressed further on the trauma of arrest, Rahr admits that leaving people on the street, or putting them in jail is "two horrible choices.” Given the circumstances, it sounds like she would err on the side of jail, at least in some cases.
Whatever you think of Rahr’s conclusion, I appreciate that, unlike Seattle’ conservatives, she isn’t lying to anyone.
She admits the services aren’t there and she doesn’t join the conservative chorus pretending that jail is some compassionate way to treat people in duress.
Get the word out.