Interim Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz
The grueling vetting process of Interim Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz continued Tuesday before a city council committee.
During the past 2 years the interim chief has watched the number of officers on his police force drop to a 30-year low as violent crime has spiraled out of control.
“In the last three months we’ve actually seen violent crime (go) down my 23%” But the battle tested Diaz answered a barrage of questions before the Public Safety and Human Services Committee, “We need to make sure we encourage people to report crime. We know that sometimes our response times are longer, but we really have to understand how we (can) put people in the right places at the right time to help drive overall crime down.”
Seattle PD currently has 962 active police officers, but that’s 350 below pre-pandemic levels and hiring has been slow. Estimates show an increase of just eighteen police by late 2024.
Councilmember Andrew Lewis is pushing a reorganization of SPD “That metric alone is not going to be enough to meet our charter obligation on public safety; cause the people in my district can’t wait any more than this, they can’t!”
Adrian Diaz has been roundly praised for his work as interim police chief “You’ve done deep community relationship building” Councilmember Lisa Herbold told the public and Tanya Woo from the crime plagued Chinatown International District was equally supportive “We see Chief Diaz frequently in our businesses and we see him on our streets. So, we know him and we trust him.”
The Chief was peppered with tough questions, and he defended his objections to a homeless megaplex in the Chinatown International District. “I did not undermine the council and their position” he told the committee, but the project was later scrapped “I had some great concerns with the amount of shootings we’ve had in that community; there are many concerns from our senior citizens walking down the street feeling unsafe.”
The committee voted unanimously to approve Adrian Diaz as the next Seattle Police Chief. The full City Council could deliver final confirmation early next year.
