City attorney announces new initiative to keep repeat offenders off Seattle streets

SEATTLE — A new push to get repeat offenders off the streets and keep them off.

Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison is launching what she calls a “High Utilizer Initiative.”

It will pull together resources from several city and county agencies to keep the offenders in custody and get them the help they need.

Businesses in Greenwood and elsewhere have been hit hard by crime. In fact, just last week, business owners here met to discuss hiring private security to patrol at night.

All of them say they are dealing with broken windows, like here at Greenwood Hardware, and much worse.

It happened in late January. A burglar broke the window at Greenwood Hardware before rifling through the store.

“Over the last two months, most of the businesses down the street have had their windows broken out,” said Willow Yoder. “I would say on every block at least one or two.”

It has gotten so bad, Greenwood Hardware owner Yoder and others in the North Phinney business district may hire private security “because we don’t see any relief. "

As for Seattle police, she says, “we don’t see much of them up here.”

They don’t see police often at nearby Ken’s Market either, unless something like this happens — a forklift driver stealing their ATM.

“The cops seem like they’re doing what they can with the resources in place,” said Derek Giles, a co-owner of Ken’s Market. “And when we call them about something bad, they’re out here pretty quick. But for everyday crimes that we face on a daily basis, it’s gotten to the point where we usually don’t even bother.”

And it is likely many of those criminals are repeat offenders. The office of Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison has identified 118 people who are responsible for more than 2,400 relatively low-level criminal cases in the last five years. One suspect alone is named in a whopping 57 cases.

“Clearly something was not working,” said Davison.

Now she is joining forces with the King County prosecutor to upgrade charges to felonies when possible and work with social services agencies to get the offenders the help they need.

“To make sure we disrupt that cycle of crime for that individual,” said Davison. “And now we take on the task of understanding why this was occurring on a repeated basis so we can intervene with that individual.”

Still, that will take time. So, the business owners here tell us they likely will hire private security anyway. They say they need help stopping these criminals right now.

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