Seattle police stopped investigating adult sexual assaults this year, memo shows

This story was co-published by KUOW and The Seattle Instances.

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eattle police’s sexual assault and baby abuse unit workers has been so depleted that it stopped assigning to detectives this yr new circumstances with grownup victims, in keeping with an inner memo despatched to interim police Chief Adrian Diaz in April.

The unit’s sergeant put her staffing disaster in stark phrases.

“The neighborhood expects our company to answer stories of sexual violence,” Sgt. Pamela St. John wrote, “and at present staffing ranges that goal is unattainable.”

Regulation enforcement businesses right here and throughout the nation have grappled with labor shortages throughout the pandemic and for the reason that 2020 protests following the homicide of George Floyd. However Seattle’s failure to workers its sexual assault unit stands out from different native police departments and raises questions in regards to the Seattle Police Division’s priorities, advocates say.

The memo, despatched April 11, emerged amid a wave of latest political guarantees for policing in Seattle. Final fall, Seattle voters elected a brand new mayor who rejected calls to defund the police and campaigned on a platform to clear public areas of homeless encampments and strengthen public security.

Behind the scenes, police leaders confronting an ongoing staffing disaster shored up patrol and positions that reply to homeless encampments, whereas some investigative models shrunk.

Now the division’s lack of consideration to its sexual assault unit is threatening the viability of circumstances, as delayed investigations and proof assortment probably hinder their outcomes.

Within the memo, St. John went on to say that she was not “capable of assign grownup sexual assault circumstances” that got here into her unit. Instances involving youngsters and grownup circumstances that had a suspect in custody — a fraction of grownup sexual assaults reported to police — had been being prioritized. The unit simply had too few detectives.

These issues bear out in fewer referrals from the sexual assault unit to prosecutors. King County prosecutors say they’ve communicated with the sexual assault unit about understaffing issues, however little has modified.

Assistant Chief Deanna Nollette in an interview with KUOW and The Seattle Instances this week dismissed St. John’s portrayal of what was occurring in her unit as “not correct” and a “gross oversimplification.”

“Sexual assault circumstances are nonetheless being assigned, however the workload is being triaged based mostly on quite a lot of components that we’d historically use to triage these circumstances,” Nollette stated.

Nollette emphasised that staffing shortages had been being felt throughout the division. She didn’t present an up-to-date depend of what number of grownup sexual assault circumstances had been on maintain, though detectives within the unit are holding a listing with dozens of circumstances.

Different political leaders expressed skepticism at the concept that departmentwide understaffing was accountable for the sexual assault unit’s predicament.

Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, a senior deputy King County prosecutor who has led efforts within the Legislature to enhance remedy of sexual assault victims, stated the sexual assault unit’s issues had been about priorities, not enough staffing.

“I can’t actually let you know how pissed I’m about this,” Dhingra stated. “As a result of it’s fully unacceptable. That is 2022. We shouldn’t be having this dialog about allocating assets for survivors.”

A starved sexual assault unit

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he staffing disaster on the Seattle Police Division is just not new.

The division has been shedding officers for the reason that starting of 2020, and workers ranges plummeted to a brand new low on the finish of 2021. Whereas 2020 started with 1,290 officers in service, by March 2022 these numbers dropped to 968 — nicely beneath the division’s personal projections and what town anticipated to spend on salaries.

Nollette defended the sexual assault unit’s low workers numbers, saying models throughout the division felt the affect of the losses. The sexual assault unit wasn’t even probably the most affected, she stated.

“I might carry anyone in right here from wherever within the division and they might inform you a similar story,” Nollette stated.

Seattle police staffing numbers offered to the Seattle Metropolis Council on April 26 present that the reductions within the workforce haven’t been felt evenly throughout the division.

Based on council central workers, the p.c of the drive in operations assist — which incorporates coaching and personnel on prolonged go away — and the patrol division has elevated whereas investigative models have thinned. Diaz defined that sustaining patrol numbers wasn’t simply necessary for attempting to manage 911 response occasions, but in addition for taking in stories of rape and sexual assault.

“If we don’t have an officer to answer sexual assault, we’re by no means going to have the follow-up to have the ability to examine it,” Diaz informed the council. “So I’ve tried to ensure we’ve maintained our patrol staffing ranges.”

On the prime of the division’s priorities for investigating grownup sexual assault circumstances are these with suspects in custody, in keeping with an inner response to St. John’s memo — a small portion of the circumstances the unit sometimes sees.

Now, the unit maintains a listing of latest grownup sexual assault circumstances it’s merely unable to analyze for lack of detectives, in keeping with inner communications on the division obtained by KUOW.

At the moment, the sexual assault unit has 5 detectives to answer sexual assault and baby abuse stories for all the metropolis, which has had 225 intercourse offenses reported thus far this yr, in keeping with the division’s crime information. But different models that don’t examine violent crime have extra workers.

The division’s Different Response Workforce — the unit that responds to homeless encampment removals — is now staffed by twice the variety of officers on the sexual assault unit after a further seven patrol officers had been added to the unit this yr. The division’s normal investigations unit, which investigates property crime, has 12 detectives. Way more property crimes are reported to Seattle police annually than sexual assault, however they’re easier to analyze.

“When you have got companies which can be the one greatest loss leaders within the nation telling you, ‘We’re going to shut our companies and go away town of Seattle’ if we don’t do one thing in regards to the crime, we now have a duty as a division to attempt to do what we will do to assist them with policing,” Nollette stated.

The division has allowed investigative models, together with the sexual assault unit, to fall from 16% of the overall sworn drive in 2020 to 14% presently, whereas the proportion of police in areas together with patrol, management and operations assist has elevated.

The understaffing within the sexual assault unit has drained the morale of its workers, most of whom are overworked and burned out, in keeping with a detective within the unit who requested anonymity as a result of SPD coverage prohibited them from talking with the media. Whereas detectives battle to make a dent in massive baby abuse and sexual assault caseloads, the division has additionally drafted them to work safety and visitors management at sporting occasions.

Sgt. St. John wrote the memo after a KUOW story in April that confirmed Seattle police had been investigating few grownup sexual assault circumstances whereas struggling to fulfill the demand required by legislation to shortly resolve circumstances involving youngsters. St. John declined to remark for this story.

On the time St. John wrote the memo, 30 grownup circumstances had been ready to be assigned to detectives, and 116 alerts displaying that identifiable DNA from rape kits had been uploaded to a federal database and wanted consideration, St. John wrote to Diaz.

The sexual assault unit had traditionally been staffed with 10 to 12 detectives, St. John wrote, however that the unit might begin chipping away on the backlog of grownup sexual assault circumstances with eight.

Mayor Bruce Harrell declined to be interviewed for this story, although mayoral spokesperson Jamie Housen stated {that a} detective had been added to the sexual assault unit this yr.

“Mayor Harrell has been unequivocal that SPD wants extra officers to make sure specialty models are nicely staffed in order that investigations are accomplished swiftly and completely,” Housen stated by e-mail.

Since St. John’s April 11 memo, detectives have began to obtain assignments for brand spanking new circumstances with grownup victims, however the variety of circumstances which can be ready to be investigated has grown. Even with an added detective, grownup assignments are nonetheless dropping by the wayside, in keeping with the detective contained in the sexual assault and baby abuse unit.

There are actually 48 grownup assault circumstances that aren’t being investigated, in keeping with the detective.

Victims wait, circumstances undergo

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ince 2020, King County prosecutors have seen fewer sexual assault circumstances referred to their workplace from Seattle police. Between January and April of 2020, Seattle police referred 123 sexual assault and baby abuse circumstances to prosecutors. In the identical time interval this yr, prosecutors have obtained simply 72 circumstances from Seattle police.

Ben Santos, chair of the King County Prosecuting Lawyer’s Particular Assault Unit, stated he’s mentioned the issue with St. John. He stated on a couple of event she’s described dozens of circumstances sitting on her desk, unable to be assigned due to an absence of detectives.

“[Seattle police leaders] are having to make actually tough selections proper now, on condition that murder and violent crime charges are up,” Santos stated. “We have now carried out our greatest to attempt to let folks know what which means on the sexual assault facet — it implies that these circumstances should not being investigated the way in which they need to be.”

He stated if detectives are getting assigned a case later than they usually would, it makes it difficult to gather proof that’s short-term in nature, together with surveillance video, third-party witnesses, and bodily proof.

“I actually suppose that to a level the investigations themselves undergo,” he stated.

As do the victims. Santos stated he’s obtained stories that victims who go to Harborview Medical Middle for remedy after being sexually assaulted can find yourself ready hours to file a report with a Seattle officer.

More and more, victims of sexual assault who report their circumstances to Seattle police aren’t listening to something again, stated Mary Ellen Stone, CEO of the King County Sexual Assault Useful resource Middle.

Seattle’s slowdown in investigating grownup rape circumstances doesn’t match what Stone has seen from different native legislation enforcement businesses.

“We work with 38 jurisdictions, and whereas all people’s coping with backlogs and all people’s coping with staffing shortages, we’re not seeing one thing comparable from different jurisdictions,” Stone stated.

Seattle Metropolis Council public security committee chair Lisa Herbold stated in an e-mail she had been speaking with advocates who’ve raised the alarm about victims whose circumstances should not being investigated, although she was unaware of any coverage inside Seattle police to cease assigning grownup rape circumstances to detectives.

The police division has deliberate so as to add yet one more detective to the sexual assault unit this month to take care of caseload and staffing issues, in keeping with Nollette. However the long-term answer to understaffing within the sexual assault unit was to extend hiring throughout the division, Nollette stated.

To that finish, Harrell introduced an initiative to extend police hires final month, whereas final week the council approved a proposal from Herbold to unlock greater than $1 million in unspent wage financial savings to fund new police hiring incentives and recruitment.

Advocates have burdened, nonetheless, that they’d wish to see extra transparency in how SPD allocates the assets it already has.

On Tuesday, a person reported to police that he had been raped at knifepoint.

His report was added to the record of stalled circumstances.

Speak to us

Have you ever reported a sexual assault to the Seattle Police Division inside the final six months? We’d like to listen to from you. Get in contact with reporters Ashley Hiruko (hiruko@kuow.org, 206-574-8007) or Sydney Brownstone (sbrownstone@seattletimes.com, 206-464-3225).

Confidential assist for survivors

You probably have skilled sexual assault and wish assist, you possibly can name the 24-hour National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (800-656-4673). There may be additionally an online chat option. Survivors in King County can name the King County Sexual Assault Useful resource Middle’s 24-hour Useful resource Line at 888-99-VOICE (888-998-6423) or go to www.kcsarc.org/gethelp.