AN ORDINANCE relating to a Community Service Officer program; amending Ordinance 125724, which adopted the 2019 budget; lifting a proviso; and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.
The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Please read the a report of the Gender Equity Safe Communities New Americans and Education. Committee report at the Gender Equality Safe Communities, New Americas and Education Committee Agenda Item seven Constable 119 547 Relating to a Community Service Officer program amending ordinance 125 724, which adopted the 2019 budget, lifting a proviso inviting fire and confirming search prior acts committee recommends of El Paso. And Dallas. Thank you. Council presidents want council bill 119547. As I mentioned this morning during council briefing would lift a 2019 budget proviso to allow the Seattle Police Department to advance its implementation of the Community Service Officer program really quickly. By way of background, this program and this unit will be staffed by noncommissioned officers who are trained and work as liaisons between the community and the police department. Community service officers will not carry weapons nor enforce criminal laws. Instead, they will serve to bridge the service gap on non-criminal calls for service and perform a variety of public safety related community service and outreach work, therefore, freeing up sworn police officers to focus on more critical matters. They will receive training in police operations, social work, de-escalation, conflict resolution and mediation, crisis intervention, institutional racism and cultural competency using internal and external training channels. The Community Service Officers will also develop community partnerships to support increased collaboration between the Seattle Police Department and the community for the purpose of leveraging community strengths and identifying alternative strategies to various law enforcement and social issues. Community service officers will work assigned areas of the city on foot or in marked community service officer vehicles. Responding to radio dispatch calls for service largely at the direction of patrol officers. The Seattle Police Department plans to deploy initially ten community service officers and two community service officers. Supervisors across two shifts shifts up to six days a week, Monday through Saturday, excluding Sundays and holidays. That is subject to change depending on calls and demands of the program and of course, future funding in in the future. So I promise this morning during council briefing that I would bring and share with you all a copy of the job description and posting for the Community Service Officer Program. I've distributed that for you all to take a look at, but I think with all of this information, we are ready to lift the proviso and the committee recommends that we do so to allow the Seattle Police Department to advance the Community Service Officer program. Very good. Any other comments from her? Thank you. Real quickly, I truly believe that bringing back the Community Service Officer program will be a really valuable addition to policing in Seattle. In the Southwest Precinct, a top community concern is that the number of police officers are not sufficient to meet the staffing needs to adequately address public safety. I am a proud co-sponsor of legislation to bring back the CSOs, but recognize that Councilmember Councilmember O'Brien took the took the lead on proposing it in a couple of budget cycles back. And many, many thanks to Councilmember Gonzales for adeptly and expertly getting us to this. To this point, unsworn officers can prioritize non-emergency community services associated with law enforcement. And as we've heard, that frees up police officers to better respond to 911 calls and needs for. Proactive. Policing. Given our challenge in this city, as well as other large cities in hiring new officers, bringing back the CSO program is a really important step and also a shout out for two Assistant Chief Diaz for his work on this as well. He's done great. Work in the. Other comments. Yeah. Councilmember Gonzales, I really appreciate your leadership on this. I apologize for not being able to be at the community meeting last week. But as Councilmember Raul mentioned, it's been over a year and a half since we allocated the budget to this. And I'm it's a little disappointing it's taken this long. But setting that aside and how we move forward, I really appreciate your leadership and keeping an eye on how this means for. And so I'm grateful for that. Thank you. Absolutely. All right, please call the role on the passage of the Bill Bagshaw. Gonzalez I Herbold I was. I. Was going to. O'Brien high Pacheco I president's warrant seven in favor and unopposed. The bill passes and the judge will sign it. Is there any other further business to come before the council? Skater. Thank you, Madam President. I would like to be I would like to ask to be excused next Monday for the purposes of going to Washington, D.C., to meet with the folks from the National League of Cities on their housing task force revealing of the report. So I'll be a very short trip, but I won't have to miss next Monday if I can be excused. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor. I see, I. None of us. So that passes any other motions. Seeing none. Meeting is adjourned. Gave.