Mayor Jenny Durkan, City Councilmember Debora Juarez, and Seattle police answered questions about public safety during a town hall meeting in North Seattle.

SEATTLE — During a town hall Monday night, Seattle officials fielded public safety questions from concerned residents on everything from drug dealing to the possibility of a new police precinct.

Curtis Gehrke’s family has run Acme Auto Electric and Repair near 90th and Aurora Avenue since the 1940s.

Like many frustrated business owners, Gehrke felt the need to have surveillance cameras installed around his business. He also keeps track of some of the crime in the area. He's taken photographs of the needles he's found outside his door and said there has also been violence.

"We had a stabbing a month ago across the street. We had a stabbing down the street a week ago. We had a stabbing right where we are standing in July," Gehrke said.

His security camera captured the incident that happened around 3 a.m. on a July day in 2018. He said a group of people beat and stabbed one man.

Gehrke has also noticed open-air drug dealing, drug use, and prostitution happening in the area.

The neighborhood is part of Seattle's District 5.

Allison Lord said there are not enough officers in the area and it is resulting in slow police response times.

"Now we are short 300 police officers, and how are we going to improve public safety if we are short 300 police officers," said Lord.

During the town hall, Mayor Jenny Durkan said hiring new officers is a top priority and addresses it with Police Chief Carmen Best during weekly meetings.

"One of the things we go over is where are we on hires? How many have we hired? How many have we lost? What is the morale of troops?" Durkan explained.

The city is offering a $15,000 hiring bonus for officers with experience.

"We are traveling across the country. We are trying to recruit anywhere where we think we can get interest in SPD," said Assistant Chief Eric Greening.

Kelly McKinney's question for city leaders is when will there be a new police precinct, and is the city still considering 130th and Aurora as the location?

"The north precinct was built in 1984 to house 154 staff. It's now home to 254 staff," said Councilmember Debora Juarez. "All the planning for the last 13 years has been around one station, but that doesn't mean there can't be two."

The city is still discussing what to do about the police precinct.

At the town hall meeting, Durkan talked about the range of things the city has done when it comes to public safety.