The old boundaries… And the new

To provide better coverage of public safety needs in the International District and the neighborhoods part of the East Precinct including Capitol Hill, SPD is adjusting its boundaries starting Wednesday:

On January 24, 2018, Seattle Police Department is deploying a new beat map that adjusts existing boundaries in the West Precinct and East Precinct. This change will affect beats G1, G3, K2 and K3, and was made following a review of the deployment map at the recommendation of the Chinatown-International District Public Safety Task Force. Their June 2016 report featured nineteen recommendations, including the movement of the Little Saigon area of the CID neighborhood from the East Police Precinct into the West Precinct. This geographical change will provide better tracking of patterns of crime, improve communication and coordination between CID and the City of Seattle, and reunite the historical neighborhood.

“Beat realignments are a common practice for law enforcement agencies throughout the country, allowing police departments to account for city growth, population density changes, and public safety challenges,” the department says.The changes were announced last week as Mayor Jenny Durkan and interim Chief Carmen Best took a walking tour of the Chinatown area as part of an effort to address crime concerns in the neighborhood.

The change will shift small portions of the streets around the International District that have been part of East Precinct’s patrol area to the West Precinct.

The change is the first major shift for the East Precinct since 2015 when it shed Eastlake responsibilities and gained territory on First Hill. That move made it easier for police to respond to First Hill instead of trying to fight through downtown traffic. “Getting across I-5 from downtown is a nightmare,” SPD spokesperson Det. Patrick Michaud said at the time. “We’re always trying to hit the 6-7 minute mark for the (most serious) calls.”

East Precinct is headquartered at the SPD facility at 12th and Pine and covers most of the area between I-5 and Lake Washington and from Montlake to I-90.

As part of the change, SPD must also reconfigure its public reporting to reflect the new beats. Its Tweets By Beat service will be offline and unavailable on January 24th as part of the beat update, the department says.

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