(From left, Pete Spalding of the SW Precinct Advisory Council; Chief Kathleen O’Toole; Capt. Steve Wilske; Deb Greer of the WS Block Watch Captains’ Network)

7:44 PM: Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole‘s first “community conversation” in West Seattle was cut short after a woman concerned about police-brutality shouted down the chief and others before the meeting was an hour old.

Those who had come to hear Chief O’Toole talk about West Seattle community crime issues tried in turn to get the protester to stop so they could ask their questions, but after a few minutes of semi-chaos, host Pete Spalding announced the meeting was over. Some community members moved ahead to the front of the room to try to get the chief to answer their questions in a one-on-one type of situation, which continued for at least 15 minutes after the meeting’s official end, and is continuing even as we publish the first version of this.

We’ll add video of the truncated meeting a bit later. (9:54 PM: Here’s the link; 10:12 PM, it’s embedded below – note that our camera was fixed/pointed to the front of the room, so the shouting is off-camera:)

Below, our notes as it unfolded.

The conversation was emceed by Pete Spalding, from the co-sponsoring Southwest Precinct Advisory Council. Deb Greer and Karen Berge from the other co-sponsoring group, the West Seattle Block Watch Captains’ Network, spoke as well.

Chief O’Toole began by saying she didn’t want to dictate the community-policing agenda, but acknowledged that each neighborhood has a unique set of concerns – some about car prowls, some about low-level drug dealing, “unique issues facing each neighborhood … We’re gonna fight Part 1 crime across the city but at the same time we want to work with the individual neighborhoods and fight out what their concerns are.” She said SW Precinct commander Capt. Steve Wilske was the first one to seek community feedback and show up “with a binder with the first draft of their community-policing plans” while other precincts were still saying “you want us to do WHAT?”

She then moved on to mention the federal consent decree. “It’s really important work – we need to not only tick the boxes … we need to recognize the true spirit of this consent degree.” She said the monitor – a role she filled in a Connecticut city – was recognizing their progress in the most recent report.

She mentioned the every-two-weeks SeaStat briefings focused on crime hotspots and other trends, and declared that it was making progress against some categories of crime. She then addressed some issues in other parts of the city, including so-called “downtown disorder,” and explained how she had been working on “prevention and intervention” with some of the people causing trouble. She said there’ll be a summit this weekend.

“That’s downtown, this is West Seattle,” she finally said. “I want to hear more about the challenges you’re facing here” – including, she said, the “robberies of school-aged children,” to which she acknowledged the precinct has assigned extra resources. “The only way we can address your concerns is to engage.”

Questions had been solicited in writing and the first one read by Spalding involved asking the chief to elaborate on what’s being done regarding the string of robberies. Capt. Wilske asked if he could answer. “This is now the highest priority of anything I’m doing … I get a phone call 24 hours a day if we have any specific updates or if anything occurs.” He said officers are assigned specifically to focus on this, particularly before and after school. Regarding the problem stairwells, he said an additional “problem stairwell” – Delridge and Holden – will have brush cut back by Friday. He also mentioned the safety presentation that Crime Prevention Coordinator Mark Solomon gave at last week’s WS Blockwatch Captains Network meeting (WSB coverage here) and said that he will arrange for that to happen at any group that needs it.

Capt. Wilske also stressed – if anything happens, report it as soon as possible. “One of the other things we’re looking at doing … we’re exchanging information with the King County Sheriff,” in case the “same people who are doing the robberies on our kids are doing them in the county. I’ve got young kids too, this is the highest priority I have.”

Chief O’Toole picked up from there: “This is where our analytics come in.” She mentioned how they broke down a series of robberies in the South End, “and within a month we had like a 39 percent decrease in robberies there. These strategies do work. Best case – we will find out who is doing this.”

Second question was about turnover in the precincts, and what’s being done to slow that rate. “To be honest with you, the command staff at headquarters needs more continuity too.” She said that she had decided to bring in more people but also to learn more about the strengths of those she already has. She mentioned asking the assistant chiefs to reapply for their jobs, “to get the best possible command team in place.” As for the SW Precinct, she said she had only heard positive things so far, but did not specifically declare that no changes would be ahead. She said she’ll “have a new command team in place in the next month … and we’ll work on the precincts from there.”

Next question: Getting police training and help in dealing with people who are caught up in mental illness challenges. Chief O’Toole mentioned the Crisis Intervention training that officers are getting, and said she had gone to a facility in Burien and sat through it herself: “I can’t believe how much I learned in those 8 hours,” including de-escalation vs. escalation, with mental-health professionals leading the training. There’s also a 40-hour “level two” course that some officers are going to, and yet another one for supervisors. And she mentioned a newly established multidisciplinary Crisis Intervention Committee that reaches into departments beyond just SPD. She said more resources are needed for crisis intervention – three teams are assigned right now and they expect 6,000 contacts this year.

A woman interrupted from the corner of the room at that point, listing people who she said had been killed in interactions with police. “I’m not going to listen to this because this is all lies … the problem is that the police are brutalizers.” Other voices rose in support of what she was saying.

“How long has (the chief) been in place?” asked a man from the third row, suggesting the protesters should give her a chance.

And that’s when it started to devolve into some chaos. But within a few minutes, the crowd quieted, and Spalding read a question about trouble at 35th/Morgan. Capt. Wilske discussed what he had brought up at a recent community meeting, the neighborhood plan he is working on with High Point residents.

One man then shouted that he thought something was going to happen at that corner tonight because people were standing around smoking marijuana.

“Weed is legal in Seattle!” someone shouted from the center of the room.

That exchange settled down within a moment or two and a question was read about car prowls at Lincoln Park. While they are trying to catch prowlers, there’s also practical advice: “Don’t leave anything in your car,” Capt. Wilske urged.

Next question – does the Southwest Precinct have a communication liaison for the Somali community? The question didn’t get a specific answer, but Chief O’Toole replied, “We’re in the process of hiring an East African liaison for the Police Department,” and noted SPD had received more than 200 applications. “…I think we need to spend time thinking about more services for our kids in the community” – “prevention and intervention,” she said again.

That brought another shouted question from an audience member – “then why are you building a new jail?” It was clear momentarily that he was speaking about the new youth detention center. Again, other audience members tried to tell the shouter that they were here to listen to the chief. “From your position of privilege,” he retorted.

Chief O’Toole calmly went on to say that she hoped to work with youth to keep them out of trouble.

Next question: Any plans for walking patrols in West Seattle? She answered in general that she hoped to have more citywide, and also hoped to scientifically evaluate where they would be needed. Capt. Wilske added that he has two full-time bicycle officers and hopes to expand that “both days and nights before summer.”

The woman from the corner then started to shout again, bringing up Tamir Rice and then the case of SPD Officer Larry Longley. “I’m situating this meeting and this is what the police are doing – every 28 hours another black man is murdered by police.” She said that there would be a demonstration on April 14th – “a national shutdown. … We are here to put the West Seattle Police on notice. … Black lives matter! Latino lives matter!”

“Have we said anything tonight to disagree with that?” Spalding tried to say from the front.

“We’re trying to find out about a block watch,” someone shouted from the center of the room.

The woman in the corner of the room wouldn’t stop shouting. So finally Spalding called the meeting to an end; at least two dozen attendees crowded the front of the room in hopes of still getting a moment or two of the chief’s time, and she stayed for more than 15 minutes to do that.

ADDED 8:14 PM: We also had the chance to speak with the chief for a few moments afterward. She said she would try to get back to West Seattle for another community meeting sooner rather than later and also said she would provide written replies to questions that had been submitted but weren’t asked, so the answers can be published.