A driver was busted for DUI after crashing their car into a construction site at MLK and Union in 2016
The Seattle Police Department has announced it will roll out a DUI emphasis team for the first time in the city since 2019.
SPD says the effort will run through the holiday season in December and will mean a DUI squad active on the city’s streets nightly from 6 PM to 4 AM.’
“We hope our community makes safe driving choices this holiday season. Make a plan, use rideshare or a taxi, or use a designated driver,” supervisor Sgt. Tom Heller said in the announcement. “Pro tip: the designated driver needs to be actually sober, not just the least intoxicated person in the car.”
In late 2020 facing staffing issues, SPD disbanded its DUI squad, which had been in operation for 50 years. The officers from the unit were reassigned to regular patrol duties.
The temporary restoration of a DUI team comes as SPD Chief Shon Barnes and outgoing Mayor Bruce Harrell have said the department is finally making progress on its hiring and retention goals after ranks dropped coming out of the pandemic and the 2020 protests.
DUI incidents reported across Seattle over the past week
SPD Assistant Chief Robert Brown told the crowd at a recent Capitol Hill community crime forum that the turnaround in SPD hiring will begin to pay dividends in the year ahead as there will be more officers to deploy to cover the city’s round-the-clock shifts. Boosted salaries and generous bonuses have been a core to the change.
The temporary DUI squad could also be a hopeful sign after years of reduced police services as ranks dwindled coming out of the pandemic. Seattle cops, in one example, stopped making “low risk” traffic stops for issues like expired tabs in 2022.
Many of SPD’s cuts and reductions along the way eliminated resources valued by the community including some of the department’s most public-facing aspects. Changes like the still locked down East Precinct lobby remain stuck in SPD’s post-pandemic transition.
DUI, meanwhile, remains a costly and dangerous element on Seattle streets despite the growth of public transit options and ride app services. Over the past holiday week, Seattle Police investigated 21 DUI cases in the city.
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