Push on ‘neighborhood-oriented policing’ includes new program placing freshest cops on the Capitol Hill nightlife beat

SPD says it is ready to try new approaches to neighborhood crime “hot spots”

By Brenna Gauchat

As Chief Shon Barnes is championing new “neighborhood-oriented policing” and a test of dedicated officers on a beat patrolling Magnusson Park, residents attending a Seattle Police Department community meeting on public safety across Capitol Hill and the Central District said they want to see more officers on the ground in their neighborhoods, too.

On Capitol Hill, a new effort will place rookies and fresh recruits to the Seattle Police force on the streets of the neighborhood’s nightlife core every weekend to help with the surge of public safety issues, SPD officials say.

The Seattle Police Department’s community outreach event Tuesday evening at Capitol Hill’s Miller Community Center covered a wide array of topics, but conversations continued to circle back to SPD’s staffing and a desire to see cops on the beat.

Tuesday, Barnes said SPD has been making progress in building relationships between its officers and residents through the launch of the Neighborhood Resource Officer initiative in Magnuson Park.

This initiative assigns a few new officers to work full time in certain neighborhoods, allowing them, Barnes said, to focus on establishing trust and familiarity among residents instead of being dispatched throughout the city. For Magnuson Park, this means three officers will be on patrol.

Many attendees Tuesday night asked, if Magnuson Park, why not Capitol Hill’s “crime hot spots” like Pike/Pine.

SPD’s presentation showed overall crime levels have been steady so far in 2026 — but calls are up

In SPD’s expanding Neighborhood Resource Officer program, three officers from the North Precinct have been assigned full-time, “working in pairs to do bike and foot patrols in and around the park, getting to know people who live in the area,” Publicola reports.

The dedication could mean improved public safety in the area. SPD claims a “double-digit” reduction in crime since the start of a test of the patrols, Publicola says.

The dedication also means precincts will need more officers, officials say.

Joe Elenbaas, the East Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator, said SPD has been working on ways to prevent and combat violent crimes and disturbances along Pike/Pine’s “nightlife corridor,” including increased foot patrols during peak weekend hours and frequent meetings with the area’s restaurants, bars and security staff.

A new program will place the department’s freshest cops on the streets of Pike/Pine.

“As we continue to move forward, the Seattle Police Department is phasing in a new program that brings additional officers to neighborhoods,” SPD said in a statement to CHS following the event.

SPD says the new program is being tested “in the Capitol Hill nightlife area.”

“It allows new officers who have completed their field training and can work independently to patrol the nightlife area between Thursday and Sunday, allowing the neighborhood to have additional police presence that many community members have requested,” a statement from SPD to CHS on the program reads.

While the new program is focused on nightlife, similar approaches for Capitol Hill’s daytime public safety issues might also be coming.

Dr. Lee Hunt, SPD’s Executive Director of Crime and Community Harm Reduction and the Tuesday meeting’s moderator, asked participants — including media — not to record or report any of the conversations held within the groups and to “respect everyone’s voice as opinion,” an effort, he said, to prevent anyone’s words to be taken out of context if something were to be posted online.

But Melissa Pinchiff, the hub manager for Seattle’s Crossroads Trading locations including its Broadway shop, was open to talking to CHS after the event about what brought her to speak at this meeting.

She said she and her staff were doing inventory recently and found Crossroad’s Broadway location had lost thousands of dollars to theft and shoplifting within a three-month timespan.

“It feels like it’s a free market for criminals,” Pinchiff said about how SPD’s slow response times and general absence on Broadway has affected the culture around crime. “That trickles down into [people] coming into my shop and stealing things, knowing that they can run out and not run into a police officer for miles.”

Pinchiff said many of the neighboring small businesses who rely on foot traffic and casual shopping are struggling or shuttered because Broadway doesn’t feel safe for some people, especially visitors, anymore.

“We used to be a destination store,” Pinchiff said. Now, she feels like visitors are walking away with the attitude of, “Okay, that was fun, but I probably won’t go back.”

Pinchiff said it has also been challenging seeing her employees – many of them young and just trying to focus on their work – put in difficult or dangerous situations. The store has had to hire costly, external security because they do not feel they can rely on law enforcement for assistance.



In the Miller Community Center on Tuesday night, more than 60 attendees opened up about other concerns like privacy protection regarding increased surveillance cameras around the city, open drug use, and the blurred lines for when to call 911 in emergency and non-emergency situations.

In its presentation and statements on its new programs, SPD did not address the growth of the CARE Department and how its crisis responders could be part of any new efforts to increase beat policing. CHS reported earlier this year on the restrictions that continue to be placed on the crisis response force.

On May 11 and June 29, SPD will host two virtual events to share the results of its annual safety survey and its plans for micro-community policing in the East Precinct in the following months. These dates will be a part of the larger “Community Police Dialogues” Series that aims to touch base with every Seattle precinct.

Check out the city’s Micro-Community Policing Plans site to learn more.

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