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Comment by skrowl | Hacker News Reader

Multiple articles have been written about this. It's not just Amazon that it's impacting.

Seattle city council made deep cuts (but stopped short of totally "defunding the police") to the police there and ... shockingly ... crime has gone way up since then. The vote was 8-1 https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/washington/articles/...

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That's the 2022 budget which has been in effect for less than four months. And so far in 2022, crime has not "gone way up" -- at least not according to the city's crime dashboard[0]. That shows a grand total of 47,612 crimes in 2021. Divided by 12 months gives us an average of ~4k per month. So far the only total for 2022 is from January and shows a total of 4,023 crimes.

[0]: http://www.seattle.gov/police/information-and-data/crime-das...

People stop reporting. We have had an office break-in, multiple car break-ins, none reported to the police. They don't show up for hours, they can't do anything, and it doesn't change the situation for the reported. Easier to just skip. Talked to half a dozen people with the exact same story.

With respect, I prefer to ignore anecdotal explanations that conveniently lack the ability to be verified. But thanks for adding your perspective.

that's a pretty common perspective here.

How often do you get your own preference when it comes to measuring people?

I don't know if that's the case in Seattle, but it certainly is in Canada's largest (and very left-wing and socialist) cities.

Reporting crime to the police is usually just an additional burden on the victim/reporter, often when they need it least.

At best, a police report might make filing an insurance claim easier if property was damaged. Otherwise, it's just not worth it for most people to file a report that basically gets ignored.

Do people report petty crime in (right-wing, religious nutjob) cities? How quickly do police come when your iPhone is stolen in Jacksonville, Florida or Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas?

I had a bike stolen in Logan Utah once and the cops took it very seriously and recovered it in a few hours.

I live in Seattle now and wouldn’t bother reporting it because I know it wouldn’t be prioritized for a response.

So you don't believe that a fellow human might be telling the truth about choosing to skip an optional activity that would take extra time/resources and results in 0 perceived benefit to the participant?

I believe they might be. I also believe they might not be. In that situation I find it best to fall back on the verifiable facts of the situation. I understand not everyone has the same standard for verifying information and you are of course welcome to make your own conclusion.

I’ve heard stories like this from everyone I’ve ever talked to about property crime, whether it’s in a big city or a small one. Police don’t really care about it. I’ve had friends with stolen phones who know exactly where they are because of Find My iPhone, and the police wouldn’t do anything. This has been true for years, long before anyone was talking about police defunding.

The only crime I've ever seen Seattle police respond promptly to was a shooting, they got here within a minute or two from when I heard the gunshots. But something like a crazy person screaming at 3am in the middle of the street throwing traffic cones at cars? They don't show up for that at all. They won't even send even a single patrol car for that.

Police saw the writing on the wall and started leaving for the suburbs in 2020, just as you and I would take a new job before waiting to be cut by a dying startup.

Do you have a source for that claim or are you speculating? If existing officers fled as you suggest they appear to have been easily replaced.

According to the chief in November, 2021 there were 1,015 deployable officers[0]. As of today, there are 1,325[1].

[0]: https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/seattle-pol...

[1]: https://www.seattle.gov/police/about-us/about-the-department...

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