Mayor Says City Will Address Public Safety in Little Saigon, North Beacon Hill for 'As Long as It's Needed'

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced her plan on June 17 to address the public safety concerns in Little Saigon and North Beacon Hill. The plan said there would be expanded police patrols and funding for community services, but it was sparse on specific details.

Two weeks later, on July 1, Wilson discussed details of her plan with the Emerald after a press conference with King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, at which they announced the "right-sizing" of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA).

Wilson discussed how her public safety plan is a "new approach" to the region, though it is similar to former Mayor Bruce Harrell's responses to crime in the area. Wilson said that "around the start of the pandemic," the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program were not working together.

"It really kind of fell away as a core competency of SPD and to really be able to utilize [LEAD] the way that it's supposed to be utilized," said Wilson.

But in her plan, the relationship between SPD, LEAD, and the community is the core to its success. "We are really kind of rebooting and deepening the collaboration between SPD and [the LEAD] program," said Wilson. "We've been working with LEAD. We've been working with other service providers [and] stakeholders in the neighborhood to really figure out the details of how this approach is going to be successful."

Specific details to the plan that Wilson did provide were the funding of a full-time outreach worker in Little Saigon, and "training individual SPD officers so that they are skilled at knowing what and how to refer someone to LEAD."

When asked whether there would be additional LEAD training for officers in the South Precinct, which saw only two referrals from April 2025 to March 2026, Wilson did not have a clear answer: "I don't want to say [definitively], but I believe so."

Wilson also stated that there would be a citywide shift to a "neighborhood-based community policing model where individual officers are really assigned to a particular area. They're able to build relationships. They're out in the public being visible more."

During Harrell's tenure, he flooded Little Saigon with SPD officers multiple times only to then pull them out to focus on downtown. Wilson suggested she would not take this tactic, saying she will be there "as long as it's needed."

"This is like long-standing problems in this neighborhood," said Wilson. "Our hope is that through continued work with all the stakeholders, we're going to see steady improvement, so each month is better than the last. We're really committed to that long-term work."

These comments by Wilson were made after her announcement with King County Executive Zahilay to "right-size" the KCRHA. Currently, the Authority receives roughly $118 million from the City and $41 million from the County, along with additional funds from the federal government. Under the new plan, beginning in January 2027, the City and County will regain control of their respective funds and disperse them directly to social service providers.

In recent months, as the KCRHA's financial crisis has come to light, some members of both City and County Councils have floated dissolving the KCRHA. On July 1, Wilson, Zahilay, and their staff dodged reporters' questions on whether the "right-sizing" plan was a first step to dissolving the KCRHA. When asked specifically by the Emerald whether the City and County would be prepared to take over the KCRHA if the Councils voted to dissolve the Authority before January 2027, Wilson and Zahilay said dissolution votes would not happen.

"I don't believe there's any chance that the City Council will vote to dissolve the KCRHA," said Wilson.

"I don't believe that's gonna happen either … and I don't believe any of our colleagues would jeopardize our ability to manage those contracts prematurely," said Zahilay.