At a recent public safety forum, where the Seattle Police Department (SPD) spoke about community policing, attendees wanted to talk about something else: Why did the city cut funding to Community Passageways?
On July 16, Community Passageways held its monthly public safety forum at Alan T. Sugiyama High School in Rainier Beach. The forum, attended by about 50 people, had two parts: a presentation by the Seattle Police Department (SPD) on how guns are getting into South Seattle neighborhoods and a presentation by a child psychologist on how to talk to children about guns.
But close to the forum's end, a question from a community member sparked a large, emotional discussion about community-led violence prevention efforts. "There's no way that [the city] should be taking [Community Passageways] from Rainier Beach at all," said the community member. "That is going to be another death for the kids."
South Precinct Capt. Heidi Tuttle said she was "extremely nervous for next year" because of the funding cuts to Community Passageways and wanted to know why the city government made those decisions.
Brianna Thomas, senior policy advisor for the Human Services Department (HSD) and state representative for the 34th District, was in attendance, and she described the city's thinking behind the cuts. She said that in the past, four community groups did violence prevention work for the entire city. But HSD wanted to restructure funding so the work could be shared among 19 organizations, which ultimately led to cuts to Community Passageways.
Audience members disagreed with the city's reasoning and criticized Thomas, while expressing support for Community Passageways. Paul Patu from Urban Family and Dominique Davis from Community Passageways managed the outpouring of passion in the room and attempted to calm audience members' worries for the upcoming school year.
Patu said that Thomas was not at fault. "It is the city's fault," he said. "We specifically told them that if you do this … our community will not be happy with this. And [the city] moved forward with it [anyway]."
Patu told the audience that most of the violence prevention organizations, including Community Passageways, would meet to draft a plan for continuing services, along with recommendations for the city. Patu had organized the meeting to make sure that the groups were not "pitted against each other" but working together to address residents' concerns. The audience accepted the plan, but asked for more information at a future meeting.
But that was how the meeting ended. Before tensions rose over defunding Community Passageways, the feeling in the room was calm, and the audience attentive to SPD's presentation focused on gun violence in South Seattle.
The SPD presentation, given by Tuttle, detailed the most common ways juveniles get guns: by stealing them, buying them on social media, or through "straw purchases," when one person buys a gun for someone else.
"[But] there are limited details that show where the juveniles and adults are getting guns," said Tuttle. She continued, "The reason … is the lack of law enforcement cooperation from the possessors of the guns."
Juveniles also have increased access to guns through 3D-printing technology, Tuttle said. People can create 3D-printed guns, called ghost guns, or print parts of a gun or convert a handgun into an automatic.
Tuttle said local juveniles are now responsible for a higher percentage of gunshots, from 4% in July 2022 to nearly 12% in June 2026. Among those shooters, they are heavily distributed among young people aged 13 to 20.
Tuttle and other SPD officers then took questions from the audience, who were generally receptive of the department's efforts to address gun violence in the area. The first person asked what SPD is doing to mitigate the influx of guns coming into South Seattle.
"I think a lot of it is relationships," said Tuttle. "If you have the good relationship with the community, the community is more apt to give you a call and let you know what's going on."
Officer Mark Mullens said he talks to students at schools and hands out stickers, which, he claimed, led to a student informing him someone was carrying a gun.
Sgt. Stephanie Marks said it's "important to teach the kids not to be afraid of us." She continued, "They need to feel safe coming to us and reporting. That's important to us to make that connection and that they're not afraid of us."
Another community member wanted SPD to respond to what he has seen in the neighborhood: officers sitting in parked cars or standing around, not interacting with people. "Just parking the car doesn't make you present," he said.
"You are 100% correct," Tuttle replied, describing her worldview on community policing and how she hopes to instill it in the South Precinct. "One of the things that I started when I got down here … is 'Get out of your damn cars and fix your damn face.'"
Tuttle wants it to be the "expectation" that officers look approachable and interact with community members, whether on foot or on bikes. "I guarantee you that you're going to see an improvement as far as the relationships with the officers, or they're going to hear from you."
Attendees also asked about after-school and summer programs for youth, the officers used for the Safe Passage program before and after school, SPD efforts to be culturally competent in responding to reporting guns, and responses to violence in specific areas.
The final part of the forum was a presentation on how to talk to kids about guns, which was given by child psychologist Dr. Allison Briscoe-Smith. Briscoe-Smith said that before young people turn 10, parents have the largest influence. Then peer groups and social media take over. So talking about guns early, she said, can instill morals and values in children. Attendees discussed the information from Briscoe-Smith with interest during breakout sessions.
The next public safety forum will be held on Aug. 13. SPD will discuss their violence prevention efforts, and violence prevention groups will detail their plan for continuing services.
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