Three Months Into Wilson's Safety Plan, Some in Little Saigon See Little Change

On June 17, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced her plan to "disrupt the drug dealing, public disorder, and other illegal activity" consistently seen in Little Saigon and North Beacon Hill. Wilson's plan involved a dedicated Seattle Police Department (SPD) squad to patrol the area, a deeper partnership between SPD and the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, and an infusion of $1.1 million to support community-led solutions.

Hours after the announcement, at roughly 5 p.m., a police car with flashing lights but no active siren sat on the sidewalk on the southwest corner of 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street. The corner, the site of an open-air drug market where people often fence stolen goods, was cleared of people. But some of them had congregated half a block east, near Hoa Mai Park, where they were out of the officer's sight.

Since then, SPD officers in Little Saigon, stationed primarily at 12th and Jackson, have initiated 214 arrests and recovered four guns. This summer, SPD referred 35 people to LEAD, while last summer, police referred nine people to the program.

Yet even with the city's efforts to address public safety in the area, some say the current conditions appear similar to those months ago.

"Maybe there is [a] positive change happening when you look at [the numbers] more deeply," said Valerie Tran, interim executive director of the Friends of Little Saigon (FLS). "But on the surface, I think people see that it generally feels the same."

A 'Longer, Slower Approach'

When officials from Wilson's office and SPD describe the city's current approach to Little Saigon, they invoke specific words: "long-term," "slower," "intentionality," and "deliberate."

Alison Holcomb, the city's director of public safety, said that over the past 90 days, the mayor's office focused on "pulling all levers available" in Little Saigon, with "all of the departments that have the ability to have an impact on community safety." (Editor's Note: Emerald founder Marcus Harrison Green works as an advisor in the city's public safety department.)

Those levers include "reinvigorating" the partnership between LEAD and SPD, focusing on crime prevention through environmental design (such as increased lighting and additional trash cans) and investing in the Chinatown-International District (CID) safety ambassador program.

SPD, for its part, created a special 90-day emphasis patrol, separate from the routine patrol units in the CID. The emphasis patrol, known internally as King 90s, consisted of a sergeant and four patrol officers who only patrolled the neighborhood, focusing on a roughly eight-block area around 12th and Jackson.

West Precinct Capt. Marc Garth-Green assigned the emphasis patrol various tasks to advance the longer-term goal of changing the area's "culture of criminal activity." Those tasks included identifying local problems, making targeted arrests of dealers and fencers, working with LEAD on assisting people who commit "lesser" crimes, and building community relationships because, Garth-Green said, "police are visitors, no matter what community we're in."

Although SPD made substantial arrests in Little Saigon this summer, some in the neighborhood have yet to see — and feel — the impact. Tran said community members have said, "'No, we haven't seen any change. In fact, it feels worse.'" What Tran wants to see is "relief from the intensity of what is happening at 12th and Jackson, and how much it radiates outward."

Holcomb doesn't necessarily agree that things feel the same in the neighborhood, and she is hesitant to "assume what people are seeing is more of the same." She continued, "I do think that everyone probably wants for people to be healthy and not be in a state of obvious extreme crisis on the sidewalk."

Garth-Green understands when community members say they feel little has changed. "Were we able to lower the crime rate down there? Was the community happy, or do they feel safer? I mean, I can give you stats all day, [but] at the end of the day, if you walk out of your house, and you don't feel safe, the numbers don't mean anything."

'Immediate' vs. 'Sustainable' Solutions

Many of the public safety issues present in Little Saigon existed before Wilson took office. Her predecessor, Bruce Harrell, tackled public safety there using different tactics. When his staff referred to Harrell's plan, they used words such as "urgent" and "immediate."

In February 2022, through an effort called "Operation New Day," Harrell flooded 12th and Jackson with officers and cleared the area, leading to numerous arrests. Stationed officers kept the area cleared for a few months before law-enforcement resources were moved downtown. By the end of 2022, the public disorder that Harrell himself had inherited had returned and persisted throughout the majority of his tenure.

When asked why the current administration did not similarly clear the neighborhood before instituting Wilson's plan, both Garth-Green and Holcomb said that such clear-out efforts do not work.

"[SPD] can go in anytime to any space and say, 'Hey, we're going to arrest everybody [and] clear this out' … [and] we put cops on every corner," said Garth-Green. "It is valid when there's a high degree of violence. [But] when there's a high degree of crime, [and] maybe it's intertwined with a lot of social issues, mental health, and drug addiction, that may not be the best way."

Holcomb said she thinks most people in the neighborhood don't believe the solution is "to flood the zone with police officers and keep that there forever." She added, "I think sustainable change takes longer than shock and awe. And it's stickier. … And it allows the city to provide the right dose of assistance and support to the people whose community it is."

Tran agreed, but also critiqued Wilson's focus on long-term solutions while not addressing the short-term issues. "[Harrell's plan brought] that immediate relief and immediate visible change, and I think it was effective in that."

She continued, "Mayor Wilson is perhaps trying to be more upstream about things, but that results in not the immediate visible change … people would like to see."

What's Next?

In the short-term, SPD is using the data and observations collected during its 90-day emphasis to determine how to move forward in the area. At a recent community meeting, Garth-Green committed to finalizing the next stage of the public safety plan by the end of September or early October. He also told the Emerald that it will be released to the public at the same time.

For LEAD, the program hopes a broader approach will be implemented, since the 90-day emphasis was temporary. Sam Wolff, policy director of Purpose, Dignity, Action, which oversees the Seattle LEAD program, said, "We're encouraged by the strength of the partnership and remain hopeful that this effort will continue to develop and that our ongoing coordination will contribute to meaningful change for these communities."

As for the city, Wilson released a recent gun-violence reduction strategy, which involves increased bike patrols in South Seattle, including in the CID. Garth-Green said that bike patrols will have a positive effect in deterring crime day and night.

The mayor also released her proposed budget for 2027–28, including $9.1 billion for 2027. The proposal would increase SPD's budget by 13.9% in 2027 compared with 2026. The mayor's office confirmed that outcome-based solutions would drive its budget decisions and that programs that have positive outcomes will be funded.

But overall, Wilson will have a more "intensive focus" in Little Saigon, said Holcomb, for "however long it takes until we start to see some sustainable changes."

Tran has seen some positive outcomes from the city's current plan, but hopes for more in the future. "I think a positive is that [Wilson's] plan has maintained visibility and attention to 12th and Jackson and the challenges of the neighborhood. But the visibility and attention isn't enough. It's requiring a whole host of complementary approaches to actually seeing change."