New Police Beat And North Precinct Officer For Neighborhood Due TO SPD's Recent Shift Of Beat Boundaries



 

 

 

For the first time since 2008, the Seattle Police Department has shifted the boundaries of its 51 police beats, including Laurelhurst, which is now in police beat Union3.

 

Elizabeth Scott, North Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator recently sent out this information: 

 

The new beats will now more closely reflect Seattle’s census tracts to match officer allocation to the recent growth and shifts in Seattle’s many neighborhoods. The North Precinct , which includes Laurelhurst, will continue to consist of five police sectors: Boy, John, Lincoln, Nora and Union, each sector containing three police beats each. 

 

 

Sergeant Dianne Newsom, with the North Precinct Community Police Team, told the Blog staff:

Whereas Laurelhurst used to be police beat Lincoln 3 (L3), Laurelhurst is now within police beat Union 3 (U3).  

Additionally, your Community Police Team (CPT) officer has also changed, your new CPT officer is Officer Mike Lanz (formerly Officer Kip Strong), whose new area covers  Laurelhurst, Windemere, Bryant, Wedgewood, Sand Point areas and existing areas of University District (the Ave), Ravenna, Roosevelt and  Greek System areas.

The new district configuration was done to align calls for service in census tract with neighborhoods. To reflect the greatness of our neighborhoods which allows officers to work the neighborhood police plans with neighbors to address the concerns from the neighborhood policing planYou switch from Lincoln 3 to Union 3. This does not change police staffing as it is in response to calls for service.

 

 



Here is the press release:

SPD Adds Supervisors, Shifts Police Beats As Part of Reform Efforts

 

 

For the first time since 2008, the Seattle Police Department is shifting the boundaries of its 51 police beats. The change will improve officer supervision and public safety service, better align police patrols with Seattle’s neighborhoods, and achieve a major milestone in the department’s work toward reform with the Department of Justice.

Beginning January 28^th, the department has increased the number of patrols squads and sergeants at each of SPD’s five precincts, improving each precinct’s officer-to-supervisor ratio. This will enable supervisors to work more closely with officers, providing guidance in investigations, reviewing use of force, and ensuring quality of public service. 

SPD’s five precincts beats will also more closely reflect Seattle’s census tracts, to match officer allocation to the recent growth and shifts in Seattle’s many neighborhoods. Beat realignments are a common practice for law enforcement agencies throughout the country, allowing police departments to account for city growth and population density changes.  

The last time SPD redrew its boundaries was in 2008.  Now, six years later, the department has again taken the opportunity to reevaluate and meet the needs of each of Seattle’s neighborhoods. 

As part of the patrol map realignment, the department will also revise neighborhood-based crime data available on My Neighborhood Maps, Tweets By Beat and Data.Seattle.Gov to reflect the new beat boundaries. The new data is expected to be available by mid-February. 

The Tweets By Beat page on Twitter makes it easier to find out about crime happening in specific neighborhoods.  The page shows a feed of police dispatches in all of the city's police beats, which can be found by using the  Beat-finder tool.  Calls display one hour after a dispatcher sends the call to an officer. The feeds doesn't include information about domestic violence calls, sexual assaults, and other certain types of crimes.

Seattle is divided into five geographic areas. Within those areas are the 5 precincts or police stations: North, East, South, West and Southwest. Precinct boundaries were determined through consideration of neighborhood boundaries, geographic and other natural boundaries. 

Each precinct contains smaller geographic areas called Sectors. There are 17 sectors total in the city.  Each of these Sectors are divided into between 3 smaller sections called Beats (i.e. Ocean sector has three beats O1, O2, O3) These are the areas that individual patrol officers are assigned responsibility for.