Interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr updates public on first 60 days
Seattle police interim chief Sue Rahr gives update on first 60 days in office
On Tuesday, interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr headed to the city council's public safety committee for the first time in her new position, to give a wide-ranging update on public safety following her first 60 days at the helm of the Seattle Police Department.
On Tuesday, Interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr presented to the city council's Public Safety Committee for the first time in her new position. She gave a wide-ranging update on public safety following her first 60 days at the helm of the Seattle Police Department.
"Normally, when a new leader comes in, we talk about this is a marathon, and we’re going to be very methodical. I said, this is no marathon, this is a sprint. So, buckle up, get your tennis shoes on because we’ve got a lot of work to do," said Rahr.
Throughout the presentation, the interim chief laid out several data points to sum up her first 60 days, including the following graphic which shows there have been more shots fired year-to-date in 2024 than in the previous two years. There were 308 shots heard by witnesses, or cases found, 86 which led to a shooting with injury and a total of 17 fatal shootings.
"We have so much gunfire in the community, it’s just astounding," said Rahr.
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However, the year-to-date homicide count (at the time of release) was the lowest (28) in 2024 compared to 2023 (35) and 2022 (29), according to the Seattle Police Department. SPD also notes that for this year, 14 of the victims were Black or African American (50%), 11 were white (40%), 1 was Asian (3%) and two were unknown, representing 7% of the deaths.

Seattle Police Graphic-Homicides YTD 2022-2024
The department continued, saying in the past week officers have arrested six people related to three different shootings. As part of related search warrants into those cases, the department recovered nine firearms with possible arrests still forthcoming.
As for staffing, the department trails behind their earlier goals--calling the situation a "crisis."
"We have got to shorten our hiring process, and we also need to have a high-touch engagement. When people apply to the police department, we need to reach out and touch them right away, and we need to engage with them frequently," said Rahr. "It’s highly, highly competitive. And the agency that removes the most barriers to get in the door is going to have a larger pool. And I’d like to see us use a testing process that is much more low barrier and faster."
While Seattle Police had set out to hire 65 officers in the second quarter, the actual number has landed at just 21 hires. A graph shows a previous high of 1,339 fully trained officers in early 2020. Since then, the department has steadily decreased. Right now, they report 979 fully trained officers.
"I do want to reassure you. Even though we are down 400 officers, the officers that we have are working their hearts out. And they are doing a lot of good work. They’re doing amazing things considering the environment that they’re working in," said Rahr.
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Seattle Police staffing Q2 2024
What's next?
The interim chief painted a picture of optimism for Seattle, citing coordination with the Mayor's Office and City departments in their criminal justice efforts.
"We have moved passed the idea that we have to pick one thing or the other. We can’t live in the world of either or now. Either it’s the law enforcement problem or it’s a social service problem. It’s both. What is happening in our community can’t just be solved by the police and it can’t just be solved by social workers," said Rahr. "We are in a crisis right now, again, I want to reinforce how important the council support has been. The mayor’ office has been amazingly supportive. That means so much to our officers to know that the city has their back."
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