‘We’ve failed them’: KIRO hosts analyze Seattle crime surge as businesses weigh private security

As break-ins have increased across Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood in recent years, local business owners are exploring a shared private security company to protect their storefronts.

Speaking on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio, KIRO fill-in hosts Angela Poe Russell and Mike Lewis pointed out a few economic factors that may have led to the surge in property crime, and debated whether shared private security could be a viable deterrent.

“I know that whenever the economy gets worse, burglaries go up, you can almost bet on it,” Lewis said. “With the recession and things getting more expensive, people have started to break into things. Also, you’ve got a secondary issue here. Everyone assumes that Seattle Police are so low on staffing that there really isn’t any concern about break-ins. I know the Seattle police are doing what they can to stop these things, but they are still down a couple of hundred officers. I think there’s a feeling that it’s a little easier now to get away with property crime and break-ins.

“I’d add one more thing: we find out about these crimes more in higher-income neighborhoods,” he continued. “This is a group of Wallingford businesses, and I’m not suggesting that these businesses shouldn’t be broken into; no business in town should be broken into, but when you have a small commercial district in a neighborhood where the average home value is like $850,000, then the situation becomes a lot more publicized. Some neighborhoods are dealing with that in Seattle that we’re not actually talking about right now.”

Poe Russell links drug use to surge in Wallingford break-ins

The conversation shifted toward Seattle’s rampant drug use and why the city’s lenient approach to open-air consumption could have a direct link to users burglarizing businesses to support their habits.

“I’m more concerned about customer safety, because I do frequent that area. The kind of stuff I’ve seen, I have looked hell in the face,” Poe Russell said. “Can you imagine showing up to your business or where you’re living, and people are out there with torches doing drugs? Here’s my theory for why burglaries are up. I wonder if the other piece of this is drug use.

“As I understand it, in the city, we’ve kind of taken a back seat to saying we’re not going to aggressively pursue people doing drugs on the street,” she continued. “I would argue it is a public hazard. What do you think is going to happen if you just let that continue? If we’re at a point where several private businesses have to hire private security, we as a city have failed them. We have not provided the public service. They are paying taxes, and all that does is drive up costs for customers.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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