Phoenix Jones: Criminals taking advantage of Seattle cops busy with protests

While Seattle police are busy trying to keep the peace during protests, criminals are taking advantage of their absence, according to crime-fighting Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones.

Jones told KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz he was off-duty, running some errands in Pioneer Square when he noticed suspicious activity.

“I looked around and recognized a bunch of the faces of the people out here and thought, this is a lot of the people who normally do small pickpocket crimes and vandalism crimes,” Jones said. “So I went back, got my suit on, and I’ve stopped a lot of strange stuff.”

“I’ve seen a couple people who are walking up and down the streets checking handles of car doors, just blatantly checking handles without even trying to hide,” he said.

Jones usually sees cruisers rolling by to deter this kind of activity in Pioneer Square, but he said the city is under a lot of strain with the number of recent protests, and criminals appear to be taking note.

“I approached one of the guys that I know and he said, ‘You know there’s no [expletive] cops around, so why not? What is going to stop me?’ It’s kind of a smart thing if you’re a criminal, I guess.”

At one point, Jones called police to let them know what he was seeing, but said he was told they were busy.

“I called 911 and made a little report and they basically let me know there’s a march/parade going on and all the police are kind of tied up.”

He said the dispatcher told him if he saw a violent crime, the police would be there right away. Jones didn’t doubt that. He said he hasn’t seen any violent crimes and he understands the property-type crimes he was witnessing weren’t necessarily the priority.

“We’ve got 100 cops walking around the city aimlessly following a group of people. How can they be stopping crime in Pioneer Square? It’s not so much their fault as much as it’s a byproduct.”

Seattle Police Detective Patrick Michaud told KIRO Radio officers are responding to 911 calls as they always have.

“We are staffing these protests with a high level of officers for a reason, but that is not detracting from our patrol resources,” he said.

Even though he was supposed to be busy with other things Wednesday evening, Jones told Rantz he’d be staying out on the streets for a while to keep an eye out.

“I really had stuff I had to do, but I guess I’m going to have to protect people’s stuff. That’s just kind of what I do.”