Seattle police officers out in extra numbers on Black Friday
Nov 29, 2013, 3:46 AM | Updated: 7:49 am
The biggest shopping day of the year comes a week after the department announced the arrest of more than 30 downtown drug dealers in a bust called "Operation Happy Holidays." The department will increase patrols on Black Friday throughout the downtown retail core, in areas like Westlake Park. (Photo: MyNorthwest.com/Michael Simeona)
(Photo: MyNorthwest.com/Michael Simeona)
Seattle police will be out in extra numbers on Black Friday to help keep shoppers safe in the downtown retail core.
The biggest shopping day of the year comes a week after the department announced the arrest of more than 30 downtown drug dealers in a bust called “Operation Happy Holidays.”
“The message is that law enforcement in Seattle is working together to make downtown safer,” said Sgt. Sean Whitcomb with the Seattle Police Department’s public affairs office. “We’re hoping that people who are here engaged in criminal activity and criminal behavior recognize that too and take it elsewhere.”
While the department hopes it will serve as a deterrent to criminals, the announcement of “Operation Happy Holidays” also highlighted the depth of problems in areas such as Westlake Park. The park, which is surrounded by popular shopping destinations such as Macy’s, Nordstrom’s, Pacific Place and Westlake Center, is also home to family-friendly holiday attractions, such as the carousel.
Just a few days after the bust was announced, drug dealers were still operating openly in the park. One man unknowingly asked two KIRO Radio employees if they wanted to buy drugs, then denied engaging in illegal activity once questioned.
“I don’t know that anybody on this corner is selling drugs,” said the man, among a group of young adults and teens who often gather on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Pine Street. “We’re all a family, we just hang out.”
While SPD continues to work to address problems at Westlake Park and other areas along the Pike-Pine Street corridor, officers will increase patrols during the holiday season in an effort to put shoppers at ease.
“Shopping season is very important to downtown,” Sgt. Whitcomb said. “It’s very important to the retailers, the merchants, and most importantly to the people who are going downtown to shop, to dine, to go out to the theater.”
The extra holiday patrols will be in effect weekdays from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. and weekends from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. through December 26. Officers will concentrate on the area bound by Third and Seventh avenues and Union Street to Olive Way.
