Fewer than 40% of Seattle residents believe the Seattle Police Department is doing a good or excellent job preventing crime and protecting citizens, with a majority concluding the SPD's performance should be rated "fair" or "poor," according to a new poll.
Nearly half of those asked believe police aren't tough enough on crime. And 75% support efforts to shift some emergency calls away from police to other agencies and unarmed city workers, presumably to free officers to patrol and respond to other more serious incidents.
Despite the racial unrest following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis — and data showing Seattle police are significantly likelier to stop, question or use force against Black and Native American residents — the poll showed 61% of respondents agreed police "generally do a good job and treat people of different races fairly, even if there are a few bad apples on the force."
