Collaborative Research

The Seattle University Crime and Justice Research Center has collaborated with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) since 2015 to conduct the annual Seattle Public Safety Survey as part of the Micro-Community Policing Plans (MCPP). Virtual community-Police dialogues are conducted via Zoom videoconference to provide opportunity for community members and police to explore and discuss the Seattle Public Safety Survey results. Dialogues are facilitated by Dr. Jacqueline Helfgott, Professor, Director of the Seattle University Crime and Justice Research Center and co-facilitated by the respective precinct-based MCPP Research Analyst on the Seattle Police Department’s MicroCommunity Policing Plans research team. The 2023 SPD MCPP Research Team is: Elaria Zakhary (North Precinct), Eden Sedgwick (South Precinct), Ana Carpenter (East and West Precincts), Zachary Dar (Citywide), and Quinn Priebe (Southwest Precinct).

Seattle University conducted 15 virtual community-police dialogues from May through August 2023: three for each precinct. The dialogues are conducted in conjunction with the annual Seattle Public Safety Survey in between annual survey administrations2 to provide community members the opportunity to engage in conversation with Seattle Police personnel about the annual Seattle Public Safety Survey results, and to discuss real-time concerns about crime, public safety, and security at the micro-community (neighborhood) and precinct levels. All who live and/or work in Seattle were eligible to participate in the virtual community-police dialogues, allowing community members to meet, collaborate, and network with the officers and command staff in their precinct.

The results presented in this report show what was discussed in the dialogues, the themes that arose citywide and at the precinct levels, and post-dialogue feedback from participants. The 2023 dialogues involved 129 community members and 130 police personnel3 who participated in the dialogue sessions conducted from May 2023- August 2023. The results presented in this report convey the essence of the dialogues and highlight the key themes in the precinct discussions. 

Download full report (PDF)

Top Public Safety Concerns

The top public safety concerns for the City of Seattle and Seattle Police Department’s five precincts and microcommunities are reported based on quantitative results from the Seattle Public Safety Survey in response to the question “What, if any, are current public safety and security concerns in the neighborhood where you live and/or work? Select all that apply.”

Most Prominent Themes

The most prominent themes for the City of Seattle and Seattle Police Department’s five precincts and micro-communities were identified from narrative comments in survey responses to questions “Do you have any additional thoughts on public safety and security issues in Seattle, generally, or your neighborhood, specifically, that you would like to share?” and “Do you have any thoughts on the Micro-Community Policing Plan Initiative that you would like to share?”

Measures of Community Perceptions of Public Safety

The survey included question sets that make up distinct scales that measure community perceptions of police, neighborhood features, and crime as related to public safety. Results are reported for question sets measuring Police Legitimacy, Collective Efficacy-Informal Social Control, Collective EfficacySocial Cohesion, Fear of Crime, and Social Disorganization.

Top Public Safety Concerns and Prominent Themes for Seattle Citywide Top Public Safety Concerns.

1. Traffic Safety
2. Police Capacity
3. Property Crime
4. Homelessness
5. Community Capacity

Most Prominent Themes

1. Public Order Crime
2. Traffic Safety
3. Property Crime
4. Violent Crime
5. Police Capacity

Download full survey results (PDF)

During the 2020-2021 Legislative Session, legislators passed ESSB 5092, Section 115, Section 3, which required the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts to provide: “all courts with an electronic demographic survey for jurors who begin a jury term.” The aim was to collect data on each juror's race, ethnicity, age, sex, employment status, educational attainment, and income, as well as any other data approved by order of the Chief Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court. The central question is whether summoned jurors are representative of the counties from which they are selected. The makeup and representativeness of jury summons respondents and eventually impaneled juries pertains to the trial provisions of the Sixth Amendment and to the perceived legitimacy and fairness of and confidence in our courts.

While there have been prior versions of this survey over the last six years, this is the largest and most comprehensive research effort to date. Although there is ongoing data collection across the state of Washington, this interim report only presents findings from analysis of data from the electronic juror surveys in Clark, King, Pierce, and Spokane Counties’ Superior Courts.

This Executive Summary provides highlights drawn from the two data analysis sections of this report. Data were collected electronically, over a roughly 9-month period in 2022. Each county had a different start and interim-end date for data collection, as the survey was embedded in each county’s online juror registration webpage, requiring a tailored onboarding process. All data represent only those people who responded to their summons by registering for jury duty online and who also opted into the survey. Therefore, it does not include those who: did not receive their summons in the mail, ignored their summons, declined to participate in the survey, and/or responded to their summons through different modalities, such as in-person, over the telephone, or via postal mail.

The first section covers key findings from across all four counties. Descriptive analyses are included for each of the survey questions. For all race and ethnicity questions, U.S. Census Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) data from the American Community Survey are used as baseline comparison figures. Additional federal, state, and private sources of data are used as baseline comparisons for additional demographic measures.

The second section provides more detailed findings for Pierce County alone, as they were able to track juror progress from summons through seating, as well as completion of a trial or jury service term. In summary, there are four unique stages of analysis for Pierce County: Stage 1) online check-in; Stage 2) those who report in person to the courthouse; Stage 3) those are selected for voir dire (jury selection process); and Stage 4) those who are assigned to a case as a sworn or alternate juror. Because Pierce County has this technical capability, we can observe changes, for example, in the proportion of Black or White jurors through all the stages described above.

Download the full report (PDF)

Top Public Safety Concerns and Prominent Themes for Seattle Citywide

Top Public Safety Concerns

The top public safety concerns for the City of Seattle and Seattle Police Department’s five precincts and micro-communities are reported based on quantitative results from the Seattle Public Safety Survey in response to the question “What, if any, are current public safety and security concerns in the neighborhood where you live and/or work? Select all that apply.”

Most Prominent Themes

The most prominent themes for the City of Seattle and Seattle Police Department’s five precincts and micro-communities were identified from narrative comments in survey responses to questions “Do you have any additional thoughts on public safety and security issues in Seattle, generally, or your neighborhood, specifically, that you would like to share?” and “Do you have any thoughts on the Micro-Community Policing Plan Initiative that you would like to share?”

Measures of Community Perceptions of Public Safety

The survey included question sets that make up distinct scales that measure community perceptions of police, neighborhood features, and crime as related to public safety. Results are reported for question sets measuring Police Legitimacy, Collective Efficacy-Informal Social Control, Collective Efficacy-Social Cohesion, Fear of Crime, and Social Disorganization.

Summary of Findings Citywide

The top public safety concerns are Property Crime, Police Capacity, Homelessness, Traffic Safety, and Community & Public Safety Capacity. The most prominent themes residents in the city of Seattle commented on in their narrative responses are Public Order Crime, Property Crime, Traffic Safety, Fear of Crime, and Violent Crime. This is the first time the theme Fear of Crime has appeared in the top five themes.

Download full survey results (PDF)

This document is the first in a series of reports that reports the effects of the "Before the Badge" (BTB) program on Seattle Police Department (SPD) recruits through their training pre/post and 1-year/3-years post graduation. Group comparisons are made throughout multiple data collection points between SPD recruits (who complete the BTB program) and Non-SPD recruits (recruits from other law enforcement agencies who are enrolled in the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission's (WSCJTC) Basic Law Enforcement Academy (BLEA). The preliminary findings reported in this report reflect quantitative and qualitative data collected from surveys and interviews with 29 Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (WSCJTC) recruits prior to their initial training from September 01, 2022, through November 2022. The analyses conducted thus far are intended to serve as an initial snapshot of what will be a multi-phased approach to collecting longitudinal data on the effectiveness of the BTB program.

Purpose of Study

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of SPD's BTB training program. Following the national civil rights reckoning of 2020, and growing demands for police reform, this 45-day training program was developed by SPD's Chief Adrian Diaz and SPD personnel in collaboration with a diverse set of community partners and subject-matter experts. Through the longitudinal collection of evaluative data, results from this research have the potential to inform training practices, the evolution of, and improvements to law enforcement training within the Seattle Police Department and Washington State. Furthermore, this project contributes to academic literature on guardian law enforcement training, de-escalation and crisis intervention training, as well as alternative law enforcement training models.

Research Design

The current study employs a mixed-method research design. Data are collected at multiple points over a longitudinal period from surveys and interviews administered to new WSCJTC recruits (Seattle Police recruits and recruits from other agencies across the state. SPD-BTB recruits serve as the experimental group with Non-SPD recruits as the comparison group. Quantitative data is collected through the administration of a survey instrument developed from a prior project evaluating the guardian law enforcement training at the WSCJTC Basic Law Enforcement Academy (BLEA). The survey is comprised of three sections: 1) Background, 2) General attitudes, and 3) Crisis Intervention Team Training. Additionally, quantitative and qualitative data are collected through a multi-phase interview process conducted over Zoom. A summarization of the study's data collection points for the experimental and comparison group are outlined in Figure 1.

Download the full report (PDF)

The Seattle University Crime and Justice Research Center has collaborated with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) since 2015 to conduct the annual Seattle Public Safety Survey as part of the Micro-Community Policing Plans (MCPP). Virtual community-police dialogues were conducted in 2021 and 2022 via Zoom videoconference to provide opportunity for community members and police to explore and discuss the Seattle Public Safety Survey results.1 In 2022, MCPP launched an additional set of community-police dialogues focused on building relationships between SPD recruits and community members as recruits progress through Before the Badge (BTB) training. BTB is a new initiative that police recruits experience prior to entering the police academy focused on relational policing and immersing new recruits in community-based experiences. Dialogues are facilitated by Dr. Jacqueline Helfgott, Professor and Director of the Seattle University Crime & Justice Research Center and co-facilitated by the respective precinct-based MCPP Research Analyst on the Seattle Police Department’s Micro-Community Policing Plans research team comprised of graduate students Katie Kepler (North Precinct), Brandon Bledsoe (South and Southwest Precinct), Ashley Dobbs (East and West Precincts), and undergraduate student Evelyn Madrid-Fierro (Citywide) in the Seattle University Department of Criminal Justice, Criminology and Forensics.

Seattle University conducted 12 virtual BTB community-police dialogues from September through December 2022. The dialogues are conducted as part of the Micro-Community Policing Plans in conjunction with the annual Seattle Public Safety Survey to provide community members the opportunity to engage in conversation with future SPD personnel about the annual Seattle Public Safety Survey results and introduce SPD recruits to the geographical communities they will serve. All who live and/or work in Seattle were eligible to participate in the virtual community-police dialogues, allowing community members to meet, collaborate, and network with the future officers in their precinct.

The results presented in this report show what was discussed in the dialogues, the themes that arose citywide and at the precinct levels, and post-dialogue feedback from participants. The 2022 dialogues involved 104 community members and 128 BTB personnel who participated in the dialogue sessions conducted from September 2022 - December 2022. The results presented in this report convey the essence of the dialogues and highlight the key themes in the precinct discussions.

Download final report (PDF)

This report presents findings from a descriptive evaluation of the Pretrial Assessment and Linkages Services (PALS) Pilot Program implemented by the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (KCDAJD).

The descriptive evaluation of the PALS Pilot Program was implemented by the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention September 2020 through December 2021. The PALS Pilot Program offers a jail alternative for eligible and appropriate felony pretrial defendants in South King County, Washington. The program was launched to serve selected felony pretrial defendants in South King County, Washington to fill a gap in services for pretrial defendants in the South King County geographical region, one of the most racially and economically diverse regions in the state. KCDAJD is committed to addressing disproportionality and recognizes their role in aiding King County Superior Court to reduce the impacts to individuals, particularly Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) who have become involved in the criminal legal system and who reside or have community ties in South King County. The PALS Pilot Program addresses service gaps of pretrial defendants entering the criminal legal system in South King County, Washington. The PALS Pilot Program employs a human services approach by providing responsive services and support as an alternative to incarceration.

PALS services include substance use disorder treatment, opiate disorder treatment (Buprenorphine/ Suboxone), counseling, mental health, and behavioral health services, cognitive-behavioral intervention, acupuncture services, and GED preparation and testing. The primary goal of the PALS Pilot Program is to improve opportunities for reentry success through the acceptance of court-referred individuals into a welcoming, therapeutic environment that is culturally responsive and adequately staffed and resourced to meet client needs; linking clients to off-site services; and referring clients to ongoing behavioral health and other services, as appropriate, upon discharge.

The goal of this descriptive evaluation of the PALS Pilot Program is to tell the story of the pilot program implementation and process; describe the program; provide a profile of PALS program clients with attention to the services utilized, program dosage (defined as number of days in the PALS Pilot Program), and recidivism (defined as violations (citations and/or arrests) post PALs Pilot Program intake); and to identify program strengths, weaknesses, and satisfaction from the perspective of clients, staff, and city administrators.

Outcome data was obtained from the Administration of Courts and publicly available court data. Qualitative data was collected through structured interviews with clients, program staff, ancillary staff, attorneys, judges, Kent City Officials to understand the experiences and perspectives of PALS participants, the staff charged with delivering the program, and city officials in the city in which the program is located.

The results of the descriptive evaluation of the PALS Pilot Program show that:

• King County Superior Court was the largest source of client referrals.
• Of the clients referred to PALS Pilot Program, 65.9% were Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).
• PALS clients were most often referred for substance abuse treatment services.
• The most common non-compliance reason for PALS clients was a “No Show” before or after initial assessment.

Results examining the relationship between key programmatic elements and recidivism show that priors, program dosage (number of days in PALS Pilot Program), referral origin (county/city), and program completion significantly predict recidivism defined as violations (citations and arrests). Priors significantly predicted recidivism when measured dichotomously and as number of violations. Program dosage predicted recidivism when measured as # of violations. Referral court and program completion predicted recidivism when measured as number of days to first violation.

There were no onsite incidents during the evaluation period involving PALS participants.

The qualitative analyses revealed that clients, staff, and officials expressed positive views of the PALS Pilot Program as a jail alternative noting that the program offered clients opportunities to succeed and provided access to much needed services including substance abuse and mental health treatment. Staff and officials suggested that the PALS program should be expanded across jurisdictions and services to include housing, employment, transportation, and additional wrap-around services. Clients indicated that they were unclear on the goals of the program and suggested that the program process could be improved with clarity regarding the goals of the program at intake. City officials raised concerns about changes in the design and implementation of the program that differed from the original proposed model. The officials indicated that lack of accountability and public safety were their primary concerns about the PALS Pilot Program noting that the expectation was that the crimes committed by program clients would be non-violent while many of the clients in the Pilot included individuals whose charges and convictions included violent crime.

Recommendations and lessons learned include:

• Enhanced onboarding of PALS clients to improve understanding of program objectives to increase client commitment to program goals (Several PALS clients indicated that they were not clear what the program was rather, they viewed the program as just a jail alternative).
• Designing additional methods for accountability (several interviewees expressed beliefs that clients were not being held accountable).
• Additional flexibility in times or days of the week that treatment was offered would be helpful for clients (Some indicated they had to choose between going to their job or going to treatment).

The results suggest that the PALS Pilot Program is a starting point as a South King County jail alternative for continued and expanded services for individuals, most of whom are BIPOC, who may not otherwise have access to services in the diverse South King County geographical region. There were several limitations that impeded the research design and data collection. The initial plan for the PALS evaluation was to employ a multi-year quasi-experimental design with a comparison group. The evaluation was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and budget cuts and the changes to the research design resulted in a loss of data and low sample size. A quasi-experimental program evaluation that includes a comparison group is an important next step to provide data on the effectiveness of the PALS Pilot Program. racially and economically diverse regions in the state.

Download the full report

Phase 1 Report

This project was piloted in 2014-15 with a pre/post survey instrument at the WSCJTC BLEA to evaluate training effects of the guardian training implemented in 2012. The study follows 40 BLEA cohorts (710-750) through academy training pre/post and 1-year/3-year post-graduation.  Download the Phase 1 report (PDF)

Phase 2 Report

The study was continued July 2016-June 2017 to collect longitudinal data on the effectiveness of WSCJTC guardian-focused BLEA training at 6-months and 1-year post academy graduation. Download the Phase 2 report

Phase 3 Report

The study was continued in Phase 3 through April 2019 to collect longitudinal data 1 and 3-years post BLEA graduation. Download the Phase 3 report (PDF)

Phase 4 Report

The final report (Helfgott & Hickman, 2021) presents Phase 4 final longitudinal results adding analyses and findings from the 1-year and 3-year post-survey data to the findings presented in the Phase 1 through Phase 3 reports. Download the final report (PDF)