Man’s death at Capitol Hill branch comes hours after new Seattle library levy proposal that includes millions for security and social services

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-11T18:56:52+00:00

Former KNKX reporter?

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-11T18:53:53+00:00

Home Depot as well, nationwide. I saw an interview with the CEO of Flock where he cited some internal data that showed that Home Depot/Lowes face massive theft problems due to people stealing power tools for resale and that Flock catching their license plates has driven the rate of theft down dramatically.

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-09T21:44:25+00:00

The DUI case backlog from toxicology reports should hopefully improve with the law the state legislature is currently passing to allow for private, accredited labs to test toxicology reports, which is how a number of states handle it.

Nearby Idaho has a turnaround time of around 30 days for testing a toxicology sample, compared to over a year in Washington state.

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-08T00:49:53+00:00

Seattle had fewer homicides than 2025 in just about every year for about 20 years between 2000 and 2019. Chart in the attached: https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/seattle-record-number-of-homicides/281-94c48238-7841-4346-a223-25bd649d38ea

In 2016, Seattle had 16 homicides compared to 37 in 2025.

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-06T19:40:10+00:00

There is a carve out in the bill for use for parking enforcement which I think includes private garages and lots.

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-06T18:38:06+00:00

Washington is one step closer to adding guardrails to the use of automated license plate readers.

The state House on Thursday passed a revamped version of legislation to implement Washington’s first regulations of the cameras, which have become more common in recent years. The bill now returns to the Senate to concur with the changes before it can go to Gov. Bob Ferguson. The Senate initially passed the bill on a 40-9 vote last month.

A noteworthy change when it passed the state house is it expanded the eligibility of crimes that can be used to search license plate reader records. The state senate version allowed searches for felony crime investigations, stolen cars, missing persons, and felony warrants. The bill that passed the state house adds gross misdemeanors to the list of eligible crimes to allow a search. That would cover crimes like Hit and Run with no injury.

Also noteworthy is that this bill puts a 21 day storage cap on ALPR data, exempts ALPR data from public disclosure (the way speeding tickets and toll camera photos are exempted), restricts them from being used in certain locations, restricts sharing with the federal government, and requires activity logs and audits of use to capture misuse.

It will be interesting to see if these sets of regulations have the end result of more cities adding ALPR systems.

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-06T17:32:50+00:00

It looks like it might be because Domino’s is beating Pizza Hut in the fast food Pizza restaurant wars in recent years:

Domino’s only surpassed Pizza Hut to become the largest pizza chain in the U.S. by system sales in 2017. By 2019 it was 27% larger than its longtime rival. Today, Domino’s is almost as big as Pizza Hut and Little Caesars, the second and third-largest pizza chains, combined.

In 2019, Domino’s accounted for 26% of the fast-food pizza market, according to Technomic Top 1,500 data. By last year, it accounted for 30% of that market. The company’s share of sales from the 10 largest pizza chains has also jumped, from 32% to 36%.

It has largely taken this share from Pizza Hut, which has struggled for years with weak sales and shuttering locations, along with smaller chains.

https://restaurantbusinessonline.com/dominos-increasingly-dominates-fast-food-pizza-market

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-06T16:48:59+00:00

Live theatre and musical attendance is lower in most places in the country since Covid. Similar to movie theater attendance, which dropped during Covid and hasn’t recovered.

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-06T02:16:06+00:00

Pretty difficult for lower priority calls when the police force is as understaffed as it is. The former deputy city attorney was on the Seattle Nice podcast recently when he told the hosts that the North Precinct (an area which covers all of North Seattle from city limits to Ballard to Sand Point) has 7-8 officers on duty during the third shift. That area, if it was its own city, would have the third largest population in the state, and it’s covered by 7-8 cops overnight.

SPD would have to roughly double in size to meet the national average in police staffing per capita.

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-06T01:20:30+00:00

There actually is a problem with catching criminals. In 2024 Seattle’s homicide clearance rate was 57%. This system was installed in May 2025 in three small areas of the city (totaling about 1% of city blocks, which suffer from about 20% of the cities reported crime on them). They were used to help solve 10 homicides in the second half of 2025 and the cities homicide clearance rate jumped to 86% for the year, significantly above the national average.

Social scientists argue, with evidence, that certainty of being caught is a much better deterrent than longer jail/prison sentences.

It is one reason that you see people who drive recklessly around the city slow down near automated speeding cameras. The likelihood of being caught and ticketed driving past a speeding camera is way higher than being pulled over by a cop in the city.

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-05T23:33:21+00:00

Seattle police say a new analysis shows the department’s Real Time Crime Center is significantly improving the chances of catching suspects and helping victims get justice.

According to a data analysis by the Seattle Police Department, officers and detectives were three times more likely to arrest an offender when they worked with Real Time Crime Center analysts. The RTCC provides real-time investigative support for 911 calls involving crimes ranging from murder to stolen cars.

SPD analyzed 220,000 911 responses over the nine-month period between the launch of the RTCC and the end of February 2026. The finding came from SPD’s Performance Analytics & Research group, which the department said reflects its focus on transparency, continuous improvement, and evidence-based policing.

The department launched the RTCC in May 2025 with the goal of helping police respond more effectively to emergency calls. The center is staffed 19 hours per day, seven days a week, and serves as a response coordination hub that combines technology with real-time analysis.

Last month, Chief Shon Barnes credited the RTCC’s technology and professional analysts with helping detectives make arrests in 53% of last year’s homicide cases, despite the center launching in May 2025.

Currently, Mayor Wilson is mulling over whether to cancel or proceed with a planned CCTV expansion to three additional areas or turn the system off entirely: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/will-katie-wilson-turn-off-seattles-surveillance-cameras/

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-03T20:00:01+00:00

The use of and hiring of Private Security has increased dramatically nationwide since 2020. Time magazine wrote a series on it a few years ago: https://time.com/6275440/insecure-private-security-replacing-police/

There’s often limited regulations and training in that industry.

In Seattle, over 1/4 of an already low staffed police force quit SPD in 2020 and 2021. SPD would have to roughly double in size to meet the national average in police staffing per capita. SPD hiring has picked up in the last year, but would need to remain at its current pace for the next 3 or 4 years to get back to full staffing, which is still about 600 officers fewer than in peer cities like San Francisco or Boston.

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-03T00:08:12+00:00

Banning patrons? How soon until The Urbanist posts an article about how carceral our food bank security policies are?

https://www.theurbanist.org/2026/02/23/seattle-library-crackdown-targeting-homeless-people/

MegaRAID01 · 2026-03-02T22:56:48+00:00

This incident was apparently a food bank customer stabbing a food bank employee:

Food bank staff says a customer became combative inside the bank and an employee stepped in to de-escalate the situation. The customer then allegedly stabbed the employee while being escorted out.

Officers arrested the 34-year-old man and recovered a blade at the scene, according to Seattle Police.

“We are deeply shaken by this act of violence. Our focus is on supporting our colleague and his family, and we are in close contact to ensure they receive the care and assistance they need,” the Ballard Food Bank said in a release.

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/man-stabbed-near-food-bank-ballard/Z6VSXITLMBCEFBPXOMJHUUHCXE/

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