Comment: We can make cities safer but it will take teamwork

Published 1:30 am Sunday, October 16, 2022

By Cassie Franklin and Jon Nehring / For The Herald

As a Democrat and a Republican, we respectfully disagree on many issues. But the need to Improve public safety here in Snohomish County isn’t one of them.

It’s the No. 1 issue for our citizens. It’s also the No. 1 issue facing our fellow mayors in other cities throughout Snohomish County, regardless of size and regardless of whether they are in urban, suburban or rural areas. It’s a county-wide issue that impacts everyone, rising above partisan politics and demanding coordinated, county-wide solutions.

We understand that keeping our communities strong and vibrant requires that citizens feel safe where they live, where they work, and where their children go to school. Increased crime not only puts individuals and businesses at risk, but also increases the cost of everything we do.

That’s why we are joining mayors of other cities in Snohomish County to create Mayors and Business Leaders for Public Safety.

This coalition will be the first time that the county’s local government and business leadership have come together to take on the critical and concerning issues of rising violent crimes such as gun violence and illegal possession of firearms, rising property crime rates, and the interrelated problems of homelessness, drug addiction and untreated mental illness. Making real progress on these issues will require the public, private and non-profit sectors working closer together than ever before.

Our cities have been, and will continue, working aggressively to address these problems. We have invested more of our budgets in public safety and first responders. But we are battling chronic staffing issues, especially in law enforcement, as officers leave the force and job openings remain unfilled. We have embedded social workers with our first responders, invested in housing to help get individuals and families off the streets, increased social services, and pursued other innovative public safety strategies.

As we all know, these efforts, while producing some good results, have not been sufficient to overcome the larger trends in our communities.

If we are going to keep up and make our cities safe and vibrant, more will need to be done at all levels of government. Our coalition will be a voice for those strategies.

First, we need more funding at all levels to increase both social service and law enforcement agencies. We can’t expect our dedicated law enforcement professionals to solve this alone, though they are a major piece of the puzzle. Similarly, social services are vitally important in addressing the root causes of many of these problems, but they can’t do the job by themselves either. Both are critical, and we need both to have sufficient resources to work together effectively.

Next, we need to work closely with state lawmakers to address laws that limit our options in dealing with those on the streets. Currently, we see frustrating situations where an individual may commit crimes, be declared mentally incapable of standing trial for their actions, but not mentally ill enough for involuntary commitment. This gap means that the individual ends up back on the streets to reoffend or commit even more serious crimes.

We need more tools and resources to address the fallout from the state Supreme Court’s Blake decision that decriminalized nearly all drug possession in our state. We know that jail isn’t the best place for someone suffering from addiction to detox, but it can be the only viable short-term solution until that person can get the long-term help he or she needs. And the possibility of jail can provide the leverage needed to get an addict to agree to pursue treatment options that our embedded social worker teams are offering. We know our lawmakers are committed to addressing this issue and we stand ready to support them in doing so.

We need to allow law enforcement officers to more fully use their training, experience and judgment in the field. And when they’ve done their job and apprehended a suspect, we need more transparency regarding the charging, bail conviction and sentencing decisions of local prosecutors and judges. That is critical to restore public trust and confidence in the criminal justice system.

In the coming weeks and months, the mayors in our coalition will be reaching out to local businesses to ask for their support. We’ll be sharing information with the public and asking for ideas on how to better collaborate on local responses. And we’ll continue working closely with the Snohomish County legislative delegation to help secure the type of future for our communities that we’d all like to see.

Making meaningful progress on public safety depends on everyone contributing to the solutions. We’re all in this together.

Cassie Franklin, a Democrat, is mayor of Everett. Jon Nehring, a Republican, is mayor of Marysville.