Results tagged “seattlepolicedepartment”

If Seattle is going to make national news, it might as well be for ninjas.

Cops and prosecutors believe they have enough dirt on more than a dozen Central Area drug dealers to send them to jail. But they're not going to prosecute--not yet--under a new community policing tactic that offers drug dealers amnesty for their crimes if they enter job training programs.

This week (August 2-8) is the Federal Highway Administration's "Stop on Red Week." No, they mean seriously, full stop, it's the law! West Seattle Blog alerted us to the Seattle Police Department's participation in "Stop on Red Week"--it's designed to provide a firm reminder to red-light runners and coasters, urging drivers to actually stop at a red light (right turns included), and to also promote the SPD's partnership with American Traffic Solutions, who created the city's new fancy-schmancy photo-enforcement cameras. We'll finally see all 30 red light safety cameras in action, issuing $124 tickets at new(er) locations throughout the city by the summer's end.

JOHN WATERS FANS : Central Cinema is showing one of our favorite '80s movies, Cry-Baby, and there's never a bad excuse to watch this film. Especially right now, in an air-conditioned theatre with stone oven pizza, and beer to wash it down. Ricki Lake? Hatchet Face? That single slow-moving tear drop? It doesn't get much better than that.

Even with ties to people in high places, the Seattle Police Department was deee-nied, while 30 other Washington agencies were awarded a combined total of $18,543,197 to cover the cost of hiring/rehiring 71 officers over the next three years--benefits included.

Similar to sibling rivalry over a new toy, the City of Seattle had first created a successful online blotter for the Seattle Police Department to share news and information, and now the Seattle Fire Department wants one too, darn it! To make it fair, yesterday the SFD launched their very own blog, The Fire Line, where they will cover the gamut of fire, hazardous materials, technical and emergency medical responses, local event information, and helpful fire prevention and safety tips. What, no firefighter calendars?

Released via the Seattle Police Department Twitter feed, officers shot a man yesterday at Greenwood Ave. N and Holman Road, who is suspected in yesterday's Shoreline bank robbery and a string of other bank robberies. Prior to shots being fired, officers had spotted the bank robbery suspect stopped in traffic at Holman and 3rd Ave. with a stolen pick-up truck. A team of police cars quickly began to box in the truck. Trying to flee, the suspect rammed the stolen pick-up into a police car and a car carrying a father with his kids at the corner of Greenwood Ave. N and Holman Road. Police fired four shots, stalling the suspect who sustained injuries to his arm. The family of three was uninjured.

• Tomorrow night kicks off the BBQ Jazz outdoor concert series over at Interbay Golf Center. This week you can tap your toes from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. to the sounds of on-and-off again national award-winning Roosevelt High School Jazz Combo.
• Vintage porn dating back to the VHS era was found stashed in the ceiling of the portable Blakely Elementary School classroom on Bainbridge Island. Workers discovered six nudie mags, VHS porno tapes, condoms, and ladies panties(!!) as they were demolishing the room.

• Nothing brings out the masses quite like a weekend full of full throttle, glittery, sweaty, and crazy fun events including Seattle Pride Parade, Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, and the Greenwood Car Show.
• Whatever happened to childproof locks? Friday evening a 4-year-old girl in Tacoma decided to open the door of the family minivan while her mom was driving. The young girl fell out and was run over by the back tires, later treated with non-life-threatening injuries.
• On Sunday 1,000 people gathered to moonwalk together on Jackson Street in Union Station paying tribute to Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop."

It looks like that vice raid in Capitol Hill last night was for gambling after all. According to CHS: "This morning's vice squad bust shut down a secret card room and saloon that has been operating at 11th and E. Pike for 'several years,' a former employee of the illegal casino says."

Early this morning, an ongoing investigation in Capitol Hill resulted in a Seattle Police Department vice unit raid--with a SWAT vehicle, several police cars and, announced via loudspeaker at 12 a.m., a warrant in hand--of a unit in the building at the corner of 11th Avenue and East Pike Street. Police have been suspiciously hush-hush about the crimes and the reason they arrested two women and 13 men. However, leave it to the locals to fill in the gaps: One was overheard saying they were just playing poker. Do we have a gambling ring in our midst? Whenever they bring out the vice unit, you know it's going to get good. Oooh, the suspense!

A man was pistol-whipped and robbed at gunpoint around 3 a.m. this morning in South Seattle. Police officers are still searching for the three male suspects, who are believed to have driven off in a blue Chevy Impala, with chrome wheels and tinted windows. Seriously, who pimps out an Impala? Having not suffered life-threatening injuries, the victim was treated on site. The attack occurred in a gas station parking lot, within the 6600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South.

Exciting night for the Seattle Police Department, as they responded to a DUI collision involving two parked cars at the 6200 block of Seaview Avenue N. The believed-to-be-intoxicated suspects, a 17-year-old male driver and a 20-year-old male passenger, were armed and running (slowly) in circles. Witnesses spotted the driver hiding an AK-47 in the bushes shortly before the two suspects were arrested. Officers hit the weapons jackpot upon finding the rifle loaded with a 30 round "banana" clip, two baseball bats, and an illegal "butterfly" knife on the passenger. The SPD also reported a red bandanna--gang colors!--found in the back of the black sedan. Both were booked on various DUI and weapons charges.

The other day we spotted this Segway-on-steroids trike on Broadway, which a parking enforcement officer was tooling around on, and our blood pressure shot up a few points. It turns out to be something called a T3 Motion, which is a competitor to the Segway, and besides its Robocop styling, it comes with a siren.

The current deputy chief of Seattle police, John Diaz, will step up as interim police chiefin Kerlikowske's absence if (let's face it, when) Kerlikowske's appointment as Obama's Drug Czar is confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday. Diaz isn't terribly popular or supported by the rest of the department, so we're thinking all the noise about applying for the permanent position is probably not going to come to fruition. To hear him say it, he's not supported because he's been involved in so many disciplinary decisions over his 29-year career with the SPD. Being the boss means making unpopular decisions sometimes, but maybe there's more to the story (please, local gossip gods, let there be more).

In the latest flare-up of violence on the streets of Seattle, three men were shot by a gunman from an alleyway in Pioneer Square at 2:30 a.m. today. Two of the men are in critical condition at Harborview, and the third has been released with minor injuries. While the details are nowhere near clear about the gunman's motivation, the SPD seems fairly certain the flare-up was not random and citizens should not--repeat, should not--be concerned about getting shot from an alleyway unless they're involved in something sketchy. (Is there ever a perfectly legitimate, compelling reason to be hanging out on a corner in Pioneer Square at 2:30 in the morning, we wonder? In the rain, no less?)

Around 12:30 a.m. this morning, a dispute broke out; someone opened the side door at Capitol Hill venue Chop Suey and began to fire their gun inside at the artists and show attenders inside the hallway. Three men were shot, and subsequently taken to Harborview. Local rapper 29-E died from his gun wounds at the hospital, and the host of the show, 1st Black Prez, was shot in the chest and is in very critical condition. It is not known whether he'll make it through surgery. The third man, Trama of Black Senate, has less critical injuries. The SPD has two suspects in for questioning, and their specialized gang unit detectives, homicide and CSI are all on the case. The violence appears to be gang-related. Slog is reporting that one of the promoters (Big Kountry Entertainment) was warned about the high probability of gang violence at the show and advised to cancel it, but chose to continue with the night as planned. More details when we've got them, and our heart goes out to the friends and family of 29-E, 1st Black Prez and Trama. This was a tragedy.

When SPD reports came out earlier this month with the news that major crime in Seattle has gone down by some 11%, the Southeast Seattle Crime Prevention Council was skeptical. They crunched the numbers on their own neighborhood themselves, and found some startling results: assaults, homicides, and non-residential burglaries have all increased by huge numbers. Though even the police chief went on record this week to speak on Seattle's deepening gang violence problems, the police department is refuting the SSCPC's numbers, saying they aren't taking all the factors into account (precinct boundary changes and incidence of "actual crime" versus dispatch calls).

The proposed school closure list has been changed, yet again! The big news is that Rainier Beach High School (previously announced as considered for a merger with Cleveland High School, to the chagrin of almost everyone) is off the closure table. Instead, the plan is to either move Aki Kurose middle school students into the RBHS building or to close down the Center School Program and request that those high-schoolers attend Rainier Beach.

A 15-year-old student at Franklin High School reported that a fellow student tried to rape her in a school bathroom this week; school officials promptly notified the SPD and expelled the two students who were identified as her attackers, and police are investigating the case. Any rape story chills us down to our bones, especially those involving such young men and women, but in this situation, one detail stood out as well: a bystander said she saw the bathroom door being held closed and heard the word "Stop" from inside, but "didn't think anything of it at the time." Since when is that somehow not noteworthy behavior on school grounds? Ugh. We're grateful to the police and to Franklin officials for taking the appropriate actions on this case.

An off-duty Seattle Police detective and the Hells Angels biker that he shot during a bar brawl at this years Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will both face criminal charges in South Dakota. The off-duty SPD detective is charged with aggravated assault, perjury, and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. The Hells Angel he shot is also facing aggravated assault charges—punishable by up to 15 years in prison in South Dakota. Another off-duty Seattle Police officer involved in the event has also been charged with carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. A court date has not been set for trial and the SPD has yet to release a statement on the charges.

Courtesy of Seattle crime blog extraordinaire, Seattle 911, comes an infuriating answer to a reader question about cops and hand-held cell phones. While the rest of us face fines of $124 for driving while operating a hand-held cell phone, the officer writing that ticket and pulling you over just might be using theirs, completely legally. It turns out the recently enacted law does not apply to police officers or ambulance drivers when they are operating emergency vehicles.

Though we don't know his name yet, we do know that an off-duty Seattle Police detective and Police Guild board member shot a Hells Angels biker during this years' Sturgis bike rally. The shooting occurred early Saturday morning at a packed bar during the week-long rally. The officer involved in the shooting identified himself as a member of the Iron Pig motorcycle club. (Funny how, when it's a bunch of cops on motorcycles, it is a "club" and not a gang.) Several people questioned about the shooting have identified themselves as SPD officers on vacation, and one man has been identified as a sergeant who once ran security detail for Norm Rice.

Despite the fact that medical marijuana is legal in the State of Washington and the Seattle Police Department are paid to uphold said laws, the SPD handed over 12 ounces of illegally seized medicinal marijuana to the DEA. The SPD turned the medical marijuana to the DEA at the request of U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan, who asked for it to be destroyed.

After a possibly illegal Tuesday raid on an office providing care, resources, and referrals to medicinal marijuana patients, Seattle Police have agreed to return patient files and a computer hard drive that were taken during the incident. The SPD does, however, refuse to return 12 ounces of dried marijuana and two bongs they seized Tuesday. Police have told Martin Martinez, owner of the office that was raided, that he will not be facing criminal charges and that the investigation was closed.

The state Supreme Court unanimously overturned a 30 year-old precedent which allowed Washington State Police to arrest an entire car-load of people if the officer even smelled marijuana. Now, if a police officer pulls you over and approaches you because they smell chronic, they have the right to search your car for proof of the drugs. But, they can no longer just arrest you based on a cop's sensitive sniffer. Considering the continued aggression the SPD and WSP have shown towards marijuana users—even to those who have a pot prescription for medicine—this ruling is a bright spot in dark times.

"WTOpolice_1" by Seattlest Flickr Pool contributor ntisocl. Daaang, he got right in there. Thanks!

At an afternoon press conference, the Seattle Police announced they have arrested a man they believe groped an Asian woman in South Seattle on Saturday and who they hope may be behind over two-dozen similar attacks. Darin Boler has been charged with second-degree robbery and fourth-degree assault for Saturday's incident. (The robbery charge is for stealing a would-be-witness' cell phone/camera.) Boler is a registered sex offender and has been previously convicted for raping a child and robbery. He is currently being held on a $500,000 bond. Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of the attacks that have terrorized South Seattle residents for over two years.

Is it a felony to advocate semi-civil disobedience? If not, the few remaining souls tough enough to stomach the funeral that is the Sonics last home game this Sunday should consider storming the court or at the very least burn former owner Howard Schultz in effigy outside.

A Seattle teen was critically injured this weekend after a shooting in the parking lot of Northgate Mall. A Seattlest reader, Eli Black, was at the mall shortly after the shooting and sent us photos of the aftermath.