By Erica C. Barnett
At a city council briefing this week, interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr said she had recently learned that “it takes multiple convictions of firearms laws before juveniles are held in detention and held accountable.”
Rahr was responding to comments by Councilmember Maritza Rivera about the need to address gun violence in schools.
“What I have heard,” Rahr continued, “is, it actually takes five convictions before they are actually held in detention. That’s astounding to me. That is absolutely frightening to me.”
Prompted by a reader, we decided to fact-check Rahr’s claim. Turns out, juvenile offenders are absolutely held in detention for firearms offenses, even without a conviction.
According to King County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jimmy Hung, who heads the juvenile division of the prosecutor’s office, “whether a child is held in detention pre-adjudication is entirely up to the judges, applying the legal standard for holding youth. In practice, I can assure you that children who are charged with felony possession of firearms are regularly held in juvenile detention, even with no prior history.”
SPD spokesman Randy Huserik confirmed that it “Actually, it requires four convictions for this crime before they can be held in a STATE detention facility.” If that is what Rahr meant, it’s significantly less “frightening” and “astounding” than what she seemed to be implying, which is that young people are being convicted of multiple firearms felonies without ever being “held accountable” by being locked up in jail.
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Under state juvenile sentencing guidelines, firearm possession is a Class C felonies subject to local sanctions, which include confinement in juvenile detention for up to 30 days. (More serious felonies come with harsher sanctions, including automatic confinement in a state detention center and sentences of up to five years). After four convictions, young offenders can be held in state juvenile jails, also known as “juvenile rehabilitation” centers, for up to 36 months. These sentencing guidelines have been in place since 1994, when state legislators stiffened penalties for juvenile offenders.
Bob Kettle, head of the council’s public safety committee, said he would add increasing sanctions for kids convicted of firearm possession to the “add that to the list for [the Office of Intergovernmental Relations] to work with Olympia in the upcoming [legislative] sessions, and the list is growing.”
On Thursday, Axios reported that Rahr walked back another statement she made about state law regarding juvenile witnesses,”clarifying that a 2021 state law doesn’t stop police from questioning juveniles who witness crimes.” Previously, Rahr said that the law—which requires police to provide access to an attorney before interrogating minors in criminal investigations—was impeding an investigation into a deadly shooting last month at Garfield High School.
Sigh, do these folks just watch Sinclair/KOMO News and read Next Door comments?
“Astounding” …even “absolutely frightening”…but not worth verifying. Imagine if you were the Chief of Police of a large city…wouldn’t you have staff to look into things like that? Or what if you had access to a device that allowed you to look things up, like laws and policies?
But now this will be the God’s Honest Bible Truth forever in the minds of Seattle “law and order,” “Seattle is dying” types.
“What I have heard,” Rahr continued, “is, it actually takes five convictions before they are actually held in detention. That’s astounding to me.”
When I hear something that astounds me, I try to check it out, just to be sure I’ve got the story right. Maybe interim Police Chief Rahr should be doing the same.
“That is absolutely frightening to me.” But not worth confirming before disseminating. Upholding hearsay law or making it up on the street as you go.