A roundup of this week’s news, including a police officer making two incomes, an audit that recommends crime reduction through sidewalk activation, and much more.
By Erica C. Barnett
Monday, July 8
A longtime SPD officer who co-founded a women’s prison re-entry program, Kim Bogucki, has been receiving a full pension after her retirement as a police officer while simultaneously earning $145,000 a year in a civilian position at the department. Among other duties, the job includes overseeing two grants to the organization Bogucki co-founded.
Tuesday, July 9
Auditor: City Needs to Implement Smarter Strategies to Reduce Overdoses and Drug-Related Crime
A report from the city auditor’s office (and you know how much the new city council loves audits!) recommends a place-based approach to drug-related crime and overdoses—essentially, activating spaces so that drug activity doesn’t concentrate in one area and trying to meet people’s needs. The audit doesn’t mention programs the city already funds that use this approach, like the Third Avenue Project, but it does endorse harm reduction and housing as a necessary but not sufficient solution.
Councilmember Tanya Woo Reported “F___ Tanya Woo, Get Her Out” Graffiti to FBI
After after someone scrawled messages saying “Fuck Tanya Woo” and “Tanya Woo Hates Black People,” among similar phrases, in the Chinatown International District neighborhood last week, Councilmember Woo placed an op/ed in the Northwest Asian Weekly newspaper decrying the messages as “a blatant display of hate”; she also reported the graffiti to the FBI. At a meeting this week, several of Woo’s council colleagues called the messages “racist,” “xenophobic,” and “misogynistic.”
Wednesday, July 10
The Seattle City Council voted Tuesday to approve a $1.55 billion, eight-year transportation levy for the November ballot, and Mayor Bruce Harrell signed the legislation Wednesday. In a reversal , the council earmarked $20 million to “complete” the long-disputed Burke-Gilman Trail by rerouting cyclists and pedestrians off the current route and onto new path next to busy Leary Way NW.
Thursday, July 11
More than a year after the killing of 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula, who was struck by a speeding SUV driven by SPD officer Kevin Dave in January 2023, interim police chief Sue Rahr is expected to make a disciplinary decision soon in a related case involving an officer and police union leader who joked and laughed about Kandula’s death while on a call with Seattle Police Officers Guild president Mike Solan. The Office of Police Accountability recommended a punishment ranging from a 270-day suspension to termination.
Friday, July 12
Man Strangled by Enraged Vehicle Owner Had Just Secured Housing, Enrolled in CoLEAD Program
A 35-year-old man who was apparently attempting to steal a vehicle in an apartment parking garage was strangled to death by the vehicle’s owner last month. Although police noted the death is being investigated as a homicide, the perpetrator was not arrested, and police said the man “fell unconscious” after an “altercation.” The man, who had been homeless for years, had just gotten into housing and enrolled in CoLEAD, a program that provides hotel-based shelter and intensive case management to people living in state highway rights-of-way.
