A full house of Chinatown International District (CID) community members met the new Seattle Police Department Chief Shon Barnes at the CID Public Safety Community Forum in the Chong Wa Benevolent Association on May 20.
Some audience reactions like laughter or murmurs were delayed since a live interpreter spoke Toisanese into a microphone, connected to headphones distributed in the beginning of the meeting so audience members could hear real-time translation.
The majority elders in the audience sat and listened to Chief Barnes’ priorities and commitments, as he completes his 100th day in office.
Barnes acknowledged the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant messages and policies. “We are living in a country right now that does not value diversity. I want to make it clear that at the Seattle Police Department, under my leadership, we value diversity and people, no matter where they’re born,” Barnes said.
His first priority is to work with the community to prevent crime by using technology, data and officers to work with the specific needs of the community. Chief Barnes is now requiring police precinct commanders to engage with the communities they serve and recognize “priority areas” or areas that require more supervision from the police.
All police precinct commanders are required to meet with Chief Barnes individually at least once a month to demonstrate how they are meeting the needs of their neighborhood and what is being done. West Precinct Commander Captain Robert Brown was in attendance at the public forum, and Chief Barnes said they have met at least 2-3 times since he came into office.
Along with the individual meetings, all precinct commanders, Chief Barnes and department partners will meet once a month to show to the community what SPD is doing and gather direct public feedback.
“It’s not a meeting to talk about crime, it’s a meeting to talk about community engagement and how we have done what we said we’re going to do,” he said.
The Real-Time Crime Center was also officially launched at this meeting, in tandem with new CCTV cameras being installed in the CID last month. With the use of the cameras, Chief Barnes said police apprehended a car thief and were able to return the car to its owner.
“We can return that car to the owner and at the same time, hold the person accountable,” Chief Barnes said.
Overall crime statistics from the CID have decreased in comparison to last year, according to Captain Brown. On average, police response times to priority calls in the CID are 6.8 minutes, higher than the citywide response time of 9.5 minutes.
“I’ve often heard that the Chinatown International District feels underserved by the Seattle Police Department, I’ve heard this a lot, I’ve heard that in this room,” Captain Brown said. “In fact, the last time that I was in this room was a very tragic incident that I attended here in the wake of 10 people that had been stabbed in Little Saigon in November 2024, last year.”
He said he is prioritizing curb to storefront safety to make it easier for residents to feel safe.
Robberies dropped by 30%, more than a third of auto theft has dropped, however, property crimes and aggravated assault have continued to stay steady.
“So I’m not here to say that we won, this is not a victory lap,” Captain Brown said. “This is saying that we’re heading in the right direction.”
Although new to the Seattle area, Chief Barnes most recently served as the Chief of Police for Madison, Wisconsin since 2021 and was welcomed by Mayor Harrell to Seattle earlier this year in January. In Wisconsin, he used evidence-based approaches to reach communities and decrease crime.
His next commitment to Seattle is to try to be transparent and responsive to concerns from the neighborhood.
John Angle, a 79-year-old Army veteran, expressed concerns about whether the city police department would help federal authorities like ICE and Homeland Security come into the International District and arrest some of his immigrant neighbors.
“I’ll be 80-years-old in a month and I don’t want to be running through the streets. I can’t run anymore for one thing, and [ICE] are enjoying a riot, because these guys are completely out of control now,” Angle said.
Chief Barnes said the police department will not aid or participate in immigration control enforcement.
“If they were to call me or talk to me or whatever, the answer is no. We cannot use my resources to do this, and it’s not going to happen. I’ve been told that if I do that, then I will be arrested and if that happens, I’ll be asking for bail money and if not, I’ll just make myself at home,” the new police chief said.
The police department is also pushing to retain and recruit qualified officers from the CID. Many community members asked when the return of foot patrol or bike officers would come back to the neighborhood.
“I speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Toisanese and perfect English. I am happy to serve the CID and would love to meet everybody,” Officer Jim Wu, beat cop for the CID said in Toisanese to the crowd, who clapped and cheered after they realized he spoke their languages.
Wu said he walks around the neighborhood at least once a day out of his 40-hour work week and has familiarized himself with many of the business owners in the neighborhood, who were also in the crowd.
Whenever he interacts with people in the neighborhood, they are shocked that he speaks Toisanese, a village dialect, not the widely spoken Mandarin or Cantonese. Toisanese is the language most CID residents speak, according to Wu.
“It basically allows them to accept me easier, versus some of the other officers … they would consider this area to be very hard to work in, for a majority of them, the main reason is the language barrier – how are they going to communicate?” Wu said.
He said when other officers try to assist them with a language line, they are directed to talk to someone in Mandarin or Cantonese, but not Toisanese, so they are still unable to communicate correct information to each other.
Captain Brown also reassured the audience that although many of their teams like bicycle, community police and anti-crime are gone, they are continuing to hire more officers.
Another person asked about the possibility to increase night patrols since they had concerns about public intoxication, cars racing throughout the street and several incidents that recently happened outside the Caravel Hookah Lounge last weekend. In December 2024, at least five people were injured in a shooting outside the same lounge
To mitigate late night disputes, the precinct has implemented a system that pairs a police officer with a parking enforcement officer to ensure that nightclub patrons do not return to their cars to grab weapons that are denied entry into nighttime establishments and create disputes on the street since they need to move their car before their parking expires from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.
At their current capacity, Captain Brown said they are unable to dispatch multiple officers during these late night patrols but want to increase recruitment. With expanding officers, Chief Barnes is hoping to ensure these officers are well-trained and empathetic to the people they serve and understand their expectations to ensure public safety and accountability.
Valuing continuous improvement is the last priority Chief Barnes shared on his 100th day in office and that the department will commit their energy to becoming a force that the public will be proud of.
