Seattle PD Proposed Takeover Of 9 City Agencies
In June 2024, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell's cabinet received a proposal from the Seattle Police Department (SPD) to implement police operations across the city and to "assume day-to-day command over all City resources."
The proposal, called Place Network Investigations (PNI), has never been revealed publicly and was obtained by HardPressed through a public records request aimed at uncovering information about a different unreported operation.
SPD proposed PNIs in three specific areas of the city:
- 12th and Jackson
- Third and Pike/Pine
- the Aurora corridor between 90th and 135th streets
Those zones overlap with the areas SPD has implemented CCTV camera systems amidst ongoing public opposition.
The PNI pitch was delivered by SPD's Director of Program Development Kerry Keefe, whose previous job was suing SPD, leading to the federal consent decree. Keefe formerly served as the head of the DOJ's Civil Division in Seattle. In August 2023, Keefe jumped ship, and later joined SPD.
Keefe wrote that SPD's PNIs would be aligned with San Francisco's Drug Market Agency Coordination Center (DMACC) and Atlanta's English Avenue Drug Market Intervention. The program would also require focused coordination with "NGO partners."
The proposal outlined resources needed from nine city agencies, including the Parks Department, Department of Transportation, Public Utilities, Human Services Department, Department of Construction and Inspections, Fire Department, Department of Neighborhoods, Office of Economic Development, and Seattle City Light.
All of these resources, Keefe proposed, would need to be marshalled and controlled directly by police.
"Based on lessons learned from the experience of other jurisdictions and case studies in PNI, it is critical that the Mayor's Office delegate to SPD, as the agency with expertise in coordinating logistics and resources in large-scale events and operations, responsibility/authority to assume day-to-day command over all City resources," Keefe wrote.
The impact of the PNIs would be measured through Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM), another SPD program that has faced little public scrutiny.
Keefe's proposal also states that SPD's implementation of the Real Time Crime Center Axon Fusus software and CCTV cameras "is an immediate need."
Later in October 2024, the Fusus software was authorized by Seattle City Council and is currently in use by SPD.
SPD and the Seattle Mayor's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the PNI proposal.