The bad news is Seattle Police don't have the resources to respond to reports of sexual violence against adults. The worse news is the department is trying to respond to an overload of increasing cases of sexual assault involving children and teenagers.
It appears that there has been no change to Seattle's policy of no longer taking on the investigation of new sexual assault cases involving adult victims. This is a problem which was first reported in 2022, which shockingly revealed the sexual assault and child abuse unit does not have the staffing required to respond as first reported by the Seattle Times.
Sgt. Pamela St. John stated in the email under "Staffing Problems" that she is presently unable to assign new adult sexual assault cases "due to other legislative constraints."
The lack of manpower even means people reporting sex assaults are sometimes routed to an automated telephone hotline designed to handle non-urgent crimes such as stolen checks, the report said.
The number of arrests for adult and children's sex offenses has drastically decreased: For the first four months of last year, 1.6% of cases investigated by the sexual assault and child abuse section have resulted in an arrest, compared to 14% in 2019.
Think about the implications for you as virtually NO sexual assault or rape cases are reported, investigated, or even have an arrest made.
The Police Are Not Responsible for Your Safety
We've highlighted the fact that you cannot count on the police to protect you here on the Women's Self-Defense Community blog or over the Tactical Studies Group.
Police may not be available when you call them. Police don't have a duty to protect you. Police are under attack themselves.
The danger to us now has increased dramatically.
We need to take responsibility for ourselves and our loved ones.
How?