Seattle officers ‘undermining’ city’s police alternative, report says

Leadership with Seattle’s new police alternative has become increasingly frustrated with what they view as “a pattern of subversion” by street-level officers who seem to be routinely rejecting or ignoring assistance from civilian responders, records show.

The trend, which may have begun up to a year ago, is a barrier to providing the sort of help the city’s Community Assisted Response and Engagement department is intended to provide, “undermining the city’s efforts to provide appropriate alternative response interventions,” staff said in an internal report, provided through a public records request.

CARE has become a darling both inside City Hall and among candidates for office. With any notion of “defunding the police” largely dead across Seattle’s political spectrum, the pursuit of a f