UPCOMING COMMUNITY MEETING

Community members are invited to join the Seattle Police Department and Seattle Department of Neighbors for the first Our City, Our Safety meeting of 2026.

February 10
6:00-7:30 pm
Loyal Heights Community Center

These meetings are an opportunity to share your thoughts and concerns about crime and safety in your neighborhood. We will listen, learn, and work together to address the issues that matter to you, and share updates on steps that have been taken to reduce crime where you live.

Around the world, people may know Seattle because of the Space Needle, Orcas, Pike Place Market, or even the Mariners. Locally, Seattle is known for the character and charm of its many neighborhoods. From Lake City to Rainier View, Broadview to Highland Park, neighbors take pride in the unique personality of their little corner of the city. The small local businesses, green spaces, and community gatherings in Seattle neighborhoods provide a small town feel in an urban environment. And all Seattle residents deserve to feel safe to explore and enjoy their neighborhood.   

In recent years, the City of Seattle has focused on an inclusive approach to public safety concerns by investing time and resources into understanding what community safety means to residents and working in partnership with community members to shape solutions best fit for their neighborhood.  

In 2025, the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods (DON) brought on Denise Colvin as Community Capacity and Safety Manager, a new position centered on accountability and culturally responsive services. Denise oversees contracts between DON and neighborhood organizations that fund community-led approaches to safety in Chinatown International District, South Park, Ballard, and Capitol Hill.  She works closely with organizational leaders to learn more about safety concerns in their neighborhoods and ensure that community voices are integrated into the City’s public safety framework.  

“I have always been passionate about social justice. In my life, I’ve seen firsthand how injustice and discrimination impact individuals, families, and communities,” says Denise. “I started my career in criminal justice because I wanted to help reform the system. For me, community safety is an extension of that. It is about better serving community by giving them a seat at the table, building trusting relationships, and finding solutions together.”  

While community safety is woven into many of the DON’s areas of service, this position was developed specifically to understand what communities need to feel safe where they live – knowing it will differ from neighborhood to neighborhood – and to work with residents, community organizations, and City departments to address those needs. This includes finding new ways to build durable, trusting relationships between neighbors and police officers.  

“We want to create opportunities for Seattle residents to interact with the police in a neighborly way so they can establish relationships and trust. This program is really focused on empowering people to share their needs and concerns and partner with us to develop community alternatives to policing and create a sustainable approach to safety,” Denise says. 

This fall, DON Staff joined the Seattle Police Department (SPD) at the Filipino Community Center in South Seattle for the new Community SeaStat series, Our City Our Safety. This kickoff event was the result of an ongoing collaboration between the Department of Neighborhoods and Seattle Police Department. Community members in attendance engaged in dialogue with City staff regarding safety in their neighborhood and how community partnerships can help resolve crime and safety issues. Community feedback will be incorporated into SPD’s Seattle-centric policing plan, and DON and SPD plan to hold these meetings once per month in each of SPD’s five precincts moving forward.  

“Public safety cannot be done in a vacuum. We want this to be a collaborative effort between city government, law enforcement, and neighbors. or that to work, we must start with building trust. I look forward to continued work with community members, organizations, businesses, and police officers to break down stigmas and bring people together so that all residents of Seattle feel safe.”   

Currently, the city is in the process of integrating an SPD interface into the Find It Fix It mobile app. This will allow residents to report non-emergencies without contacting 911 and provide police with additional data for tracking crime patterns and investigations. As our collaborative community safety work progresses, we will continue to keep community informed about how they can participate and how their feedback is being integrated into action. Stay tuned!  

DON Community Safety History and Investments

DON’s work has always intersected with community safety but the first entry point into formal community safety began in the Chinatown International District (CID), after the murder of activist and community leader Donnie Chin In 2016, the City Council added funding to help address public safety issues based on recommendations from the community-led CID Public Safety Task Force report. The first CID Public Safety Coordinator role was funded in 2019 to improve communication and coordination by creating a system that connects residents, businesses, and City departments to address crime and safety in their neighborhoods. This pilot became a model that led to additional coordinators in South Park (2020), Ballard (2024), and Capitol Hill (2025). 

Each public safety coordinator is employed by a community-based organization, with funds contracted through DON: 

• Chinatown/International District Business Improvement Area (CIDBIA) 
• Seattle Neighborhood Group (SNG) in South Park 
• Ballard Alliance 
• Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA) in Capitol Hill 

Two additional public safety contracts are held with the non-profit Rainier Beach: A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth and Phố Đẹp, an initiative launched in February 2025 to address safety and security concerns in Seattle’s Little Saigon neighborhood.  

Rainier Beach: A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth (ABSPY) is a community-led, place-based youth crime prevention and intervention initiative. Instead of more policing, neighbors, young people, and local organizations carry out an innovative vision–one centered on prevention, opportunity, and youth leadership. Founded in 2012, this grassroots coalition and effort is making Rainier Beach safer and stronger by lifting young people up and investing in community power. 

DON was chosen by community partners to work on Phố Đẹp (Beautiful Neighborhood), a community-led effort in partnership with Friends of Little Saigon and the Seattle Police Department (SPD). Partially funded by the Seattle Police Foundation, SPD, and CARE, Phố Đẹp centers a place-based problem-solving approach, which builds local partnerships, trust, and community resources to implement place-based solutions.