Downtown Seattle Association hires private security guards amid police staffing issues
SEATTLE - In response to rising crime and other safety issues, a downtown Seattle group has hired private security guards to do the work police officers aren’t able to do amid SPD’s staffing crisis. Those guards will help protect Third Avenue between Stewart and Union streets, according to the Downtown Seattle Association.
Businesses and locals are claiming this extra security is needed along that stretch of downtown that's overrun by the homeless and drugs.
“Tourists, don’t go there. Don’t walk on Third Avenue. It’s not safe,” Victrola Coffee Manager Alexa Baehr stated. She’s urging people to stay away from the same street where she manages the coffee business. “There was a shooting [nearby] a couple weeks ago.”
“These people are going into the businesses and stealing from them and police hardly ever come around,” Teri Marble from Seattle told KOMO News as she walked near 3rd Ave and Pine St.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/downtown-seattle-association-hires-private-security-guards-amid-police-staffing-issues/ar-AATnFVu
