South Seattle residents attend first of 3 'listening sessions' amid police chief search

South Seattle residents packed Van Asselt Community Center on Saturday morning, eager to listen and be heard.

Two months after former Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes was asked to resign by Mayor Katie Wilson, the city is actively searching for a new head of the police department.

That search will be shaped by feedback and input from community members, according to representatives of the mayor's office.

Saturday was the first of three "community listening sessions" organized by Seattle Neighborhood Group in partnership with the mayor's office.

People living in the south end of the city were asked important questions about a future chief and the different characteristics they aspire to see in new police leadership.

Attendees shared with others sitting at their tables and answered questions on paper. All of which will be shared with Wilson and her team, organizers said.

"We want to talk about experience, we want to talk about their character, we want to talk about how they're going to build trust with the community," said Aaron Yoon, executive director of Seattle Neighborhood Group. "What we're doing here today is a foundational piece of where public safety in Seattle is going."

Public safety was a common theme in Saturday's listening session. Even the space it was held in, Van Asselt Community Center, was the backdrop of a violent scene earlier this year.

A drive-by shooting outside the community center sent a 15-year-old boy to the hospital in late June. Bullets shattered glass windows and doors.

"We've seen a lot of violence, gun violence, a lot of youth that we've lost," said Sahra Farah, a member of the neighborhood's Somali community.

Farah shared hopes of an increased police presence and faster response times in south Seattle under a new chief. But she insisted that significant results in improving safety must start with strengthened community partnerships.

"We're looking for police who can come to the youth center, come to your home, work with the families," Farah explained. "The police cannot do it by themselves. We have to be working together as a community."

Abdinasir Mohamed, a father raising eight children near Van Asselt Community Center, echoed similar sentiments. He said he hopes a new police chief will prioritize safety at schools in south Seattle with heightened security measures. "Like metal detectors," Mohamed explained.

"Someone who pays more attention to where there's a lot of gun violence, where there's a lot of shootings happening," he described his desired police chief.

In late January, two Rainier Beach High School students were shot and killed at a bus stop in front of the South Shore PreK-8 school and only blocks away from the high school.

Aside from addressing youth violence, words like transparency and accessibility were shared among different tables Saturday.

Tom Jack, who has long worked with various community groups in Rainier Beach, said he found some of those qualities in Barnes.

"Shon Barnes was very communicative, and when we had issues we could go to him for certain things," Jack said. "I saw that side in him; I would like to see that in the next chief."

Wilson did not attend Saturday's listening session, but members of her office did.

Alison Holcomb, Wilson's director of public safety, told the packed room that the city had at least 23 applicants for the full-time police chief role so far. Several are internal candidates, she said.

Wilson hopes to have a decision made before the end of the year, but if not, she will by January at the latest, according to Holcomb.

"We are going to be looking carefully and talking very seriously with one another about whether or not the candidates who have applied align with the concerns, the hopes, the expectations of the community," she said. "So, thank you for being here."

Two more listening sessions are scheduled for residents to share feedback amid the search for a new police chief.

A second session will be held at Seattle University on Monday, Sept. 28, from 6-8 p.m.

The third and final session will be from 6-8 p.m. at North Seattle College on Wednesday, Sept. 30.