(Seattle Times) Armed with crime data, commanders in each of the Seattle Police Department's five precincts are identifying "hot spots" and directing patrol officers to get out of their cars in those areas, interact with residents and business owners to gain information, and deter crime and reduce fear by increasing their visibility.
This week, precinct captains will hold news briefings alongside Mayor Mike McGinn to detail how they are implementing the department's latest summertime initiative in their swaths of the city.
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Capt. Jim Dermody, the West Precinct commander, was first up on Tuesday, addressing reporters in front of the pagoda at Hing Hay Park at South King Street and Maynard Avenue South — in the middle of one of four crime hot spots in a precinct that covers roughly the area west of Interstate 5 from Discovery Park to Safeco Field. Using evidence-based policing models, each precinct identified individual hot spots by analyzing crime data.
