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WHAT IS AN EMPHASIS PROGRAM? Much of police work is reactive in nature, as when officers respond to a citizen complaint or a call to the 9-1-1 system about a crime or an accident that has occurred. Like other police departments, SPD works hard to ensure that it can respond as quickly as possible to those calls for service, especially those involving life-threatening incidents. From the Department’s perspective, it would be ideal if serious incidents were prevented altogether, or short of that, if officers were able to reduce the risks involved in public safety situations. This is where proactive policing, or what SPD calls its Emphasis Programs, comes in. Whether setting up DUI patrols to arrest drunk drivers before they cause serious accidents, or intervening with substance-abusing offenders to keep them from repeating the cycle of jail/street/jail, SPD emphasis programs are designed to intervene to prevent greater harm and to keep problematic behavior from becoming a crime or threat to others. Still other emphasis programs cull information from individual incidents to identify the most active offenders and their criminal activities. With this information, the Department can then set proactive enforcement priorities likely to have the greatest impact on the community. A good example of this is the Major Crimes Task Force, which has targeted the most active car thieves in the region, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of vehicle thefts in Seattle. The Human Trafficking Task Force has followed a similar protocol for addressing the most serious enterprises involved in the international and child sex trades. Other emphasis programs reflect the concerted effort of the Department to be a good neighbor and good steward of its resources, as in Climate Action Now, or an effective crime control partner with community members, as in the Safe Neighborhood projects.
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