Results are in from Seattle University‘s annual public safety survey, and theft, lack of police presence, and homeless encampments emerged as the top concerns from Ballard.
The university just released the survey results on Tuesday, in which 6,544 residents across the city participated last fall.
In the north Ballard results, the top public safety concerns were the following: lack of police capacity, car prowls, homeless encampments, residential burglary, and property crime.
South Ballard was similar, but with non-regulated homeless encampments and transient camps rising above property crime concerns. (See results ranked below.)
The results were fairly consistent across the city, with car prowls topping out as a concern among respondents as a whole.
Jacqueline Helfgott, one of the researchers from Seattle University, told Q13 that this is the first time in the survey’s history that homelessness is a top citywide public safety concern. Homelessness was also the top theme in the survey respondent’s narrative comments.
Seattle University’s Department of Criminal Justice has been conducting the survey since 2015, information from which directly supports Seattle Police’s micro-community policing plans (MCPP).
To read the survey results in full, click here.