by Erica C. Barnett

(This article originally appeared on The C is for Crank and has been reprinted under an agreement.) 

For months, the Public Defender Association’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, which has pivoted during the COVID-19 pandemic to a hotel-based model (called Co-LEAD) that connects unsheltered people to resources, has been unable to enroll those living in encampments in Seattle, although they have had success in Burien and with people leaving the King County Jail. The reason for the lengthy delay is that the Seattle Police Department (SPD), which serves a gatekeeper role for most LEAD functions, has not signed off on the list of people LEAD wants to enroll. As a result, dozens of hotel rooms that could shelter new LEAD clients have been sitting empty for months while LEAD has waited for SPD’s approval. Continue reading Seattle Police Chief to Mayor: Take Cops Out of the Process for Diversion Referrals →