Office of Law Enforcement Oversight applauds King County Sheriff’s Office’s decision to refuse enforcement of Burien code criminalizing homelessness
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
“Since his hiring in late 2022, the Burien city manager has seemingly been carrying out a vendetta against unsheltered persons in Burien,” said Tamer Abouzeid, OLEO Director.
“The extremes to which the city has gone, and the city’s continued refusal to utilize support offered by King County to help with issues of homelessness, belie any pretense that these actions are taken to improve public safety in Burien.”
As it has done throughout the past year, OLEO will continue to monitor the situation in Burien and to discuss the issues with community stakeholders, the Sheriff’s Office, and King County’s Community Advisory Committee for Law Enforcement Oversight (KCSO).
“Research has shown that the criminalization of homelessness, especially in areas like Burien where there is insufficient housing and support, neither improves public safety nor ameliorates the factors leading to homelessness,” said OLEO Senior Policy Analyst Katy Kirschner.
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2 comments:
Last time I checked the Burien city council were still an elected body, King County Sheriff and Tamer Abouzeid not so much. So who better represents the residents of Burien who deal with this on a daily basis?
Appointed -- not elected -- Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall is just doing KC Executive Dow Constantine's dirty work here. Burien is trying to keep tents, propane fires, and open drug abuse from degrading the businesses in the downtown core which support the tax base, but countywide officials oppose requiring even the slightest bit of responsibility from our addict homeless population.
Watch carefully, Shoreline. Like Burien, we contract with the KC Sheriff's Office for our police service. If throngs of homeless people clog our public spaces to the point that people can't enjoy them without fear, the county will prevent us too from establishing reasonable standards of conduct.
It was an enormous mistake for King County to change from an elected to appointed sheriff. Concentrating power further in the hands of Dow Constantine has been terrible for the county.
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