SPOKANE, Wash. — A new program launched in Spokane is aiming to increase safety in the community.
As it is in most major cities, crime is inevitable so the Spokane Police Department is teaming up with local businesses to create areas of relief from hate crimes.
“If the community doesn’t trust us, and doesn’t believe us, and doesn’t have faith in us. It’s incredibly difficult, if not impossible to do police work within the community,” explained Sgt. Michael Schneider who serves as the Spokane Safe Place Coordinator.
This new program is their way to help people report crimes.
It’s centered around creating a strong foundation between SPD, local businesses and the community to form trust that they’ll all be safe in Spokane.
The businesses that sign on will agree to use their space as a haven for victims until police arrive. So far, 16 businesses have enrolled in the program.
The owners will train all of their staff on how to handle these kinds of situations.
“Sometimes with sexual assaults, there’s a reluctance to report,” said Schneider. “There’s a reluctance to believe that they’re going to be believed. We’re really trying to break down that barrier in the community with the community and explain that we’ll believe you.”
Safe Place programs have already been implemented in other cities like Seattle.
According to SPD, they have over 700 participating businesses and that’s something they’d like to see happening in Spokane.
“They’ve actually seen an increase in reporting of certain crimes and they don’t think it’s because there’s an uptick. They think it’s more people are comfortable reporting crimes.”
Each safe space will have a decal to display in front of their business. On top of being a place to shelter crime victims, it’ll also help with police investigations
“My goal is get every business in Spokane to sign up,” exclaimed Schneider.