Seattle Council Pushes Evidence-Based Gun Violence Strategy Amid Rising Shootings

City Councilmember Maritza Rivera introduced a resolution calling for a two-year pilot of the National Network for Safer Communities (National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC)) focused-deterrence model. The plan would allocate $418,000 to contract a consultant from the network, which pairs law-enforcement partners with community messengers to target the small number of individuals responsible for most shootings. Council members Bob Kettle and Rob Saka voted to recommend the resolution to the full council, while Eddie Lin abstained.

Seattle Times

Seattle’s 2015 city-auditor report flagged the absence of a comprehensive gun-violence approach; a later 2025 audit reiterated that finding. After a June symposium on gun-violence prevention, council members highlighted recent incidents—including the Belltown weekend shootings, the “Bite of Seattle” spree, and spikes in Beacon Hill and Aurora Avenue North—underscoring community frustration and the perceived need for a new strategy.

Seattle Times

• Cities that have adopted the NNSC model report 40 % to 60 % reductions in gun violence, according to the network’s website.

Seattle Times

• The proposed pilot would run for two years with a budget of $418,000 for consulting services.

KUOW NPR

• Bob Kettle, chair of the Public Safety Committee, warned that current violence-interruption efforts are “siloed” and emphasized the need for integrated staffing, saying, “We cannot become flat footed when it comes to hiring more officers and increasing SPD staffing because it is the throughline of all these public safety challenges we’re facing and we have to do better on this front.”

KUOW NPR

• “We have lost students from Ingraham, Garfield, Rainier Beach and West Seattle (high schools), with some of these killings still unsolved,” — City Councilmember Maritza Rivera

Seattle Times

• “If there’s a strategy out there that we have not tried, that has been successful in significantly reducing shootings, why wouldn’t we want that here?” — City Councilmember Maritza Rivera

Seattle Times

• “We cannot become flat footed when it comes to hiring more officers and increasing SPD staffing because it is the throughline of all these public safety challenges we’re facing and we have to do better on this front,” — Bob Kettle, committee chairperson

KUOW NPR