Community Engagement

The City of Tukwila, in conjunction with the Tukwila Police Department, is dedicated to the safety of residents, visitors, and employees to ensure that hate crimes are not tolerated. In the City of Tukwila, that includes Race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, mental and physical, sensory disabilities, homelessness, marital status, political ideology, age, or parental status.

Tukwila’s Safe Place Program offers safe places for victims of hate crimes or if they are feeling unsafe. Businesses with the Safe Place stickers in the window communicate to the public that they and their employees provide a safe place to wait for the police to respond. It communicates to victims that no matter their background or status, they will be heard and treated with care and respect by the business they enter and by Tukwila Police Officers who respond.

The Tukwila Police Department adopted the Safe Place program created by the Seattle Police Department in 2015. In partnership with community groups, the Seattle Police Department has been recognized as a national leader in policies and procedures and enacting some of the first transgender policies in the nation.

Other languages

The Tukwila Police Department has Safe Place Stickers in 4 languages. English, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Somali. When ordering your sticker online, please select the language you want to display. If you would like multiple languages, please email the Safe Place Administrator.

Requirements

Signing up for the Tukwila Safe Place program is simple and free. To be eligible, you must be a business or organization within the city limits of Tukwila. Due to safety concerns, this program is not designed or authorized for individual and/or residential use.

Before applying, please read the requirements of this program:

• Must be within the city limits of Tukwila.
• If a victim of a crime enters your business, have staff call 911 immediately.
• Allow the victim to remain in a public space within your business until law enforcement arrives.
• If the victim leaves before law enforcement arrives, call 911 again and let the dispatcher know the victim is no longer at your location. Include their last known direction of travel.

Safe Space Application

A great way to make your neighborhood safer is to work together. Creating a neighborhood watch within your neighborhood or apartment complex creates a greater sense of security in the community and reduces the fear of crime. You also bond with your neighbors and look out for one another. In conjunction with law enforcement, members of the neighborhood watch group meet to discuss issues going on within the area, how to keep yourself and others safe, and go over current crime statistics for the neighborhood.

There are several roles within the neighborhood watch group:

WATCH COORDINATOR
Oversees entire community watch group. Responsibilities include:

• Acting liaison between Watch members, block captains, and police.
• Maintaining a current list of participants and their contact information.
• Coordinating and conducting meetings.

WATCH CAPTAINS
Community Watch Captains should be directly involved with immediate neighbors. Responsibilities include:

• Being a liaison between residents and the coordinator.
• Visiting and inviting new residents to join.
• Notifies residents of meetings.

WATCH MEMBERS
Residents ready and willing to mobilize and participate in a Community Watch Group program. Responsibilities are:

• Attends meetings.
• Works with group on common goals.
• Looks after residents when members are away.
• Practices safety and security measures.
• Looks out for suspicious and criminal activity.

POLICE OFFICERS AND POLICE LIAISON
A police liaison and at least one officer will attend meetings. Responsibilities include:

• Checks in with Watch Coordinator every 3 months.
• Provides crime stats and crime prevention training.

If you want to bring a neighborhood watch to your community, reach out to our Community Engagement coordinator with the following information:

The Tukwila Police Department’s Community Engagement Coordinator provides free security assessments of residential homes, parks, schools, and businesses using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles. CPTED is used by many departments in crime prevention security surveys and helps to reduce crime. These principles aim to reduce victimization. Deterring offenders’ decisions that lead to criminal acts can range from small-scale to large-scale fixes.

If you are interested in a security assessment for your home or business, please get in touch with B.lamothe@tukwilawa.gov to schedule.