In the midst of all of the anti-panhandling hysteria going on down at city hall (click here to watch the public meeting going on right now) SPD has announced that they're going to be cutting bike patrols in downtown so more officers can pound the pavement on foot.

From SPD's Blotter:

[A]t Mayor McGinn’s direction, we will begin a pilot effort in downtown Seattle beginning on April 1^st to redeploy some of our proactive bicycle patrols to foot beats.  These foot beats will cover Belltown, Pioneer Square and the International District.  It is my hope to make our police officers more accessible to citizens, businesses and the public at large.  We are doing this within our existing budget, recognizing the City’s current financial constraints.

In the interest of service and fairness to all, we will ensure that every officer on the Seattle Police Department receives training on the ordinance before they will be authorized to enforce it.  A grace period of warnings and an education campaign will precede the first issuance of infraction tickets.  Infractions and arrests that result from a failure to pay will be tracked and audited.  Additionally, officers will provide information on how to access social services to individuals cited for this behavior in the hopes of eliminating repeat offenses.

One thing immediately struck me when reading this: doesn't this mean police officers will be covering less ground on their shifts? When we've been asking the department to do more with less for the last few years, is it the smartest thing in the world to now ask the to do less with less?

I get how putting cops on foot/eye level might make officers seem more accessible  (have you ever tried talking to a cop on horseback?) but it would seem that putting officers out on foot would make it difficult for them to adequately cover ground downtown or react quickly to problems that might be happening on the far reaches of their beats.

Concentrating officers in specific problem areas might seem like the way to tackle problems with assaults and other crimes related to aggressive panhandling,but as we've seen at times at 3rd and Pine, when you put a lot of police in one area, problems tend to just move a few blocks away.

I've got a call in to SPD and the mayor's office to find out what they're doing to make sure all of downtown is adequately covered.