The need for the City of Seattle to engage in a coordinated and evidence-based plan to prevent gun violence has entered the spotlight following the much-publicized shooting at the Bite of Seattle food festival at Seattle Center in July, during which three people were killed and five injured,

While the Bite of Seattle shooting received the lion’s share of media attention, three women were injured by gunfire in North Seattle three days earlier and two bystanders were injured during a shooting in Capitol Hill the previous day.

“In King County, youth and young adults account for 60% of gun violence incidents, with victims disproportionately being male and people of color,” the 100 Days of Action report noted in March of 2025.

Last March, the City Auditor’s Office released a report on gun violence patterns in Seattle. The report included four recommendations for improvement, including greater coordination, systematic reporting on patterns, and looking into whether the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) department could integrate the City’s violence prevention programs and play a role in increased reporting.

In April 2025, the Mayor’s Office, then led by Bruce Harrell, pushed back against the audit, touting their “One Seattle Restoration Framework” as the administration’s answer to an earlier audit. The dearth of detailed information released on this framework made it impossible to compare it to evidence-based models that have found success in other cities.

At the time, Harrell’s Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington said in a council meeting that she had felt disrespected during the audit process.

Violence prevention programs in Seattle have a long history of having difficulty receiving the necessary funding, whether that be through tying funding to expensive audits or having a mayor question violence prevention investments that were 2% of the amount the City was spending on SPD at the time.