Mayor Wilson announces new strategy targeting 12th and Jackson crime
Mayor Katie Wilson said Seattle is taking a new approach to the city's crime-stricken 12th and Jackson intersection by upping the police presence and committing $1.1 million in one-time funding for additional supportive services.
Twelfth Avenue South and South Jackson Street, instantly recognizable for huddles of people lining a gate topped with razor wire, has become a major center for drug activity, accounting for an eighth of all drug-related incidents across the city.
Community members and businesses of the Chinatown International District have tried hard to take care of one another, but Wilson said city leaders have failed to make any meaningful change to everyday conditions.
Wilson wants to end "the perception that illegal activity in Little Saigon and North Beacon Hill is acceptable," she said in a statement Wednesday.
Her plan is to expand police presence in the area to bolster safety on sidewalks and at transit stops, to tell people "open-air drug sale and use and vending stolen goods" is no longer tolerated and that if they continue, they'll be taken to jail or enrolled in the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program. LEAD aims to keep people accused of low-level drug crimes out of the legal system and get them into community-based care.
"Drug dealers and other criminal elements are taking advantage of and profiting from the suffering of our most vulnerable, and that cannot stand," said District 2 City Councilmember Eddie Lin in a statement. "It should be easier to get healthcare, housing, and treatment than it is to get illegal drugs."
Wilson said enforcement will be coupled with a $1.1 million one-time investment into additional services because, "we know we can't arrest our way out of these problems."
Those services will include neighborhood outreach staff to support service navigation, mobile overdose treatment and prevention teams, and community activations to support neighbors and businesses, she said.
Katie Wilson's spokesperson, Sage Wilson, said in an email that the heightened enforcement was already underway on Thursday. The $1.1 million was part of a office of economic development budget item to establish a Stabilize, Activate, and Invest Locally fund.
The fund had previously allocated $300,000 to the Chinatown International District's Safety Ambassador Program, which allowed the program to expand from three to six ambassadors who patrol the neighborhood daily from 3 to 11 p.m.
"The conditions at 12th & Jackson are complex and systemic," Jamie Lee and Jared Jonson, executive directors of the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority, said in a joint statement. "We appreciate Mayor Wilson's multifaceted approach to continue supporting the Little Saigon community, and we hope this strategy is just the beginning of the local government's commitment to our neighborhood."
Material from The Seattle Times archives was used in this report.
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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 9:33 AM.