Empower Wisconsin  | June 6, 2022

Any rational human being could see this coming. Defunding the police is the pathway to escalating crime.

In Seattle — the home of CHAZ, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone — a police department staffing crisis has forced the defunded force to no longer take on new sexual assault cases this year, according to Fox News.

An internal department memo, first reported by the Seattle Times, states the Sexual Assault/Child Abuse Unit is not able to assign new adult sexual assault cases “because of other statutory requirements.”

Before Seattle’s far left leaders began cutting the city’s law enforcement budget, the unit had 12 skilled detectives. There are four today.

“This depletion has left the remaining detectives with unsustainable caseloads,” Sgt. Pamela St. John wrote. “That burden is even more impactful in our unit given the content and nature of the investigations which directly leads to secondary issues such as burnout and compassion fatigue.”

St. John noted how the unit has seen an increase in cases involving children and teenagers, and in March of this year, received 107 referrals from Child Protective Services, which is “on par with where the referrals were before the pandemic” as children return to school and become more publicly visible.

She begged the interim chief for officers.

In November, the Seattle City Council approved a nearly $8 million budget cut for the police department, down more than $45 million from 2020.

Milwaukee is living the same crime crisis thanks to its liberal defunders. Over the last couple of years, the city has cut 200 police officers from the budget. It has failed to fill another 200 positions thanks to a recruiting crisis. Milwaukee is on pace to smash another homicide record — for a third consecutive year.

The defunders have done so much damage to public safety in America. These tools of the radical left need to be held accountable at the polls.

For now, we are holding them to account as Empower Wisconsin’s Tool of the Week.