Drug use, gun violence top public safety concerns in US Seattle: poll

SAN FRANCISCO - Nearly half of respondents in Seattle, northwestern US state of Washington, identified drug use as their biggest public safety concern, while 33 percent were most concerned about gun violence, according to a poll published on Monday.

The poll by Seattle Times and Suffolk University also finds that less than 8 percent of respondents said crime had decreased in the past year, while a third said it had increased, and 56 percent felt that crime in their neighborhood had stayed about the same over the past year.

There's a significant age split in how people answered the question. Of the respondents who identified gun violence as a top safety concern, 36 percent were people 65 and older compared with 15 percent of respondents aged 18 to 24. While 58 percent of people aged 18 to 24 said drug use was their top public safety concern, 44 percent of respondents 65 and older picked that answer.

Women were likelier than men to say crime has increased in their neighborhood, 38 percent to 30 percent.

People who make more money reported feeling safer in their neighborhood, as 90 percent of respondents making 250,000 US dollars a year reported they feel safe, while 74 percent of respondents who make less than 50,000 dollars annually said they feel safe.

The poll was conducted by phone on June 12-16 and has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

The results are "loosely consistent" with those from the 2022 Seattle Public Safety Survey, said Jacqueline Helfgott, director of Seattle University's Crime & Justice Research Center.