City auditor finds gaps in Seattle’s coordination on gun violence response; offers four no‑cost recommendations

The City Auditor presented an audit to the Governance, Accountability and Economic Development Committee on March 27 that recommends four no‑cost steps to improve Seattle’s understanding of and response to current gun‑violence patterns.

Claudia Gross Shader, research and evaluation director in the Office of the City Auditor, said the audit grew from a joint request by Mayor Bruce Harrell and Council President Sarah Nelson. The audit found Seattle has sustained a post‑pandemic increase in shootings and that city agencies and community partners do not have a shared framework for systematic information sharing and joint problem solving.

"Our report offers 4 concrete things that the city could do to better understand and address the current gun violence patterns that we're experiencing in Seattle," Gross Shader told the committee.

Key findings and data

The audit cites Seattle Police Department statistics showing shots fired events increased 71% between 2020 and 2024, nonfatal shootings increased 58% and fatal shootings increased 23% across the same period. Auditors said they encountered inconsistent location naming, differing time windows and varying incident types when attempting to combine data from multiple agencies and said that limited systematic sharing has hindered coordinated…