Proposed Seattle budget would add more police officers

SEATTLE (AP) _ Seattle Mayor Ed Murray's proposed budget would grow the Police Department, add body cameras and test out a new acoustic gunshot-locator system.

The Seattle Times reports (http://bit.ly/2d7zXGM ) that under the proposed budget shown to the City Council on Monday, the city would allocate $13 million to add 35 officers in 2017 and 37 officers in 2018., moving the mayor closer to achieving his goal of adding 200 new officers by 2020.

The proposed budget would also grow the department's budget to $329 million in 2018, with the city spending $4.6 million over two years to equip hundreds of patrol officers with body cameras.

Some have called on the mayor to spend more on social programs rather than on the police department, but Murray says investigating gun violence and other violent crimes is also important.