Everyone deserves to feel safe in their home, neighborhood, workplace, and on transit. Safety means more than responding to crime after it occurs—it means preventing harm, supporting people in crisis, strengthening communities, and ensuring that our public safety systems are fair, effective, and accountable.

King County sits at the center of our region’s legal system. The County funds courts, public defense, prosecution, behavioral health services, regional violence prevention programs, and the sheriff’s office. That means the County Council plays a critical role in shaping a public safety system that is preventative, humane, and accountable.

Rebecca Saldaña brings years of leadership on these issues. Her approach recognizes that safe communities are built through strong public institutions, effective prevention, and investments in opportunity. In the State Senate, she has worked to strengthen community safety through criminal justice reform, behavioral health investments, and policies that address the root causes of harm while ensuring accountability and fairness in our legal system. 

Rebecca knows we can build safer communities by combining strong accountability with investments in prevention, treatment, and opportunity.

Her approach focuses on key priorities.

Reducing Gun Violence and Community Harm

Gun violence is one of the most urgent public safety threats facing our region. 

Rebecca has consistently supported responsible gun safety legislation aimed at preventing violence while protecting communities. This includes voting to support modernizing and improving use of Extreme Risk Protection Orders. Her approach combines strong prevention strategies, community-based violence interruption programs, and public health approaches to reducing harm.

King County has taken important steps by standing up the Regional Domestic Violence Firearms Enforcement Unit and creating the Regional Office of Gun Violence Prevention, but the scale of the crisis demands stronger action. Rebecca will work to strengthen this office and ensure it has the resources and authority needed to lead a regional response.

Her priorities include:

• Expanding sustainable funding for community violence intervention organizations, which have proven effective at preventing shootings before they occur

• Publishing transparent, real-time public health data on gun violence, allowing communities and policymakers to track trends and target solutions

• Supporting programs that help families reduce gun violence, including safe firearm storage initiatives, extreme risk protection orders, and community education

• Convening regional leaders, community organizations, and public health experts to coordinate prevention strategies across jurisdictions

• Protecting and expanding funding for the Regional Domestic Violence Firearms Enforcement Unit which ensures courts, law enforcement, communities, and families are collaborating to remove thousands of firearms off our streets and out of the hands of dangerous abusers every single year

The goal is simple: reduce shootings and save lives through prevention, intervention, and accountability.

Investing in Prevention, Youth Opportunity, and Behavioral Health

True community safety requires addressing the root causes of violence and crime– economic inequality, over policing in communities of color, systemic underinvestment in public institutions, racial disparities in public health, environmental injustice, lack of housing and basic needs, and a broken healthcare system. While these are long-term problems with solutions that will take time to implement,  it is essential that we recognize the way that racialized over policing impacts our communities and focus our interventions in communities on prevention, creating economic opportunities, and addressing our public health and behavioral health crisis. 

Rebecca was the Senate sponsor of the Community Reinvestment Program, which directs resources into communities most impacted by past drug enforcement policies and mass incarceration. The program funds community-led initiatives, including violence prevention, youth development, economic opportunity, and reentry services.

This work reflects her belief that communities closest to the challenges should lead the solutions. Rebecca will prioritize investments that support families, expand opportunity, and prevent harm before it happens.

Key strategies include:

• Expanding youth mentorship, employment, and after-school programs

• Increasing access to mental health and addiction treatment services

• Strengthening community-based violence prevention organizations

• Investing in affordable housing and homelessness prevention programs

• Supporting childcare access and economic stability for working families

Research consistently shows that stable housing, access to care, and economic opportunity reduce crime and strengthen communities.

Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Too many young people enter the criminal legal system after experiencing trauma, poverty, untreated disabilities, or lack of access to supportive services. Many people who later enter the legal system were first victims themselves.

Rebecca believes that building safer communities means interrupting this pipeline early by investing in youth opportunity, culturally competent intervention, and alternatives to incarceration.

As a State Senator, Rebecca helped advance policies and funding that support community-based prevention and youth intervention programs. She sponsored the Community Reinvestment Program, which directs resources into communities most impacted by the overpolicing and mass incarceration, supporting youth development, violence prevention, reentry support, and community-led healing initiatives.

On the County Council, Rebecca will work to:

• Expand diversion and restorative justice programs for young people

• Invest in culturally competent prevention and intervention programs led by community organizations

• Ensure youth have access to mentorship, education pathways, and employment opportunities

• Support early identification and treatment of behavioral health needs and learning disabilities

• Breaking the cycle of incarceration starts with investing in opportunity before harm occurs.

• Delivering Faster and More Effective Crisis Response

Delivering Faster and More Effective Crisis Response

Too often, emergency systems send law enforcement to situations that require behavioral health professionals, social workers, or crisis responders.

In the State Senate, Rebecca supported legislation and funding to expand crisis care centers and access to behavioral health treatment , including the 988 infrastructure, helping Washington build a greater spectrum of mental health and substance use disorder  services. She has also supported investments in the behavioral health workforce to ensure communities have the professionals needed to deliver care.

Rebecca supports expanding non-police emergency response systems across King County so that people experiencing mental health crises, addiction, or homelessness receive the appropriate response.

She will work to:

• Expand regional crisis response systems that cities can access collectively

• Ensure crisis responders are available in every city and in unincorporated King County, including areas like Skyway

• Build shared infrastructure that allows cities to launch crisis programs more quickly and affordably

• Invest in mobile crisis teams and behavioral health responders

• Support pilot programs and research that demonstrate effectiveness and guide scaling successful models

These systems allow  law enforcement to do their jobs while ensuring people in crisis receive the medical care they need.

Building the Behavioral Health Workforce

Expanding access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment will only succeed if we also expand the workforce needed to provide that care. Across King County, behavioral health providers report severe staffing shortages that limit access to treatment and delay crisis response.

As a State Senator, Rebecca has supported investments in behavioral health infrastructure and treatment capacity. On the County Council, she will focus on building the workforce that makes these services possible by:

• Expanding training and workforce pathways for behavioral health professionals

• Partnering with community colleges and apprenticeship-style programs to grow the behavioral health workforce

• Supporting culturally competent providers who reflect the communities they serve

• Improving recruitment and retention through better wages and working conditions for behavioral health workers

• A stronger behavioral health workforce is essential to reducing emergency room visits, shortening crisis response times, and ensuring people receive the care they need before problems escalate.

Bending the Legal System toward Justice and Reducing Case Backlogs

Public confidence in the legal system depends on fairness, accountability, and a timely resolution of cases. 

Many people involved in the criminal legal system are navigating untreated mental health conditions, disabilities, substance abuse, or past trauma. Research shows that a significant portion of individuals in the criminal legal system were victims of violence themselves before becoming involved in the system.

Across King County, staffing shortages and growing caseloads have slowed the legal system and delayed outcomes for victims and defendants. Rebecca supports expanding LEAD modeled programs, therapeutic courts, and culturally competent interventions that address the underlying causes of harm while maintaining accountability. These approaches reduce recidivism, improve public safety outcomes, and help individuals stabilize their lives.

Washington State’s Supreme Court, recognizing that defendants without the means to hire legal representation have their rights violated without effective counsel, has established new standards for the number of cases that public defenders can take on. These standards ensure that people’s rights are protected and cases are handled quickly. King County has a limited timeframe to meet these constitutional requirements, and failing to do so will not only perpetuate systemic harms in our legal system, particularly for low-income defendants, but it could also lead to the dismissal of hundreds or even thousands of cases with potential violent criminal behavior.

Imagine a circumstance in which a judge believes someone is dangerous enough to be held in jail pretrial, only for them to be released due to a shortage of public defenders. This is the exact situation playing out in Oregon, more than a thousand times over because their elected officials ignored the same warnings coming from public defenders across our state. We must address public defender caseload standards to avoid a crisis on our streets. 

Rebecca will work with the Council to:

• Fully fund courts, prosecutors, and public defenders to reduce case backlogs

• Supporting public defender case loads that ensure effective legal representation that protects defendants’ rights and limits professional burnout for counselors

• Strengthen diversion and restorative justice programs for appropriate cases

• Improve coordination across courts, behavioral health providers, and community programs

• Ensure victims receive timely services and support

• Ensure individuals facing evictions have legal representation

These reforms help deliver justice more quickly, reduce recidivism, and improve outcomes.

Protecting Immigrant Communities and Civil Rights

When Rebecca’s father was just a few months old, he crossed the US-Mexico border fleeing violence. They worked as undocumented farmhands picking cotton in the segregated South. 

Working to ensure King County is a place where all residents, regardless of immigration status, can live without fear has been Rebecca’s life’s work. 

As a student at the University of Washington, Rebecca became active in farm and immigrant worker advocacy with the Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste. As the Executive Director of Puget Sound Sage, Rebecca built grassroots movements to address racial inequities in housing, environmental justice, and public health.

Now, as our State Senator Rebecca prime sponsored legislation that added immigration status as a protected class under the Washington State Law Against Discrimination, worked to ban ICE from wearing masks, to prevent law enforcement from hiring former ICE officers and to protect immigrant workers by notifying them when ICE attempts to access their information. 

Rebecca is committed to ensuring that County policies protect civil rights and uphold Washington’s sanctuary laws.

Her priorities include:

• Ending any county cooperation with federal immigration enforcement beyond what is legally required

• Supporting community organizations that provide legal assistance and rapid response support to immigrant families

• Ensuring county agencies protect personal data and prevent misuse of surveillance tools

• Providing resources to community-based organizations that help families understand their rights

• Continuing the moratorium on any ICE facilities in King County.

King County must stand firmly on the side of civil rights, dignity, and due process.

Accountability and Transparency in Public Safety

Public trust depends on transparent government and measurable results.

Rebecca has supported statewide efforts to strengthen police accountability and ensure peace officers receive training in de-escalation and community engagement. She believes effective public safety requires both strong professional standards and strong relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Her priorities include:

• Ensuring officers receive de-escalation and crisis intervention training

• Supporting policies that strengthen transparency and accountability

• Ensuring law enforcement agencies reflect the diversity of the communities they serve

Rebecca also worked with community organizations, including OneAmerica, to sponsor legislation allowing non-citizens to serve as peace officers, helping diversify the public safety workforce and strengthen trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities.

On the County Council, Rebecca will push for stronger oversight and clearer accountability across King County’s public safety system.

She supports:

• Public dashboards tracking progress on gun violence reduction, crisis response, and public safety outcomes

• Independent audits and performance reviews of public safety programs

• Clear benchmarks created with communities most impacted to evaluate which programs are working and which need improvement

• Create stronger partnership frameworks with community service providers that define roles, expectations, and shared accountability to deliver transparent, effective results.

A safer King County requires a government that is accountable and focused on real results.

Keeping Transit Workers and Riders Safe

Transit workers are essential public servants who keep our region moving, but many bus drivers are increasingly facing threats, harassment, and violence on the job. Recent data from King County Metro shows dozens of reported threats or assaults against transit operators each year, reinforcing the need for stronger safety measures across the system.

Rebecca believes transit safety must protect both riders and workers. She also understands the importance of supporting transit staff experiencing trauma during their jobs. 

On the County Council, she will work with Metro, ATU 587, and community partners to:

• Expand transit safety teams and crisis response personnel on high-incident routes

• Continue installing safety infrastructure, such as operator barriers and improved lighting at stops and transit centers

• Improve coordination between transit security, behavioral health responders, and community safety teams

• Ensure operators have access to support services after traumatic incidents

• Invest in prevention strategies that address the behavioral health and social service needs often underlying safety incidents

• Work with ATU, King County, and the State Legislature to pass legislation so that PTSD is an occupational disease for workers’ compensation for bus drivers.

Supporting transit workers is essential not only for worker safety but also for maintaining reliable service and public confidence in our transit system.

Humane Detention and Successful Reentry

King County operates key parts of the legal system, including detention facilities that house people awaiting trial or serving short sentences. Safety and accountability must go hand in hand with humane treatment and meaningful pathways to rehabilitation.

Rebecca believes that when people are in government custody, we have a responsibility to ensure safety, dignity, and access to programming that supports successful reentry.

As a County Councilmember, she will work to:

• Ensure detention facilities provide access to behavioral health care, education, and job training

• Expand reentry programs that help people transition successfully back into the community

• Partner with community-based organizations to provide culturally competent programming

• Advocate for the restoration of strong statewide jail standards to ensure consistent humane conditions across Washington

These investments reduce recidivism, improve safety, and help people rebuild their lives.

Rebecca’s approach to safety recognizes that prevention, accountability, and opportunity must work together. Investments in youth programs, behavioral health services, diversion programs, and community-based safety strategies strengthen communities and reduce crime before it occurs.