A controversial online portal established by the City of Edmonds in 2021 to report incidents of bias, discrimination and hate has been removed, Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen said Friday.
“While the portal might have been created with the best of intentions, it has seen infrequent use,” Rosen said. “It also overlapped with other existing city tools to report incidents of hate, discrimination or similar concerns.”
At the time of its launch, the city said the new online system would give residents a place to report non-criminal issues of concern, adding that keeping a log and tracking this information would allow the city to track data and identify trends. Submissions would be monitored and reviewed by city staff, with incidents logged and forwarded to the appropriate department.
However, the new system immediately generated controversy among community members concerned about potential privacy and legal ramifications, earning it the nickname “the hate portal.”
Some residents attending a council meeting in late July 2021 expressed their opposition to the new portal, with one attendee calling it “blatant government overreach” that would create distrust among neighbors. The Edmonds City Council a week later discussed a proposal to pause the portal, which failed on a 3-3 vote with one abstention. The meeting ended with a defiant speech by then-Edmonds Mayor Mike Nelson, who pointed to national studies showing that many hate crimes go unreported and that collecting the data was an important step in addressing the issue.
In an email to My Edmonds News regarding his decision to remove the portal, Rosen said: “If a resident or visitor to Edmonds experiences an incident of a criminal nature, our Edmonds Police Department is always on call. For urgent matters, they should call 911 or for a non-emergency response or to file a police report, call 425-407-3999.”
The mayor added that the General Citizen Feedback form is also available on the website to report non-criminal issues, and that a list of resources on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA), can be found on the DEIA Commission’s webpage.
“The City of Edmonds remains committed to fostering inclusivity and ensuring the safety of our entire community,” Rosen said.
Good for Mayor Rosen. There are better ways to report illegal incidents of hate, discrimination or similar concerns. The whole concept and execution by the previous administration was downright unwise. You don’t beat stupid by being even more foolish.
Great Move Mayor Rosen! The Hate Portal was not a productive method to solve problems in our community..
I’m now reassured that we now have made a good man our new Mayor!
Thank you Mayor Rosen.
Congratulations to Mayor Rosen. The Hate Portal was well-meaning (or political grandstanding), but divisive, ham-handed and useless. Among other things, it provided no legal remedies and it asked staff to deal with complicated issues for which they are not well trained.
Getting rid of the “Hate Portal” was fairly low hanging fruit and a pretty obvious thing to do I would say. That said, however, I also think it was a great thing to do and took a certain amount of courage on the part of Mayor Rosen to do it so soon after taking office; risking possible backlash from some people who mysteriously (in my view) ever thought it was a good idea. Citizens “ratting on” and accusing fellow citizens of being racists. What could possibly go wrong with such a concept?
Thank you Mayor Rosen!
The “hate portal” was a particularly egregious act of political grandstanding by our previous mayor.
As you accurately pointed out, there are numerous existing ways to address these same issues.
Part of the reason our city has a budget crunch is our precious mayor added staff and redundant activities that now need to be unwound.
So happy to have a good leader again for our city!
Bill, Good points concerning added staff. I believe I read several weeks ago that 50 additional staff had been added recently. Mayor Rosen and the Council should revisit all new positions added during 2022 and 2023.
There may be a few surprises!
The Portal was just a virtue signal from the old guard. This new council needs a fresh start.
Yay. Thank you Mayor Rosen.
Thank you Mayor Rosen. Your quick decisive action is so appreciated. The Hate Line needed to be Gone long ago. Hooray for you.
Thank you, Mayor Rosen, for using common sense. Great start!