According to Carmen Best, chief of the Seattle Police Department (SPD), the existence of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) has prevented the police from responding to 911 calls of “rapes, robberies and all sorts of violent acts” that have been occurring near Seattle’s East Precinct, which city officials abandoned. “If that is your mother, your sister, your cousin, your neighbor’s kid that is being raped, robbed, assaulted or otherwise victimized, you’re not going to want to have to report that it took the police three times longer to get there to provide services for them,” said Chief Best in a speech made to East Precinct officers on Thursday. Seattle Police Chief: "Rapes, robberies and all sorts of violent acts have been occurring in the area and we're not able to get to [them]." #capitolhillautonomouszone #antifa #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/Oe5YfVz3uL — Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) June 12, 2020 Best said that response times to 911 calls in the East Precinct area have tripled from “just under five minutes to about 18 minutes” since the abandonment of the precinct on Monday afternoon and the subsequent establishment of the autonomous zone. She also noted that it should never have been an option to abandon residents who live near the precinct, many of whom, according to her, belong to some of Seattle’s most marginalized communities. This is especially regrettable given the fact that Best and the SPD have been receiving reports of armed individuals in CHAZ serving as enforcers of the zone and that they “may be demanding payment from business owners in exchange for their protection.”