A Seattle Police Department initiative garnering attention for its focus on preventing and responding to anti-LGBTQ bias crimes will launch on Vashon next week, concluding in a public meeting for business owners and community members.

The Safe Place program began in Seattle in May after a rise in reported crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning individuals, and it quickly gained attention as the only police department program of its kind. Now, the King County Sheriff’s Office is partnering with the Seattle Police Department to roll out the program in areas throughout the county, starting with Vashon.

As part of the program, businesses and other organizations put a small “Safe Place” decal in a window, indicating that they will provide a safe place for any LGBTQ person who feels harassed or threatened; staff members also agree to call 911 for assistance while the person remains safe inside. Jim Ritter, the founder of the program and a longtime officer with the Seattle Police Department, said more than 650 Seattle businesses have already signed on; many others are waiting to join, and police departments as far away as South Carolina, Ohio and Calgary in Alberta, Canada, have expressed interest. Next Wednesday afternoon, Ritter and Michelle Bennett, the LGBTQ coordinator at the sheriff’s office, will visit Vashon to enlist local businesses in the effort. That evening, they will host a community meeting to provide more information about the initiative and the goals of the program. They noted that both KING 5 and a representative from the United States Department of Justice may attend.

Vashon, home to the state’s largest percentage of same-sex  households, has a reputation among many for being a tolerant community with little crime, including bias crimes. Indeed, since September 2013, only one such crime has been reported on Vashon, said Sgt. Stan Seo, a sheriff’s office spokesman; that was the race-related malicious harassment incident reported last month.

Regardless, Bennett says, the program is an important one because many bias crimes go unreported — meaning Vashon might have a larger problem than statistics show — and the stickers themselves send an important message.

“I want to bring awareness to any issues that may exist,” she said in an interview last week.  “I want to make sure the community knows we are partners in their safety, that there is a safe place and that we want to assist in the problem.”

Ritter and Bennett first came to Vashon to discuss the Safe Place program last month after they were invited to do so and met with several business and agency leaders, including Lisa McLeod, co-chair of VARSA (Vashon Alliance to Reduce Substance Abuse).

Since then, McLeod has begun talking to other business leaders, informing of them of the new program and asking if they would participate.

Some have readily agreed, she said, while others have been more cautious, wondering what it would mean to harbor an individual who was being threatened in some way, and another unfamiliar with the LGBTQ acronym and what it stands for. Other business owners questioned why Vashon would participate since the island does not have a high number of hate crimes, though McLeod says she believes the program will still play an important role here.

“Because we have a large gay and lesbian population, there is this idea that we have it covered,” she said, “but it is really healthy to have a reminder that is does happen here.”

Some downtown businesses that have already agreed to participate include the Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union, Herban Bloom and the Vashon Senior Center.

At the north edge of town, Lee Kopines the executive director of Seeds 4 Success, which works to enhance community inclusion and employment opportunities for islanders with disabilities, said that organization will participate as well. Kopines noted she has found Vashon is not as open to embracing diversity as it might appear.

“We present as an accepting community; however,  many of people I talk with on a daily basis struggle with a lot of intolerance,” she said. “I would like to see that go away.”

Nearby, the Chamber of Commerce office will take part as well. Executive Director Jim Marsh said that he believes in the statement of acceptance the stickers convey. Prweviously, he worked with homeless teens, many of whom were from the LGBTQ community, and he noted this issue is important to him personally.

“Until everybody feels safe, none of us can take safety as a given,” he added.

Ritter, who has been an officer with the Seattle Police Department for 30 years and is the department’s LGBTQ coordinator, said he was assigned to a community outreach unit about a year ago and began hearing concerns about a rise in hate crimes, though they were not being reported.

“That became a concern of mine,” he said. “If it is not reported, we cannot allocate resources to address it.”

As he thought of ways to address the problem, he said he recalled a campaign from his childhood when homeowners placed a sticker of a hand in a window, indicating to children who felt unsafe that they could come in and be safe.

With that program in mind, he worked on Safe Place for two months before Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole officially rolled out the program. After that, the media took notice, with two stories appearing within a month in The Seattle Times and local television stations also reporting on it. After the publicity, Ritter began fielding calls from all over, he said, including from Japan, where a television station aired a 12-minute program on the effort.

Just weeks later, the Supreme Court decision made same sex marriage legal in every state, and there was push back locally, Ritter said, with eight LGBTQ-hate crime assaults occurring in Seattle in seven days. All but one has resulted in an arrest, he added.

While the situation has quieted down since then, there was a bias crime reported in Seattle just last week, he said, noting that with Safe Place in effect, it might seem like there are more bias crimes occurring, even though that might not be true.

“If this program is to work correctly, we will see an increase in reporting, not necessarily an increase in the actual crimes,” he said.

With the program intended for businesses under way, Ritter said he will soon kick off a similar program in the Seattle School District, adding that he and Bennett plan to work with the Vashon School District in the near future.

In addition to the Safe Place focus on bias crimes, Bennett said she believes the initiative is a good community policing program overall, as it brings business leaders, community members and the sheriff’s office together. On the island, Bennett said, she and others involved will begin the roll out of the program and then expand to other areas in the county.

“It is a pilot to take a look at how we are doing things, and Vashon will be a role model for other communities,” she said.

Safe Place decals will be distributed to Vashon businesses between 2 and 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30. The public meeting will follow from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Penny Farcy Building at 10019 SW Bank Road.