Homepage
Tacoma and Pierce County must learn from Seattle’s ‘defund the police’ fiasco
Tacoma and Pierce County officials, we hope you’re taking notes, because the Seattle City Council is teaching a master class in how not to do police reform.
On Monday, Seattle leaders cut their police department budget by $11 million. A day later, the city’s police chief announced her retirement after 28 years on the force.
Granted, the mid-year budget cut was less than the $50 million first proposed, but it was a slash meant to wound, and boy, will it.
Seattle residents can expect up to 100 fewer cops on patrol. A team that does outreach at homeless encampments and the two sworn officers from the city’s 911 emergency call center were also scrapped. Some training expenses will go by the wayside, along with funds that pay for victim advocates.
How do these cuts move SPD closer to eliminating bias and excessive use of force?
The short answer is: They don’t.
In the wake of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police in May, and the fatal interaction of Manny Ellis with Tacoma police in March, these cuts feel more like punishment, a projection of the outrage Americans rightly feel to recent cases of police brutality.
But if cities are going to defund police, they must, in equal measure, reallocate funds by strengthening the social service infrastructure. And that’s not happening in Seattle. Not yet anyway.
The Human Services Department got $4 million for a community safety initiative, something the city calls “an alternative to traditional policing,” but it’s far from a thoughtful plan forward. The council also promised $17 million for community-led budget research and organizations that do public safety work.
Absent are articulated plans for youth violence prevention, substance abuse recovery, affordable housing, crisis intervention and behavioral health.
On the road to defunding, Seattle is jumping first and worrying about the wings later; not a smart maneuver when public safety is at stake.
The city also recommended Chief Carmen Best take a pay cut along with other high-ranking SPD officials, which added injury to insult; the chief was shut out from budget talks regarding her department.
Best resigned her position effective Sept. 2. She is Seattle’s first Black female police chief, a post she’s held since 2018.
On Twitter, Best called the city’s changes “reckless” with no practical plan for community safety. Indeed, all Seattle has achieved with its over-the-cliff defund strategy is to make people feel less safe.
No matter how you crunch the numbers, fewer cops doesn’t equate to better cops.
Seattle’s police force isn’t the only one getting a top-down shakeup. The Tacoma Police Department faces a sea change when Don Ramsdell, the longest serving chief in TPD history, retires in January.
Perhaps Tacoma will consider Best in the candidate pool. She is, after all, a Tacoma native and one of Lincoln High School’s many success stories.
Recent controversy may not win her full hometown support. She defended SPD’s use of tear gas and flash bangs to deal with protests. Critics have also accused her of abandoning the East Precinct, site of the infamous Capitol Hill Organized Protest. The six-block CHOP zone was where one teen was fatally shot and numerous other violent acts occurred.
Whoever city leaders appoint to replace Ramsdell must commit to real reform and have the backing of a Tacoma City Council that puts its money where its mouth is. They’ve made a good-faith start with plans to implement officer body cameras early next year, but we want to see more de-escalation training, outside reviews of force and transparent disciplinary actions.
The same holds for Pierce County leaders, who are about to turn the page from the two-decade tenure of Sheriff Paul Pastor. Both candidates on the November ballot to replace him, Cyndie Fajardo and Ed Troyer, are Sheriff’s Department insiders; they can’t let that get in the way of pushing for substantial reforms.
Real change won’t happen without support from other elected county leaders, too, including Executive Bruce Dammeier and the County Council. Dammeier this week authorized two dozen new deputy hires by lifting a hiring freeze on the Sheriff’s Department. It was a reasonable move, since the department is short staffed and the positions were previously budgeted.
But endemic public safety problems can’t be solved by addition any more than they can by subtraction.
“Defund the police” makes for a catchy protest chant, but it’s no substitute for forward-thinking policy changes and social-service investments. Removing corruption and systemic racism requires a scalpel, not a blunt instrument.
.JPG)
Comments