Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best told Fox & Friends on Monday that a 50 percent budget cut to her department would “really” be a “tragic decision.”
Best made the comment three days after he wrote in a letter to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan that the cuts proposed by the city council “are political gestures” and “not realistic or rational solutions.”
In a video address to officers posted to YouTube on Friday, Best accused the City Hall of recklessness and “political complacency” by advocating cutting its department’s budget by 50 percent, arguing that cutting funds to that extent would be asking citizens “to prove a theory that crime disappears if the police leave.”
On Monday, Best told “Fox & Friends” that Seattle will be “much less safe if they take 50 percent of the cops off the streets” and called the proposal “incredibly reckless.” He added that “these decisions must be thought through.”
“They don’t have a plan that hears me do something to maintain public safety,” Best said.
So far, seven of the nine members of the Seattle City Council have expressed their support for the goal of reducing the city’s police budget by 50 percent, according to the Seattle Times. Six votes are needed to pass legislation related to the city budget and override a mayor’s veto.
“If they decide to disburse the police department by 50 percent, I think it will have negative consequences, particularly if there is no plan,” Best said Monday.
She emphasized that she is “committed” to the Seattle Police Department and the city.
“I have been here almost 30 years,” Best said, adding that he has “a long history of working with the people of this city and certainly with the officers under my care.”
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“So I hope the council will reconsider this reckless and reckless decision and allow us to do the work that we are supposed to do for the city of Seattle,” he continued.
Best said the police’s proposed budget cuts would lead to the transfer or termination of 50 percent of the department’s total workforce. The agency would also lose more than 50 percent of its own officers who identify themselves as black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).
Host Brian Kilmeade noted that the proposal to disburse the Seattle Police Department would include removing the 911 dispatch from police control and expanding community solutions for public safety.
Durkan, a Democrat, has not supported cutting the city’s police budget by 50 percent, but last month the mayor proposed a $ 20 million cut to the police budget for the rest of 2020 to offset the costs of the coronavirus pandemic.
Best said he expects people to call and write the city council to inform them that this is “an unwise decision” and that “everything must be thought through, there must be a plan, and we need public safety.”
Best made the comments Monday nearly two weeks after the decommissioning of the Seattle Protest Organized Protest, or CHOP. Hundreds camped and held space in six city blocks for nearly three weeks in June until at least four shootings and two deaths led city officials to break up the “policeless cooperative” and reclaim the eastern compound that was abandoned after violent clashes between officers and protesters earlier this month.
Black Lives Matter protesters have argued for underfunding police departments across the country following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May.
“We are not opposed to change, but not to change with public safety risk for all,” Best said Monday.
He added that the decisions “must be practical so that we can maintain our public order and that is why I am committed to that.”
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The president of the Seattle City Council did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
