The Seattle police chief has announced that she is stepping down, announcing a move the same day the city council approved that the department be reduced by as many as 100 officers.
The council on Monday approved a reduction in the police department’s budget of less than 1% after months of protests demanding that the funds be distributed to other services in a fundraising program, although the council signaled that deeper cuts were under way cows
Carmen Best, who was Seattle’s first Black police officer, said in a letter to the department that her retirement would be effective Sept. 2 and that the mayor had appointed the deputy chief, Adrian Diaz, as the interim chief. King TV Monday.
“I am confident the department will make it through these difficult times,” Best said in the letter. ‘You really are the best police department in the country, and please trust me as I said, the vast majority of the people in Seattle support and appreciate you. … I look forward to seeing how this department progresses through the process of reviewing public safety. ”
In an email to police, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said she accepted Best’s decision “with a very heavy heart.”
“I deeply regret that they concluded that the best way to serve the city and help the department was a change in leadership, in the hope that the dynamics would change to move forward with the city council,” Durkan wrote.
The mayor elected Best in July of 2018 to head the department. She had served as interim chief.
A military veteran, Best joined the department in 1992 and worked in a wide variety of roles, including patrol, media relations, drugs and operations, and deputy chief.
Cuts to the department were supported by protesters marching in the city following the assassination of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, but strongly opposed by Durkan and Best.
Measures that would cut less than $ 4 million from the department’s annual budget of $ 400 million this year passed unanimously from the committee last week. On Monday, only councilor Kshama Sawant voted against the budget package, saying it does not do enough to defuse the police.
Seattle currently has about 1,400 police officers and the reductions fell far short of the 50% cut to the department that many Black Lives Matter protesters seek.
Several councilors on Monday said the changes were a starting point in a lengthy process to reimagine policing and public safety.
The city council also cut Best’s roughly $ 285,000 annual salary and the salaries of other top police leaders, although the final cuts to Best’s salary were significantly more modest than those approved last week.
The council plan also takes officers off a team that removes homeless camps.
“While we may not be able to do everything in this summer’s rebalancing package, we have paved the way for great work for us as a council and as a city,” said councilor Teresa Mosqueda.
Durkan and Best had urged the council to carry out their talks on police budgets, saying the issue could be taken seriously when the 2021 city budget is considered. They also said that dismissals would disproportionately target new officers, often hired from Black and Brown communities, and that would inadvertently lead to lawsuits.
In early July, police removed an occupied autonomous temporary protest zone from several blocks near downtown Seattle, known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, as Chop, which came organically following a series of violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement during marches. agitated by the murder of Floyd.
