On 4/26/2024 1:42 PM, a425couple wrote:
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> https://mynorthwest.com/3956808/what-seattle-police-officers-are-saying-during-exit-interviews-depart/
>
> ‘SPD is dying’: What Seattle police officers are saying during exit
> interviews
> Apr 22, 2024, 2:38 PM | Updated: 4:22 pm
>
> seattle police...
> Seattle Police officers confer after taking part in a public roll call
> at Hing Hay Park in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. (Photo:
> Ted Warren, AP File)
>
> Share
> BY FRANK SUMRALL
> MyNorthwest Content Editor
> A new recruiting campaign. A streamlined process to speed up the hiring
> process. Hiring bonuses. Despite significant investments from the city
> to recruit and retain officers, the Seattle police force has reached the
> lowest staffing numbers in nearly 70 years.
>
> The Seattle Police Department (SPD) has fallen to just 424 active police
> officers working patrol, the lowest levels of staff since at least 1957,
> according to “The Jason Rantz Show” on AM 770 KTTH. Going further, there
> are 280 eligible to retire based on age and tenure.
>
> Rantz on SPD’s current level of staffing: Seattle has under 425 patrol
> officers, 280 eligible for retirement
>
> Of the more than a dozen SPD exit interviews in 2023 acquired by
> MyNorthwest, 100% were of officers who served more than five years with
> the department, 82% were from officers who served 11-15 years, 73% from
> officers who served more than 15 years and 64% came from officers who
> reached 20 or more years of service.
>
> What Seattle police officers are saying as they depart
> When presented with the question: What factors had a negative effect on
> morale in the department, Seattle police officers were nearly united in
> their responses, according to exit interviews filed in 2023.
>
> “SPD’s political posture and city management in all categories,” one
> departing officer, a detective who’s been with Seattle for more than 10
> years, said in response. “The morale and retention will never be
> achieved in the political climate of Seattle. SPD is dying and the
> command staff is along for the ride — watching it die.”
>
> It will be four years this June since CHOP (Capitol Hill Organized
> Protest) usurped Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, and officers
> continue to cite that they are still reeling from the repercussions.
>
> “(In) 2020, where everyone hated us, constant struggles with DOJ
> (Department of Justice) and the Seattle City Council,” a detective
> sergeant, who served Seattle as an officer for more than 15 years, wrote.
>
> Mike Solan, president of the Seattle Police Guild (SPOG), echoed the
> sentiment that the effects of CHOP are still felt today within the
> department. At the third anniversary of CHOP’s closure, Solan stated
> city leaders at the time “removed our ability to help people” and “their
> political decisions killed people,” according to KOMO News — referencing
> the two deaths during CHOP alongside multiple shootings.
>
> But, in terms of police department morale, the damage was done. KOMO
> News conducted a poll last October and found 64% of respondents still
> had an unfavorable opinion of the Seattle police, more than three years
> since the summer of 2020.
>
> “City officials’ attitude towards officers (we are treated guilty first
> before any kind of review),” another SPD officer wrote. “Supervisors and
> chiefs not stepping up publicly to defend the officers until all the
> facts are in, thus creating the public attitude towards us.”
>
> Betsy Smith, a 29-year police veteran and spokesperson for the National
> Police Association, said Seattle has always been an epicenter of this
> friction between police and the public.
>
> More exit interviews from SPD: Seattle cop says ‘criminals are running
> this city’ in brutal resignation letter
>
> “Last three, five years, there has been constant vilification of law
> enforcement,” Smith said. “In schools, on social media, families,
> churches — police officers are bad. Police are evil. The justice system
> is biased. Driving experienced officers away, you’ll just lose
> institutional knowledge.”
>
> How a Seattle police officer’s role has changed
> “The No. 1 concern for officers used to be about safety, regarding
> themselves or the community,” Smith continued. “Now the No. 1 concern
> for officers is, ‘Will I be indicted for doing my job?'”
>
> It’s become an undeniable factor in the mass exodus of officers leaving
> Seattle. In the last five years, the department has lost more than 700
> officers — the bulk coming in the last three years. Last year, SPD only
> hired 62 officers while losing 96.
>
> “Yes, we have had some Seattle lateral (hires), along with WSP
> (Washington State Patrol) and state DOC (Department of Corrections),”
> Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer told MyNorthwest.
>
> More on Ed Troyer: Pierce County Sheriff not running for reelection
>
> Troyer described Seattle’s environment for police as a place “not
> allowed to do police work.”
>
> “No support from administration or city. Not holding criminals
> accountable. The recidivism rate and no bail on major arrests. Rampant
> drug use and not having the ability to do anything about it,” Troyer said.
>
> One officer, a hostage negotiator who’s been with Seattle police for
> more than five years, is leaving the department to join Phoenix’s police
> force, a job he thinks will be a “better opportunity.”
>
> “There is far more support for law enforcement in the state of Arizona
> and the city of Phoenix,” the departing officer wrote in his exit
> interview. “The city government increased the funding of the department
> shortly after the 2020 riots. The department, just like SPD, has
> downsized but it is still much larger than SPD. I believe this to be a
> positive as there are more working interactions with patrol and
> specialty units.
>
> “The culture that supervisors instilled was that an officer cannot get
> in trouble for not doing anything but can get in trouble, via OPA
> (Office of Police Accountability), for attempting to do the right thing
> and the situation going poorly,” the officer continued.
>
> Seattle’s ‘new’ city council
> Five of Seattle’s nine council members are serving their first terms in
> one of the biggest turnovers for the council in decades.
>
> More on the Seattle City Council: Sara Nelson named Seattle City Council
> president; 5 new members sworn in
>
> In their first public safety meeting last February, the council listed
> six things they wanted to focus on: More collaboration between the
> county and state, public health, legal tools, solving issues with vacant
> buildings, more attempts to curb graffiti and — maybe most importantly —
> police staffing.
>
> “All of them ran under a public safety platform, which is huge for us
> and I think it’s huge for our officers,” Diaz said at the meeting,
> according to KING 5. “We’ve got to be able to figure out how we raise
> that staffing. It’s really going to be important.”
>
> Still, pessimism persists among those growing impatient waiting for
> change, Betsy Smith included.
>
> “There’s always going to be anti-cop politicians in Seattle,” Smith
> said. “Anti-cop rhetoric and anti-crime victim legislation until the
> political landscape changes. Policing should not be a political issue.”
>
> In total, 73% of obtained exit interviews cited city leadership as a
> reason for leaving. More than 80% cited staffing issues.
>
> Nearly 40% discussed the lack of a union contract as an additional reason.
>
> More on police union contract: Seattle Police Officers’ Guild reaches
> tentative contract agreement with city
>
> The love for fellow officers
> Another consistency among the exit interviews is how much departing
> officers cared for their fellow officers and co-workers.
>
> “I was extremely grateful to work with some of the best officers, in my
> opinion,” a departing officer wrote before listing off close to ten
> department colleagues who had influence. “There are many more officers
> that made a positive impact not listed.”
>
> When asked what police officers enjoyed the most during their Seattle
> tenures, few failed to mention their “brothers in uniform,” citing the
> friends they made within the department were some of the highlights
> while working in the Emerald City.
>
> “I had a great run with SPD,” one officer said before his retirement. “I
> have no regrets. It was the people I worked with that kept me here for
> 37 years.”
>
> While salary was seldom an issue, according to the obtained exit
> interviews from 2023, Seattle police officers will soon vote to approve
> a new union contract. The agreement, which can be seen here, would make
> the SPD one of the highest-paid police forces in the region with a 23%
> retroactive raise.
>
> The 23% raise is made up of a 1.3% raise for 2021, a 6.4% raise for 2022
> and a 15.3% raise for 2023 as back pay. The last SPOG contract, approved
> in 2018, gave officers a 17% raise and required the city to spend $65
> million in back pay, according to multiple media outlets. PubliCola,
> which bills itself as “Seattle’s reader-supported source for deeply
> sourced in-depth coverage of local, state, and regional politics and
> policy,” published a PDF of the contract earlier this month before the
> union removed it from public view.
>
> “Is there anything else you would like to add?” the final exit interview
> question asks.
>
> “I am grateful for the opportunity and I did my best,” a retiring police
> officer responded.
>
> “Best of luck to all in the SPD,” a resigning officer wrote.
>
> Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his
> stories here and you can email him here.
>
>
> Share
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Seattle elected their own problems. They got what they wanted.