Seattle City Councilmember Rob Saka thinks now is the time for the city to acknowledge the “failure of defund movement.”
The West Seattle representative’s symbolic resolution that “reiterates support for first responders, acknowledges failure of defund movement and embraces focus on underserved communities” will come in front of the council’s public safety committee Tuesday.
“This Council, in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office has made improving public safety an absolute priority,” Saka said in the announcement of the proposed resolution. “This is finally the time to acknowledge the lessons of the past and pivot decisively toward a better, future-focused public safety model. We are committed to making everyone in our community feel safe and to enhancing our accountability system.”
Mayor Bruce Harrell is also ready to declare a new pro-police era in Seattle.
“I join the City Council in celebrating the dedication and hard work of our public safety professionals and in recognizing the importance of a diversified emergency response system,” the mayor said about the proposed resolution. “I look forward to working with our police department, accountability partners, and Council members as we move to finalize requirements under the consent decree.”
The push from two Black leaders of one of the most progressive major cities in the country comes as Seattle City Hall attempts to walk a fine line standing up for civil rights while also staying out of the MAGA crosshairs.
The uneasy balance will be on display Tuesday. After the public safety committee discusses Saka’s new anti-defund resolution in the morning, the full council Tuesday afternoon will include a vote “reaffirming The City of Seattle as a Welcoming City; supporting access to reproductive health care services and gender-affirming treatment in Seattle; extending the responsibility of City employees to protect the provision of reproductive health care services and gender-affirming treatment.”
Saka’s proposed resolution focuses on how Seattle spends on public safety:
A RESOLUTION acknowledging that Seattle residents, workers, students, and visitors deserve to be safe and feel safe; recognizing and appreciating first responders from the Seattle Police Department, Seattle Fire Department, and the Community Assisted Response and Engagement Department; affirming the City’s obligations to fully support, train, and equip first responders; committing to a diversified public safety response system; acknowledging the City’s actions to reform the Police Department under the federal Consent Decree; committing to resolve the remaining issues of the Consent Decree; and affirming the essential services provided by the Police Department.
While much has been made of Seattle’s defund movement and the Seattle City Council’s efforts to move public safety spending away from SPD, many of the efforts shaped at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement protests and marches were either quickly reversed or never implemented. Today, the longest lasting outcomes from 2020 have been the move of 911 dispatch out of the department and the creation of the new CARE Department and its “community crisis responders” teams. The CARE Department has a budget around $30 million — SPD’s is nearing $400 million.
The message from Saka and the council arrives as the Seattle Police Department has new leadership under interim Chief Shon Barnes who has made recruitment and retention his primary focus. SPD is forecasting the department to climb over 1,000 officers in service by 2026 — up 13% from 2024. The department reports it made 84 successful hires in 2024 — one more officer than it lost — barely reversing a long term trend.
Paying cops more is helping. Seattle ranked 29th in the region to start 2024 for base pay for its new recruits an issue the bonus program won’t address. The city and the Seattle Police Officers Guild arrived at a new contract last spring that boosted pay 23%.
A federal consent decree was also lifted from the Seattle Police Department in 2023, ending 12 years of controls and oversight after a civil rights investigation found evidence of excessive force and biased policing.
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No one forced the police to abandon their precinct in Capitol Hill…blue flu was just as contagious as COVID in some parts of the city over the past 5 years, yet we like to ignore that entire dynamic and choose to focus on the bizarre canard of an “understaffed” department. No one believes that bs–as if there’s a magic number of cops that will fix everything. No, unfortunately the police have just realized they can’t solve the problems that greedy landlords created and the mayor and council have OK’d, and instead are relying on their organized labor union (i use that word “union” here very lightly, as they are only a union in technicality not class solidarity) to neglect parts of the city with the most inequality-based crime and strife. Things that will continue until inequality is dealt with at a grassroots level.
The failure of the “defund movement” was that it failed to actually defund the police. They are an overpaid, bloated, corrupt department of the city that big business relies on to maintain the mass outrage over the growing inequality we all see everyday.
Demilitarize the police and bring back beat cops on foot if you want to inspire community trust and foster positive engagement.
I agree that bringing back a robust beat cop presence is crucial to restoring law & order on our streets, but in order for that to happen the SPD needs to hire alot more officers.
Nopers, you’d be mistaken. We do not need more officers.
It’s a simple adjustment of the schedule and patrol areas.
For example…
The murders at Broadway and Pike. Turns out? If ya get enough people killed in the same place you get a beat cop. The kid who was shot on Pine and Broadway. Then died at Pike and Broadway.
That little area.
While business people get all up in arms about how horrible it is? It’s the people who live here that matter most. Not the store front.
The ally behind Pride Place, Broadway Crossing, Neighbors etc. is now being patrolled all day and night relentlessly. Folks have a Bat Phone now if they see anyone that doesn’t belong there. Cops are on bikes and in cruisers. Also? Guardian security is patrolling as well.
So there you go. No cops hired and Cal Anderson and the problem areas in the nooks and crannies are getting cleaned up.
Priorities. Priorities.
Let me see your schedule and ledger. I’ll tell you what your priorities are too. No need to hire someone to help you get through the day. We do just fine on our own. A newborn needs help.
You have no idea what you’re talking about, and your entire comment is exclusively about the immediate vicinity you live in. Officers are not dispatched to most calls due to staffing! You do not just decide the numbers don’t matter because your immediate 2 block radius is finally having emphasis patrols after years of going to shit
Mkay John…You do not know me. So making blind assumptions to base your argument on is not a solid foundation.
“your entire comment is exclusively about the immediate vicinity you live in”
YES! Excellent, we agree. we are 1 for 2. 50% is not bad?
It’s called “talking about what you know”. As opposed to you. I do “extensively know”.
The little community here in this little area has the Mayors full attention and cooperation. Joy and the rest as well. Community Roots housing was part of that. It’s a story here in the blog a while back as well. I DO have the inside scoop. I am the Residents Advisory Council anti-hero. In other werds? I helped organise and initiate that plan. The Mayor et ilk executed it instantly. Literally.
(Note: All the people who criticise me for “not doing anything” also have no clue what they are talking about. And furthermore? Do absolutely nothing to support their causes or those of their fellow neighbors aka ‘mercahn’s. I am changing lives for the better daily. Have been for over 4 decades now in various capacities. I just don’t want or need the publicity. I’d rather they are ignorant towards my projects so they can’t sabotage them in any way).
“Officers are not dispatched to most calls due to staffing!”
This is a lie. Straight up. They dispatch every call. 100% of them. Stolen bike to murders. All get the same treatment.
w/o a single ‘new’ cop? They are doing the SODA zones. Not JUST a 2 block area. They are doing the same in ALL SODA zones now. Read this blog to see it has changed. Resources are being prioritised differently and the cops are done ‘quiet quitting’ over hurt feelings and Covid shots which are proven effective.
We do protests all the time. A whole lotta cops used during those. Yet everything still gets taken care off. Also? Overtime is a force multiplier. Cops are making ridiculous cash working overtime. So count each cop as 1/4 more a cop in time worked on average. We got enough cops. We can always used a few more though right?
Anyway. I “do not decide the numbers” and neither do you John. neither do you.
While some things have improved despite your attempts to stop all progress, you are vastly overstating or simply lying when you say cops are dispatched to every call. Your analysis here is not to be trusted. The agenda you want is to stop hiring officers even though every official and the data make clear we are understaffed compared to 2019 and even then we had less cops than peer cities of our size.
Blah blah. Not to be trusted.
what are you? Are you saying they ignore them then? They do not ignore anyone.
No the problem was when they scaled back policing they found out crime sky rocketed, all the people who wanted defund didn’t discuss it with criminals, criminals don’t care about politics they care about soft targets, they got plenty of them. Like Communism the defund idea is a pipe dream and doesn’t take human nature into account, in a perfect world where greed and deviants don’t exist it’s a great talking point but these things exist, mankind is a flawed hypocrite, walking talking contradiction. If you can’t or won’t physically defend yourself and your family and goods you own then you must have police.
chHill said…
“No one forced the police to abandon their precinct in Capitol Hill…blue flu was just as contagious as COVID in some parts of the city over the past 5 years, yet we like to ignore that entire dynamic and choose to focus on the bizarre canard of an “understaffed” department.”
Then you said…
“No the problem was when they scaled back policing they found out crime sky rocketed”
Dude? You can’t arrest sick people. It will kill everyone. There was no “quitting” or “defunding” or anything else. It was ONE THING Covid. That’s it. That is it. Stop with the false narratives.
But they are understaffed. Compared to other cities of similar size Seattle has far fewer officers. What people are finding to be BS is that shoplifting is ok because all shoplifters are victims of poverty and that property crimes harm no one.
“What people are finding to be BS is that shoplifting is ok because all shoplifters are victims of poverty and that property crimes harm no one.”
NOBODY thinks that. Not a soul. You MAGA types imprint stuff onto people w/o cause.
Just because we have fewer officers per capita means nothing. We ALSO have MORE alternative responders and safety nets than anywhere in America almost. Thus reducing the need for a cop in those situations.
People like you want cops locking up everyone for anything. And keep doing that till crime is solved. And crime is not solved until it’s ZERO! right?
What defund movement?
Seattle Police didn’t even get defunded. They just had some meter maids move from under police to some other department.
Saka is an idiot.
Now we’re in the OVERfunding portion of Seattle city government as demanded by our current council of Republicrats.
Yup…and they stole 309 million from housing and clean energy for ghost cops not even here. Back pay and raises for those that sat out during Covid. And of course. Pet causes of the alt right council.
Exactly this. I am so sick of listening to this garment-rending wailing about a supposed “police defunding,” when all that happened was a ledger move of parking enforcement, which last I heard had been reversed because it was mismanaged so badly.
Sounds like the resolution to defund SPD was poorly conceived and its followthrough was unsuccessful at making even superficial changes
And this is what the every commenter is being defensive and protective about. It would be a lot more compelling if it were some form of success instead of different grades of embarrassment
“was unsuccessful at making even superficial changes”
it backfired…lol…They are grossly overfunded now.
garment is my birthstone!
Rob Saka is the biggest tool in all of city council history
his kids got a 2 million dollar left turn lane out of the 309 million Jumpstart heist. Private school of course. Everyone will vote for him now because of that left turn lane he stole from housing and clean energy.
Seattle City Councilmember Rob Saka thinks now is the time for the city to acknowledge the “failure of defund movement.”
It was a campaign slogan! George Floyds was the “movement”
We just fixed the cops. Federal watch and raises and it’s working. We DO NOT NEED TO DO MORE YET! Let this new ‘fix’ take effect as designed?
This is business owners doing everything they can to instantly fix their problem and nobody else’s. Stealing 309 million from housing is the opposite of stopping crime and homelessness.
Cops simply went on quiet quit mode. Someone got killed over it at CHBP. Yet when CHAZ was a thing? They gassed and used force to break up what they said was a mob. Hoax played saying MAGA was headed toward the CHAZ. They WANT people to suffer. Retaliate for the bad attitudes towards cops that can’t police themselves.
It’s coming down to the cost of high paid cops and the cost of housing. They picked the cops. Everyone remember this at the ballot box. Harrel Kowed to Trump.
Police were never defunded.
My god, why is this lie and gaslight constantly happening in Seattle?
Some funds in the police department got allocated to another department then moved back like a year later. There was literally no defunding. Only cops with sad feelings that we weren’t slobbing their knobs 24/7 with reverence.
There was no defunding. The police budget went up during this so-called movement. What a silly resolution.
“embraces focus on underserved communities”
Please tell me that he’s actually talking about underserved communities, which is the majority of Seattle. Not the tiny percentage of so-called underserved communities who have been getting more funds directed towards them than anybody else for my entire life? In my lifetime “underserved communities” is a racial code phrase for communities that actually get more than everybody else and have for many many decades.
“In my lifetime “underserved communities” is a racial code phrase for communities that actually get more than everybody else and have for many many decades.”
Yup..Trickle down reaganomics is why.
Yes it’s definitely the fault of somebody who hasn’t been in power for 40 years. It couldn’t be the entitlement to be given favoritism on a systemic basis that is behind this.
look at taxes before and after Reagan. Then come back. He decimated revenue. Crashed the economy.
Federal spending is what matters, not revenue. I would certainly shift spending around some if I were in charge, but at the federal level revenue has never really impacted how much we spend (which has gone up nearly every year since Reagan’s first election – the only downswing was in the Clinton years).
“Federal spending is what matters, not revenue”
wow…you are giga smart.
Packing this resolution full of progressive buzzwords is like trying to disavow the Cultural Revolution while simultaneously insisting that Mao was right about everything. The defund movement is the natural result of people who actually believe these slogans, if you don’t support it then maybe rethink your sloganeering.
Jeff Spicoli was right about everything.
“Mayor Bruce Harrell is also ready to declare a new pro-police era”
Well of course he is.
the strategy is boost the cops to overinflated. Then when progressives come in? Anything will be “defund” again because the lemmings respond to that with anger. Anger creates votes.
Seems like a lot of people in this comment section forgot that the city council pledged to cut police funding by 50%, even though the actual cuts were only ~17%. Between 2020-2022 nearly 25% of SPD officers left their jobs. Crime increased and response times increased. The political winds shifted as a result. The budget was restored and now exceeds what it was in 2020, but to say nothing was defunded is disingenuous.
Ummm…It was given huge pay increases for cops who did nothing. Sat at home.
“Between 2020-2022 nearly 25% of SPD officers left their jobs“
I dare you to tell us that they left because of defunding and not because a bunch of Trumpsters didn’t want to get the COVID vaccine.
You dare me to tell you the truth? The majority left because of the political climate. Officers reported low morale, feeling unsupported, and that public and political opinion had turned against them. Over 180 left before the vaccine mandate. Only 6 officers were dismissed for refusing the vaccine.
Let me know when pledged = actually happened, oh waaaait
The defund movement resulted in a lot of police leaving the force in Seattle. It was an attitude as much as something financial. So, you can look at the money spent, or you can look at the level of staffing compared to a few years before, as well as decades before. Whether or not it’s better to have more or fewer police is a different argument. There is a correlation between staffing levels and certain types of crime
Police having their feelings hurt are cops we do not need.
Walk around downtown or little Saigon and you will see how wrong you are.
O300 Marines go everywhere as hated. Only they want us dead. We arrest people and such. We provide food and security. Shovel out money to them. And they want to kill us all for allah.
So sitting at home protesting Covid shots and getting a pay raise retroactively?
Explain what it’s called then if it’s not spoiled.Do we need approval to arrest people now? They are blind until someone apologises? You do not get it.
By the way?
The entire nation is not a cop fan during George Floyd. When have cops been revered by the public they serve? The MAGA is all snuggly with cops. Then kills them in a violent coup attempt.
There’s a tough circle to square there.
Pfffft…Yeah…I know. I read and watch the news.
Check me out? In the last 3 years 3 people were shot and killed. One on my doorstep. The kid on the scooter shot the kid in the car. Then 2 more on the other end of my ally. 3 murders. Less than a block away and one was literally below me.
Drug dealing and fencing? Pfffft…We got that all day long.
So toot that horn all ya want. But trying to make it seem like I am an idiot is not working.
I walk that area daily. Smooth’s point stands. Cops would only make it worse.
the criminal have tough skin we should hire them and let them shake down businesses for pay like getting doughnuts that is cheap
Protest the cops by burning down the donut shops?
Wait…did the police defund themselves by leaving the force because they didn’t want to get a COVID vaccination?
Good riddance. Don’t need fees fees hurt pigs patrolling our blocks
This is a performative waste of time, like all resolutions that don’t have the effect of law, such as the one in 2020 where the progressive city council committed to defunding SPD by 50%
Yeah, no shit it failed because there wasn’t much of anything to it but ‘Please for the love of the city, stop throwing money at police and throw it at anything else remotely good’, and that should have been a conscience check by the seated, but they have none. None of America has one, and all these local moderates and centrists got exactly what they wanted out of the country going on 5 years even though they say they haven’t.
Instead of throwing money at the police we threw money at organizations that exploited social justice in order to get money in power. The CEO of Community Passageways works one hour a week and makes $150k a year according to tax returns. The CEO of Africa town makes two and a half times the average salary ($250k). We allowed organizations to take over who claimed they do not blame criminals for their behavior but instead blame society. It wasn’t even saying that the criminal was not entirely responsible. But saying that the criminal was not responsible at all. This was not the step up for anybody except for those who made a very good living doing nothing But spreading their self-serving, nonsensical and very racist ideology.
Poverty…That’s the issue. Not some dude getting a salary. It’s the people who are uber wealthy that are the problem.
$150k and $250k, while more the average Seattleite, is still extremely low. Tech workers at Amazon, Meta, and all the other tech companies are pulling in waaaaay more than that. Per levels.fyi, an IC4 software dev (which isn’t too long to get to) at Meta makes nearly $300k a year. This deal of “this non-profit CEO made some money” is not where the issue lies.
The average salary in Seattle is 100K. You conveniently missed the point though. Unlike tech workers, these people’s salary comes from taxpayers. They do not have any advanced skills or education. Most only have a high school diploma. They have never accomplished anything or have shown themselves to have attributes that would warrant making a quarter million dollars a year or $3500 an hour (The latter is about what the CEO of Community Passageways makes. Perhaps you didn’t read what I wrote thoroughly, but he makes the 150k salary by working one hour a week.)
How much of this situation is basically The State not wanting to have anything to do with the administration of it’s own supposed functions, and kicking much to NGOs?
I’m not a huge fan of it for your reckonings where there really isn’t any oversight, but I also don’t think The State can and does much oversight internally anyway.
“They do not have any advanced skills or education. Most only have a high school diploma.” wow…okay.
It’s difficult to believe your story. For a bunch of reasons.
I’m sure this will be a controversial take on this site but whether any money was actually removed from SPD is irrelevant because the end goal was still accomplished. The goal of defund was to reduce the size of the force. In 2020, the council committed to cutting the force by 50%. When they realized it was against the city charter and probably illegal because they wanted to do it based on race they backed away. However the damage was done and many officers retired or left leaving us with a drastically undersized agency today. Seattle has one of the lowest per capita police forces in the country (right now it sits around 1.3 officers per 1000 residents whereas the national average is 2.3) and that is directly a result of the toxicity and rhetoric from the defund movement. In 2022, when SPD was unable to fill open positions the council abrogated the funding for those positions which is essentially defunding. Feel free to argue semantics but don’t gaslight people into thinking the defund movement had no impact on public safety in Seattle.
Political slogans are not laws or actions. They are slogans.
“The goal of defund was to reduce the size of the force.”
If cops had their feelings hurt? We do not want them.
We work our whole lives with nothing to show for it. Putting up with assholes all day everyday. But we are not wealthy enough to quit when we do not want to take a Covid shot? Then get back pay, retroactive raises.
Yeah…Only cops get that pampering for their feelings. The rest suffer.
I’d say it was a bit more than having their feelings hurt. If the executive of your work place stated openly that their goal is to eliminate your job and put you out of work (for idealogical reasons no less) would you sit around and wait for the other shoe to drop or take action and proactively start looking for work? Good officers with options took the latter route. Officer with poor records had to stay put. The net result is that we have a reduced force with a lower quality of officer. Great job!
right..”lower quality officers”
Sooo? The cops we had were “lower quality” due to low pay and being criticised?
It is absolutely incredible how you and me, posters on a community blog, should just grin and bare it at all times, but those softies with weapons? District13Tribute has one shoulder under the palanquin already.
1 in 5 American adults are functionally illiterate. Combine that with 50% of America is dumber than average?
This is what you get. People go their whole lives thinking they are right. They’ve been told 1000’s of times they are right on alt right media. They are fed catchy one liners. They are taught to dog whistle.
Yet they still vote against their own interests because they are asleep at the wheel. They may vote Trump, despise Trump, vote Trump. Then? Do it again and again. Because the ideology suits them. But not the politician serving it up. Trump is already losing favor. But not to worry. Gerrymandering, money and alt right media will tell them what to do next. They will not actually “change”. Anger is anger, fear is fear. We gave up all our rights out of fear.
I could go on and on but you get it. I just wish others would wise up.
I don’t think saying that they had their feelings hurt accurately describes what happened. Nobody wants to work in an environment where they are openly maligned and disparaged. Reading the comments here is a reflection of the environment in which they are being asked to do their jobs. Unfortunately, the best ones left because they could get paid more and appreciated
Naw…”The best ones” did not leave. They sat at home protesting Covid shots. They left because the dept. was under federal investigation.
Now? We got cops all over the nation “bonus hopping”. Spend two years. Then move on. That’s become a thing. I guess those “best” cops are really just scammers with no real connection to the community.
The “best” cops? They stayed here. They want to be a part of the change. They are committed to the long haul. Not fly by night cops who collect money and do little else.
We mostly do work in those conditions.
Yes…Grogan has never been a teacher in the public school system. They want to defund the Dept. of Education. And double and triple the cops hired.
Why? Because donors, business and property owners who have fleeced us tax payers are afraid we’ll come for their wealth they stole from their kids and grandkids.
nah just say the car has a flat and show up after the crime
I’m OK with any City Hall resolution which gets us enough SPD to re-start patrols for the whole city, not just hot spot emphasis patrols. Patrols prevent crime. Only enough cops to respond when called only documents crime.
Including stealing 309 million from housing and clean energy to pay for them?
“Clean energy” is not something the city needs to be spending money on (leave that to the state, federal agencies, and private companies), so yes, ensuring locals are safe should come welllllllll before that. Housing is overwhelmingly a supply problem caused by restrictive zoning – repeal all zoning limits on heights and density across all neighborhoods first, then see if we actually need money.
dude…you are on ignore. How’s it feel knowing you are the only person that I ignore.
wow
I would say public safety is more important than clean energy.
I would say the peoples votes are more important than all of it.
so whatever…your waddabouts make no sense.
vote police out, jobs leave criminals can’t steal if there is nothing to steal keep defunding
Lets chat if I’m still living in 20 years about that one.
2020 protests were a complete and utter fail for the people promoting reforming police. In the span of 3 weeks we had more murder and crime in the CHAZ-CHOP zone than anything SPD ever did. We had violent leftist invaders taking over Capitol Hill. We had white racists murdering black teenagers in the name of “Black Lives Matter.”
Anyone who knows the identity of Antonio Mays Jr.’s killer(s) or Robert West’s shooter that maimed and blinded him … who has remained silent as to the identity of the shooter(s)…You have protected your colleagues for five years. How dare you. West’s and Mays’ families deserve closure. Your white privilege has protected your hypocrisy for all this time.
You are lying phonies that claimed to be here for BLM, yet, you murdered a 16 year old Black kid and ruined a 14 year old Black kid’s life.
You are scum and filth in the eyes of America. You have protected the identities of murderers, presumably in the John Brown Gun Club for all this time since.
Diaz Love helped tamper with the crime scene. Why is she still not telling police what she knows?
Others present that night .. why are you protecting murderer(s) ? Is the bond of Antifa bigger than the moral choice of revealing who murdered a 16 year old kid?
If that’s true, then I think we can confirm forever that the Antifa / JBGC that night are nothing but rudderless, hypocritical, violent leftist killers. America will be better off once you are found out and dealt with.