Seattle Police Department

Command structure

Chief of Police: (Vacant)

Deputy Chief: Yvonne Underwood

Deputy Chief (Administration & Investigations): Andre Sayles (Acting Chief of Police)

Assistant Chief of Investigations: Nicole Powell

Assistant Chief of Professional Standard: Lori Aagard

Assistant Chief of Special Operations: Tyrone Davis

Executive Director of Administration: CAO Valarie Anderson

Executive Director of Budget and Finance: Angela Socci

Executive Director of Crime & Community Harm Reduction: Dr Lee Hunt

Chief of Staff: Alex Ricketts

Director of Communications: Barbara DeLollis

Rank structure and insignia

Sergeant Major Arnold "Arny" McGinnis (retired in 2012) is the only known SPD member to hold the rank.*

Promotions

After three years in patrol, officers can become candidates to transfer to a wide variety of specialty units and are also eligible to attend a weeklong detective school. After five years as a police officer, they can take a promotional examination. Every other year, civil service tests are administered for promotions. Tests are given for the rank of sergeant, lieutenant, and captain. Assistant and deputy chiefs are appointed by the chief from the management ranks. Officers may be promoted to sergeant after five years of experience with the department and passing the sergeant's exam. Lieutenants must have at least three years' experience as sergeants, and captains must have at least three years' experience as lieutenants. A bachelor's degree may substitute for one year of experience but can only be used for one promotional exam.

History

The Seattle police force was established in 1869 with the election of John T. Jordan as the first town marshal. In 1883, the town marshal position was disestablished and replaced by an appointed position: the chief of police. By 1896, there were 43 police officers and 60,000 residents.

Officer David Sires was the first officer to be killed in the line of duty in 1881. The man accused of killing Sires, along with two other men accused of murder, were lynched by a mob of Seattleites in January, 1882. This event, along with the Anti-Chinese Race Riots of 1886 were associated with significant investment by the city into the police department.

The State of Washington prohibited alcohol in 1916. Police Lieutenant Roy Olmstead began a bootlegging operation while employed by the police department. In March 1920, he was arrested by Federal prohibition agents and was fired from his job with the department. After being fired, he continued to run a very profitable rumrunning business. Relying on bribery of police officers, Olmstead was able to avoid most conflict until his arrest in 1924. He was convicted in 1926 with twenty others in one of the first cases that used telephone wiretaps. Olmstead's case made it to the supreme court, where his conviction was upheld. He was released in 1931 and pardoned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935.

In June 1924, Bertha Landes served as acting mayor while Edwin J. Brown was out of the city to attend the Democratic National Convention. In a newspaper story, Police Chief William Severyns said that the department had at least a hundred corrupt officers. Mayor Landes ordered the chief to fire one hundred officers. When he refused, Landes fired him. Mayor Brown rushed back to the city to reverse Mayor Landes' actions. Following Landes term as acting mayor, she became the first elected female mayor of Seattle in 1926. Mayor Landes was a strict enforcer of anti-vice law and was critical of the SPD. Quickly thereafter, Chief Severyns described to the Seattle Union Record several cases of police brutality. One report included questioning suspects in a rowboat in Lake Washington with a heavy weight tied around their necks. This was one of the first official accounts of police corruption and brutality in the city.

In July 1935, the city council held hearings on the many gambling and prostitution dens in the city. The police chief claimed he had no knowledge of such activities in the city. Councilman Fred Hamley walked with the chief onto Fourth Avenue to an establishment that featured a roulette wheel and handed him an ax. The chief remained in office.

2020 George Floyd protests

On Sunday May 31, 2020, the department blockaded the streets around the East Precinct which was located at the intersection of 12th Ave E and E Pine. They did this before a protest march approached the precinct. The march moved on after a short while. On Monday June 1 a much larger group of thousands marched from Westlake Plaza to the intersection of 11th Ave E and E Pine where the street was blockaded. This day the march did not move on. After several hours the police ordered the group to disperse. When they did not they tear gassed the protestors. A similar gathering formed the next night. This was also ordered to disperse and tear gassed.

On June 3, Mayor Jenny Durkan lifted the curfew that had been in effect since May 30.

On June 5, Mayor Durkan banned the use of tear gas for 30 days without the approval of the Police Chief.

On Saturday June 6, the police again used pepper spray and non-tear gas explosives to try to disperse demonstrators. Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant said “The police had come prepared to inflict violence without provocation.” By this time protestors had coalesced around demands of defunding of the police department by at least 50 percent, an expansion of investments in black and brown communities, and releasing all protestors.

Nightly protests continued until June 7 when the crowd was again dispersed by flash bangs and tear gas, which the police said was in response to protesters throwing projectiles at officers. On Monday June 8 the police boarded up the precinct and withdrew from the building. Later that night residents declared "Free Capitol Hill".

On June 17, 2020, King County Labor Council delegates voted to expel the Seattle Police Officers Guild from the organization, following a demand pushed by many protesters.

On August 11, 2020, it was announced that Police Chief Carmen Best would retire, effective September 2, 2020. Deputy Chief Adrian Z. Diaz succeeded Best in an interim capacity and was appointed to the permanent position on September 20, 2022.

Controversies and misconduct

Before 2000

In June 1901, Police Chief William L. Meredith was forced to resign by a Seattle City Council investigation that found he had taken bribes and allowed illegal gambling operations to flourish. Meredith then ambushed one of his accusers in a local drugstore with a shotgun and pistol. It went badly for him and he was killed by John Considine, his intended victim.

In 1911, Police Chief Charles W. Wappenstein was ousted by a reform-minded mayor. He was convicted on state charges related to bribery, prostitution, and other vices. In December 1913, Governor Ernest Lister granted him a pardon. He died in 1931.

In January 1967, the Seattle Times ran a series of stories revealing a long-standing and widespread culture of corruption in the police department. Gambling dens, illegal bars and gay clubs were forced to pay protection to the local patrolman who kept half and passed to his sergeant who in turn kept half and passed the remainder along.

Former homicide detective, Earl “Sonny” Davis, was accused of stealing at least $11,400 on Oct. 1, 1996, from the belongings of an elderly man, Bodegard Mitchell, who was fatally shot by police during a standoff at a South Seattle apartment. Davis' ex-partner, Cloyd Steiger, testified he saw Davis pocket a bundle of cash - which Steiger initially believed to be about $100 - while the two were searching the apartment for evidence. Steiger further testified Davis asked him if he had a problem with taking money, referred to it as a "squad thing".

In 1999, Seattle hosted the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference. The Seattle Police Department was criticized for failing to properly prepare for protest activity involving over 100,000 protesters that disrupted the conference. While the majority of protestors were not violent, some assaulted delegates and police, and destroyed property. The protest soon devolved into a riot. In response, SPD used chemical agents and less-lethal weapons in an attempt to restore order. News footage of this response and of the rioting was broadcast worldwide. No protesters or police officers were injured seriously enough during the riot to require hospitalization. Chief Norm Stamper resigned amid the scrutiny of police response to the event.

2000s

In 2001, riots broke out downtown during the Mardi Gras celebrations. The riots resulted in one death, more than 70 hospitalizations, and 21 arrests.

In July of the same year, Officer Jess Pitts stopped a group of 14 Asian-American students and instructors for jaywalking in the International District. The students alleged that Pitts lined them up against a wall and detained them for around 45 minutes while repeatedly asking if they spoke English. An instructor Andrew Cho claimed that another officer on the scene Officer Larry Brotherton said to him "I've been to your country before, when I was in the Army", incorrectly assuming Cho was Vietnamese. Only one student was issued a citation, which was later dismissed. The student's attorney noted that because she said to Pitts "You wouldn't have stopped us if we had blond hair" and was the only one issued a citation, this showed that the ticket was issued in response to her antagonizing the officer, rather than for jaywalking. The Office of Police Accountability (OPA) later sustained a single allegation of unprofessionalism against Pitts.

The Seattle Police Officers' Guild membership later overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in Chief Gil Kerlikowske, citing a double standard where Officer Pitts, a beat officer, was publicly criticized for the jaywalking incident but upper-level personnel were not held responsible for failures in handling the Mardi Gras riots.

Former detective Dale Nixdorf resigned after an OPA investigation sustained a complaint claiming that he sexually harassed and assaulted a woman who sought help after a domestic violence incident in 2003. According to a lawsuit filed in 2006, Nixdorf was assigned to drive her home and install one of the department's temporary alarm systems after the incident. Over the next couple weeks, Nixdorf allegedly called and visited her home repeatedly, claiming to be checking on the security system while making sexually aggressive comments and asking for sex each time. The lawsuit also claimed that Nixdorf grabbed her buttocks and forced her to fondle him over his jeans.

On May 22, 2009, SPD officer and hostage negotiator Eugene Schubeck shot Nathaniel Caylor in the face. Police were responding to a report that Caylor was suicidal and had locked himself in his apartment with his son. Caylor was speaking to Schubeck from his patio, and was shot when he attempted to re-enter his apartment. In June 2015, the resulting use-of-force lawsuit was settled for $1.975 million, the largest such settlement in the city's history.

2010s

In August 2010, SPD officer Ian Birk shot and killed Native American woodcarver John T. Williams. Subsequent grand jury findings on the level of threat posed by Williams were inconclusive but an internal review of the shooting by the SPD's Firearms Review Commission found the shooting "unjustified" and cited Birk's tactical mishandling of the confrontation as being responsible for Williams' death. Birk resigned from the department, though prosecutor Dan Satterberg declined to file charges, prompting a protest by Williams' family and supporters.

In 2010, detectives from SPD's Gang Unit ordered two Latino men suspected of committing a crime to lie on the ground, where they were kicked and verbally assaulted; the incident was captured on a bystander's cellphone video. The police let the men go soon afterwards; the video prompted protests over racial tensions and a police department internal investigation. Several officers were suspended without pay and/or demoted, but not criminally charged. A civil lawsuit by one of the two men was settled later in 2012 for $100,000.

In December 2011, the SPD was subject to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found officers had violated the 14th Amendment and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The DOJ found that SPD officers engaged in a pattern of excessive use of force that violated the Constitution as well as Federal law. Furthermore, the regular invocation of the Garrity v. New Jersey protection was found to have reduced the department's ability to supervise the use of force and hinder investigations. A spokesman for the SPD indicated they will fully comply with the DOJ inquiry to avoid a federal lawsuit. In late July 2012, the city and Department of Justice reached a settlement that included improved oversight, training and reporting.

On 6 October 2012, Officer Eric Faust beat a man he was attempting to detain. In September 2013, as a result of an internal investigation, the department suspended Faust for eight days without pay.

On 13 July 2013, the department fired Lieutenant Donnie Lowe due to misconduct characterized as domestic violence and dishonesty.

On 30 July 2013, Officer John Marion, threatened a reporter who was observing a number of policemen making an arrest. An internal investigation of Marion's behavior confirmed his actions. He was given a single day of unpaid suspension.

2020s

In January 2020, Officer Duane Goodman was fired for his Instagram posts, which a report by the Office of Police Accountability described as using "extreme profane language" and posts that ranted against "illegal immigration" and "appeared to endorse violence" against Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The department contacted the U.S. Secret Service, who interviewed Goodman, after he captioned an image of a package bomb with the message, "I don't condone sending package bombs but god it would be nice for Killary and Anti-cop Obama to finally STFU! Maybe Obama will stop lying and claiming the good economy is from him."

In February 2020, Officer Todd Novisedlak was fired after an investigation by the OPA which cited his physically abusing his ex-girlfriend, his marijuana use, and his repeatedly making discriminatory and derogatory remarks against others based on race, sexual orientation, and gender. This follows a 2015 court case, settled by the city, in which a man was jailed for a week after a kidnapping victim "positively identified" a license photograph, shown to her by Novisedlak, of a man with the same name as one of the suspects.

In the same month, it was reported that Lieutenant Sina Ebinger, who led the city's Navigation Team, used the city contractor which clears encampments to remove personal garbage from her home. An investigation by the Office of Police Accountability found that in addition to using city resources for personal benefit, she told investigators several different versions of her story and deleted her entire text and browsing history and phone log. After the OPA findings were released, she retired from the department in lieu of termination.

In May 2020, during the George Floyd protests in Washington state, while Seattle police were attempting to detain looters, a white suspect was restrained with an officer's knee on his neck for 13 seconds while bystanders urged the officer to stop. This continued until a second officer intervened to push the first officer's knee to the suspect's back. This was documented on video. George Floyd himself had died after being restrained with a knee on his neck during an arrest. According to The Huffington Post, further video footage showed that the same Seattle officer had just used his knee on the neck of another white looting suspect.

In June 2020, a Federal Judge in Seattle ordered local police to stop using tear gas, pepper spray, stun grenade, "rubber bullets", and other force against non-violent protestors, finding that the Seattle Police had used excessive force against demonstrators, violating their right to free speech.

Sidearm

A majority of SPD officers carry semi-automatic pistols of various make and caliber. The SPD authorizes numerous pistols for carry, including ones made by Glock, Smith & Wesson, Springfield Armory, Inc., Heckler & Koch, Walther, Beretta, SIG-Sauer and Ruger. The most common sidearm chosen by officers of the SPD are various Glock models, such as the Glock Model 17 in 9mm, Model 22 in .40 S&W, and the Model 21 in .45 ACP. The compact Glock Model 19 in 9 mm and Model 23 in .40 are also used by officers.

However, while the majority of officers carry semi automatics, double-action revolvers produced by Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Colt and Taurus are also authorized for carry, in .38 Special, .357 Magnum and .45 ACP.

AR-15s and shotguns are also issued to patrol officers after additional required qualification(s). Specialty units including SWAT utilize select fire suppressed rifles (typically an AR variant), HK MP5 SMG's, shotguns and sniper weapon systems.

Bike Unit

The SPD's Bike Unit was the first mountain bike unit in the United States.

In 2005, the department started testing the use of BlackBerry PDAs with bike patrol officers. These PDAs allowed officers on the streets access to police records when the use of regular mobile data computer is not available.

Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum

The Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum was a museum in the city's Pioneer Square neighborhood. Founded in 1997, it was dedicated to the history of the Seattle Police Department and of law enforcement in the Seattle metropolitan area. It claimed to be the largest police museum in the western United States until its closure in 2017 due to safety concerns because of the ongoing waterfront tunnel project.

List of chiefs

The 1869 City Charter created the position of marshal to act as the primary law enforcement officer of the city. The position was an elected one, with terms lasting a single year.

In 1883, an amendment to the city charter disestablished the position of marshal and established the new elected position of chief of police. The Freeholders City Charter of 1890 established a five-member Board of Police Commissioners that oversaw the police department's operations. Under this charter position of chief of police no longer was elected, but rather was appointed by the commission. The commission was chaired by the mayor. The Freeholders City Charter of 1896 disestablished the Board of Police Commissioners and granted the Mayor authority to appoint and to remove chiefs of police. An amendment in 1936 stipulated that chiefs were to be appointed for five year terms. However, the superseding new Freeholders City Charter adopted on March 12, 1946 did not specify a term length.