SPD has a new chief and the Seattle City Council and the King County Council have new councilmembers
Seattle News:
We have a new police chief in Seattle! Today was Chief Shon Barnes’s first official day at SPD. I expect to go into more depth about this next week, but this week I highly recommend reading the excellent interview with Barnes at PubliCola. The Seattle Times also shares some interesting information about Barnes.
We also have a new City Councilmember. The Council appointed Mark Solomon, a crime prevention coordinator at SPD, to fill the District 2 seat, which was vacant following the resignation of Tammy Morales. Solomon ran against Morales in 2019 and lost by 21 points. He doesn’t intend to seek reelection to the seat this November.
PubliCola reported that Solomon said he intends to address the drug market at 12th and Jackson through Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. From the article: “CPTED is a set of strategies designed to send signals that a location is hostile to crime, such as bright lights, surveillance cameras, tall fences, and the removal of trees and bushes that people might be able to hide behind.”
Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck proposed the creation of a Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes. In a statement, she said, “I am proposing a dedicated select committee to identify strong local responses to changes in the federal government which threaten funding to the City of Seattle.”
Council President Sara Nelson has agreed to set up this new committee, but its first meeting won’t be until March.
DivestSPD reported that West Precinct Captain Steve Strand violated SPD’s crowd management policy last July: “The OPA pointed out that Strand escalated things by kicking over protest props, tearing down banners, and opening the road to traffic without attempting to resolve the situation through other means outlined in the policy. Instead of attempting “to use organizers and monitors to gain voluntary compliance,” Strand arrested one of the two police liaisons.”
Strand, who has been with SPD for more than 30 years, received training referrals as a result of his actions.
This is particularly relevant given the discussion about SPD’s crowd management policy and use of less lethal weapons going on in City Council right now. The final vote on the less lethal weapons legislation has been postponed and will not be held next week; instead it will probably take place at the full council meeting on Tuesday, February 11 at 2pm.
Real Change reported that Seattle Public School students still aren’t feeling like their mental health is well supported at school and haven’t noticed any promised changes. In December, the City announced a new pilot program for youth civic engagement.
This week the City announced seven local provider partnerships to provide more mental health services to students, both virtually and in-person. These new partnerships should begin to provide these services early this year.
We also have a couple new lawsuits against the City to talk about. First is a lawsuit filed two weeks ago by Lacey Gray, who used to be the records manager at the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Gray was fired last November, and she says it was in retaliation for her raising concerns that Inspector General Lisa Judge and the office might have engaged in illegal actions in handling and distributing records pertaining to former SPD Chief Adrian Diaz.
And second is a lawsuit filed by independent journalist Glen Stellmacher, alleging that SPD illegally withheld records requested under the Public Records Act. He sued SPD last year as well for similar reasons.
Lastly, some late-breaking news from The Seattle Times on Pierce County’s new sheriff, Keith Swank: “If he were still with the Seattle Police Department, former Capt. Keith Swank would have been fired for inflammatory social media comments he made in 2023 disparaging transgender people and defending the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a disciplinary report released Friday.”
King County News:
King County Council selected De’Sean Quinn to be their new councilmember this week, taking the District 5 seat of Dave Upthegrove, who left to become the state’s Commissioner of Public Lands. Quinn was an Assistant General Manager at King County Metro and a member of the Tukwila City Council before this appointment.
The Urbanist reported that Quinn said the following about public safety in the County:
““I think we need new revenues, because I think right now more than [at] any time, people need to feel safe. I think now more than any time as a community, looking out for one another, safety should be at this also at the center of our communities and their growth,” Quinn said, noting that cost is a significant hurdle in being able to advance non-police alternatives that improve public safety. “I think continuing to advance [public safety] alternatives is an idea that one is a kind of a difficult one, I would say. And I think we’re all experiencing that as well, because a significant portion is personnel cost.””
WA State News:
My latest piece at The Urbanist goes over some of the interesting public safety bills being discussed during the state legislative session this year. I should highlight the word “some” in that previous sentence, as I didn’t have space to discuss half of what’s on the table. However, I did include the police officer staffing grants, the potential assistance to the public defender crisis, several gun control bills including a gun tax, the Traffic Safety Bill, and the Public SAFE-T act, known last year as the judicial dismissal bill.
In other interesting state legislature news, the House Democrats passed new rules that will allow filibusters to be ended by a simple majority instead of a two-thirds vote. This matches a similar rule already in place in the Senate and takes away a major tool of the minority party to stall, thereby meaning less overall legislation can be passed in a given session.
In Praise:
I’m watching several movies available streaming online through the Sundance Film Festival this weekend. It’s early days, but so far my favorite is the movie Bubble & Squeak, which is a screwball comedy in the tradition of Bringing Up Baby combined with absurdist sensibilities and many, many cabbages.
Recent Headlines:
Prop 1A Ballots Have Arrived, Determining Social Housing’s Future in Seattle
Shooting in Pioneer Square is Seattle’s first homicide of 2025
“Project Sequoia”: Seattle PD plans rollout of new bad apple intervention system
Tacoma police chief resigns, says he’s leaving law enforcement
Op-Ed: As Trump Sows Chaos, What’s the Seattle City Attorney’s Role?