Seattle’s lame duck council 12/9 voting to approve police contract increasing police pay when everything else will be frozen

As discussed elsewhere, arguably Seattle’s police union is the greatest impediment to improving public safety and managing costs in the city’s budget. Harrell will have negotiated 2 collective bargaining agreements (CBA) in his term that will together raise police compensation 42% (!). The most-recently negotiated agreement increases compensation 13 % and the city’s 2017 police accountability ordinance STILL will not fully apply to armed officers. Thanks a lot, Bruce.

But all is not doom & gloom. We elected a slate of policy-oriented, pragmatic folks like Dionne Foster, Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Eddie Lin to the council and Katie Wilson to the mayor’s office. The upcoming agreement will expire in 2027 so soon negotiations will commence for that contract and now is the time to place markers on our expectations. How?

• Provide public comment online or in person at the December 9 council meeting at 2 pm. Let electeds know that we will be expecting that the next agreement will bind the police union to follow city law. Let them know we support this contract’s removal of the union-imposed limits on growing the unarmed CARE response (which has the effect of freeing up armed officers to respond to threats/solving crimes that need police action).
• Read this excellent letter that the Community Police Commission has submitted to the Council about the proposed CBA. It does a good job of summarizing the proposed CBA and the implications (positive and negative) of it. The CPC is our main avenue for collectively expressing our expectations regarding public safety and police accountability. Consider attending CPC meetings to keep up with their work. Their current leadership and team are excellent.

TL:DR: the horse has left the barn as far as the police union contract for the next 2 years goes, but if we start NOW expressing our will and expectations for the next go-round, then in 2027 Mike Solan & his buddies will have a harder time using scare tactics to pressure the city for more money/less accountability.