Kathleen O'Toole Calls Leaving Seattle Police 'Very Difficult'

SEATTLE, WA - Seattle police Chief Kathleen O'Toole, who has brought the department close to coming into compliance with a U.S. Justice Department consent decree over use of force, will step down at the end of 2017, she announced Monday. Deputy Chief Carmen Best will take over the job on Jan. 1 until the city finds a permanent replacement.

Many have speculated that O'Toole would leave Seattle at the end of 2017. She told Crosscut in July her contract ends at the end of Ed Murray's term and she "never had any expectations beyond Mayor Murray’s tenure.”

O'Toole confirmed Monday that she made the decision to leave months ago. She decided to stay longer, however, because of turmoil surrounding Ed Murray's resignation in September over sex assault allegations. Mayor Jenny Durkan said before she was elected that she'd like to see O'Toole stay to see the consent decree through to the end.

O'Toole said the decision to leave was "difficult."

"It was a very, very difficult decision," she said. "I care deeply about the Seattle police department."

Durkan has appointed a panel of four co-chairs - ACLU deputy legal director Jeff Robinson, former mayor and Councilman Tim Burgess, Chief Seattle Club executive director Colleen Echohawk, and former King County Sheriff Sue Rahr - to lead the selection process. The panel will begin work in the new year and hold public meetings during the process. Durkan said she hopes to have a new chief in place by spring. (Best said she will apply for the job.)

O'Toole came to Seattle from the Boston police department primarily to oversee reforms related to the consent decree. O'Toole also serves as an adviser to the Garda, the Irish national police force. O'Toole was a member of a private consulting group picked to reform the Baltimore police department.

Under O'Toole, the department has made steps in complying with the Justice Department's consent decree over use of force. But the department has not been free from criticism. The killing of Charleena Lyles, a pregnant mother, in June sparked public outrage. The department also paid a $100,000 settlement to former Cynthia Whitlatch, who was fired in 2015 after she arrested an elderly black man in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Image by Elaine Thompson/Associated Press