Seattle Mayor Pitches $76 Million Redirection Of Police Funds

SEATTLE, WA — The Seattle Police Department would see $76 million moved outside of its budget next year, under a new proposal from Mayor Jenny Durkan. The restructuring outlined Monday morning would move the police 911 dispatch center outside of the department's command structure, along with parking enforcement, the Office of Police Accountability and the Office of Emergency Management.

The $56 million for funding those services would add to an estimated $20.5 million in cuts from an extended hiring freeze and a reduction in approved overtime activities. The mayor's latest pitch would not affect this year's budget, or current operations at the department, and is well below the 50 percent reduction in funding now supported by a majority Seattle city councilmembers. This year's SPD budget included $409 million in spending — 82 percent of which is earmarked for staff pay and overtime.

Related: Police Defunding Plan Gains Majority Support At Seattle Council

Durkan and Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best repeatedly cast the city council's support for largescale defunding of police as both irresponsible and a threat to public safety.

"To date, the City Council has done almost no analysis on SPD's budget, 911 calls or staffing needed for 24/7 responses," Durkan said. "Instead, they have made the arbitrary decision to defund the Seattle Police Department by 50 percent this year and 50 percent next year."

Best said she remains committed to a community-led "re-envisioning" of public safety, but cautioned against moving too quickly.

"We need to build up community to have the right resources — and yes, some of that support will come from the SPD budget," Best said. "What we cannot do is risk public safety for everyone by seeing what happens when half the department is eliminated without a plan and the people in place to safely address the issues each of those officers would have responded to the day prior to being terminated."

Related: 2 Groups Present 'Roadmap' To Defund Seattle Police By 50 Percent

The City Council began a budget inquest on police department spending in early June, a process that is ongoing at the budget committee on Wednesdays. While seven of the council's nine members public support a goal of 50 percent defunding, no formal legislation is finalized and discussions over the timeline and process for reshaping the city's public safety approach continue.

Several councilmembers, who were participating in a briefing at the time of the mayor's news conference, rejected Durkan and Best's framing of their approach.

"I'm not sure how it is that the chief can be prognosticating on budget proposals that haven't even been developed yet," said Lisa Herbold, councilmember for District 1.

Herbold also took issue with the police chief's recent public statements indicating she would be forced to fire a newer, more diverse group of officers first, due to labor rules.

District 3 Councilmember Kshama Sawant said the mayor was being dishonest about the outcome that protesters, organizers and the council are working toward.

"We reject the idea that defunding the police budget, or cutting it 50 percent, is going in impact services negatively," Sawant said. "We have to talk about how police only spend a small minority of their time investigating the actual egregious crimes. The majority of their time is used harassing poor communities, communities of color and homeless neighbors, abusing protesters, and in the case of our sisters like Charleena Lyles: shooting the very people who have called them for assistance."

Related: Seattle Police Chief Responds To 50 Percent Defunding Proposal

District 6 Councilmember Dan Strauss reiterated his commitment to defunding police without compromising public safety.

"Defunding the police does not mean decreasing public safety," Strauss said. "In fact, it means increasing public safety for so many members of our community. The city has not been providing public safety in a way that our communities want."

Strauss said, to be successful, the council must clearly define a plan for transitioning services, without interruption, and establish the conditions for new programs to properly function.

"Our metric of success at the conclusion of this transition will be when you call 911 you get a fast response, 24/7, with the appropriate first responder who has the resources they need to resolve the call," Strauss said. "Transitions take time to be successful and we need to be strategic with these changes. We need to set up programs for success."

The budget committee is scheduled for two sessions Wednesday, with a public comment period at the beginning of the 10 a.m. meeting.