Seattle’s next mayor will be tasked with leading our city through complex police accountability issues – from helping negotiate a new police contract to hiring Seattle’s next police chief. The Seattle Community Police Commission (CPC) asked both candidates 10 questions, each covering a different topic in police accountability. Here are their answers.
1) What must be done to strengthen or improve Seattle’s police accountability system? What is working well? What is not working?
Lorena González
In this civil rights moment, we must do more than reform, we must transform the system in a way that will ensure Black, brown, and Indigenous parents don’t fear that their kids won’t come home tonight. That work begins with the SPOG contract negotiations. Our next contract should modify or eliminate arbitration to uphold discipline, including termination. It should ensure rules aren’t stacked against victims of police brutality and allow us to get rid of bad cops once and for all. And no city money should be going to SPOG President Mike Solan.
Bruce Harrell
While I believe reforms that I have led on, from body cameras to Seattle’s first bias-free policing law, have been impactful in improving performance and accountability of SPD, it’s clear more work needs to be done. Officers must be held accountable for misconduct and excessive use of force – and that accountability comes from more timely misconduct investigations, public transparency and meaningful discipline when appropriate. Though bias has been reduced, it has not been eliminated. At the root of these issues is the need for culture change. We need better responses to individuals in crises and more culturally-competent, community-driven officers serving Seattle.
2) Since 2018, the Seattle Police Department has implemented less than 1/3 of recommendations made by Seattle’s civilian-led police accountability system — the Community Police Commission, Office of Police Accountability, and Office of Inspector General. Do you believe these agencies need more authority to ensure their recommendations are implemented?
Bruce Harrell
More important than the number of recommendations implemented is the quality and impact they make on improving public safety, building public trust, and timely, open, and honest communication with all accountability partners around where those recommendations are in process (timeline for consideration, roadblocks to implementation, etc.). CPC, OPA, and OIG must understand how their feedback is received and what avenues are available at decision impasses. Ultimately the Mayor and City Council must use the power of their governing bodies to add teeth to critical improvements recommended to ensure all accountability partners’ work and input is valued and put on an action path.
Lorena González
Yes, I support further empowering our civilian-led agencies to exercise oversight over the police department.
3) Are current police union contracts an obstacle to meaningful police accountability? Are you committed to ensuring, at a minimum, that Seattle’s next police contracts allow for full implementation of the 2017 Accountability Ordinance?
Lorena González
Yes and yes.
Bruce Harrell
While my opponent was the chief negotiator for the last SPOG contract, I understand she now opposes the agreement she arranged. The last contract allowed us to make some important changes, but, as with any negotiation, it left room for improvement. I sponsored and passed Seattle’s first anti-bias police law and championed body cameras, which were mandated in that contract. State reforms to policing will give the Mayor a stronger hand in negotiating the next contract, and I’m prepared to bring my long record of experience in this field and as a negotiator to support these efforts.
4) The next mayor will be charged with appointing a Chief of Police. What type of candidates will you be looking for, and how will you involve the CPC and our community at large in that process?
Bruce Harrell
I’ve been involved in the hiring of the last two chiefs, and, as mayor, will bring unmatched experience to the search process. The community and members of the CPC must be involved to ensure we hire the right person. I commit that the CPC will have the opportunity to seat at least two representatives on the search committee as part of the process. We need a chief who reflects our values and shares our commitment to culture change and reform. We will run a fully comprehensive search and an open and transparent process, looking both within the department and nationwide to identify the next chief.
Lorena González
I’m looking for a chief who shares my vision for fundamentally re-imagining policing in our city and holding officers accountable to the highest standards. I know that the CPC and our community at large shares this vision, and they will be heavily involved in helping select a chief that will be committed to true public safety for all in our city, where our Black, brown, and Indigenous communities do not have to fear becoming victims of police violence.
5) The next mayor will also appoint the next director of the Office of Police Accountability. Do you believe the OPA is heading in the right direction and what type of candidate will you be looking for to fill that role?
Lorena González
While I believe that the OPA has a solid foundation, I have concerns that it may be too accommodating to the side of law enforcement’s perspective. I would like to see the agency be further empowered and appoint a director that takes community perspectives more into account.
Bruce Harrell
The next director of OPA must be willing to have a strong hand in ensuring independent, impartial, thorough, and transparent investigations into misconduct and excessive use of force, which is difficult to do with SPD-employed sworn officers on their team. They must understand and be willing to use all the disciplinary tools available to them at the conclusion of a case, and be willing to follow, document, and explain the facts in making findings. Ideally, the next director would also be more strongly connected to CPC to ensure members understand how critical cases are progressing and how conclusions were drawn.
6) Are unvaccinated police officers a threat to public safety? How should the Seattle respond to officers that refuse vaccinations?
Bruce Harrell
As we exceed the 1.5 year mark for this pandemic, it’s clear that vaccinations are the most effective tool we have for reducing the spread and impact of the pandemic. I fully support the current mandate – any officer not able to get vaccinated should be moved to a non-public facing role, and any officer not willing to be vaccinated should be let go. Public safety requires an embrace of public health, and we need our police officers and public employees to understand that critical connection.
Lorena González
The city of Seattle should enforce its vaccine mandate and make it clear that officers who are unvaccinated cannot work here. Unvaccinated police officers, working on the front lines, compromise the safety of their co-workers and our residents. This is an unacceptable consequence that defies their oath to protect our community. Under my administration, we will hold officers accountable when they refuse to comply with public health orders and stand up to the Seattle Police Officers Guild when they engage in tactics that undermine our collective safety.
7) Is the consent decree an effective mechanism for ensuring police accountability?
Lorena González
I’m increasingly concerned about the fact that the city effectively is now required to vet most budget reductions to the court. This is not what the original consent decree envisioned and has been a hindrance for ensuring accountability.
Bruce Harrell
The consent decree is an important tool in our accountability efforts, but cannot ensure the level of accountability we need on its own – it’s a floor, not a ceiling. It was negotiated almost 10 years ago and dated in what we thought we needed from police accountability at that time. It’s imperative that we have strong leadership from the Mayor’s office, that we negotiate a new contract with the Guild centering accountability, and that we change SPD’s culture to reflect the world today. Without a high level of execution across all of these areas, we will not see the change we need for true public safety.
8) Does Seattle currently require police officers to do too many things that they are neither equipped or trained to do? Should we create civilian agencies to respond to specific situations rather than the police? If so, what situations?
Bruce Harrell
Yes, I strongly believe we need alternative responses in situations where an armed officer is not needed or could actually escalate a response, such as mental and behavioral health crises, nonviolent disputes, property damage reporting, and parking enforcement, allowing police to focus on calls they’re better equipped to address. We must invest in culturally-competent service providers and responders to fill alternate response roles, analyzing every situation involving a gun and badge to determine if armed officers are needed. We will develop a thoughtful model and system for well-calibrated and well-deployed emergency response teams to improve response times and ensure more effective outcomes.
Lorena González
Yes, we do require police officers to do too many things. I believe that we should scale up alternatives including community service officers to respond to handle non-violent crimes and have trained mental health counselors responding to situations where that is warranted. Sworn officers should be focused on responding to the most serious violent crimes.
9) Does Seattle spend too much on policing?
Lorena González
We spend too much on the criminal legal system. We’ve invested more every single year and we’ve seen rises in violent crime and murder rates over the past decade in spite of it. It’s time for a different approach.
Bruce Harrell
Seattle’s police spending should match our desired outcomes: effective response times and safe communities for every neighbor. I do not subscribe to the ‘defund the police’ narrative, in part because of my background in organizational management. You can’t blindly cut resources from an organization and then expect outcomes to improve. As we enact these new ideas and systems for response, build better upstream solutions, implement new training and reforms, invest in additional non-armed responses and community alternatives, we will look at the data and continue to review our police budget, spending what needs to be spent to ensure effective public safety.
10) Does Seattle spend enough on the LEAD program and other alternatives to law enforcement intervention? Have these programs been successful?
Bruce Harrell
I believe LEAD and other similar programs that provide alternatives to involvement with the criminal legal system are an important investment. There is incredible, lifesaving work being done by diversion programs and community-led organizations throughout our city that are a model for others, especially in historically marginalized or impacted communities. Working collaboratively with experts and practitioners, we will bring programs to scale that work, improve those not meeting goals and rethink approaches that are simply not working. We must ensure we’re seeing real progress from both new and existing programs, with a focus on innovation and continuous improvement.
Lorena González
The LEAD program has been successful and am currently advocating that we increase their funding in this year’s upcoming budget. I support more funding for alternatives to law enforcement.
