Seattle’s Police Chief is resigning this morning after the Seattle City Council approved a budget to defund the police department by about 4 million dollars and 100 officers:
THE HILL – Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said she will be resigning after the city council approved cuts to her department’s budget on Monday.
Best said in a letter to the department that her retirement will be effective Sept. 2, The Associated Press reported.
“I am confident the department will make it through these difficult times,” Best said in the letter, according to the AP. “You truly are the best police department in the country, and please trust me when I say, the vast majority of people in Seattle support you and appreciate you. … I look forward to seeing how this department moves forward through the process of re-envisioning public safety. I relish the work that will be done by all of you.”
Mayor Jenny Durkan (D) has appointed Deputy Chief Adrian Diaz as the interim chief of police, Best wrote in the letter, KING-TV reported.
The cuts to the department came last night:
The Seattle City Council approved proposals Monday that would reduce the police department by as many as 100 officers through layoffs and attrition — an action supported by demonstrators who have marched in the city following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis but strongly opposed by the mayor and police chief.
Measures that would cut less than $4 million of the department’s $400 million annual budget this year passed out of committee unanimously last week. On Monday, only council member Kshama Sawant voted against the budget package, saying it does not do enough to defund the police.
Seattle currently has about 1,400 police officers and the reductions fell far short of the 50% cut to the department that many Black Lives Matter protesters are seeking. Several council members on Monday said the changes were a starting point in a long process to reimagine policing and public safety.
The City Council also cut Police Chief Carmen Best’s roughly $285,000 annual salary and the pay of other top police leaders, although the final cuts to Best’s salary were significantly more modest than those approved last week. The council plan also takes officers off a team that removes homeless camps.
Four million doesn’t sound like a lot out of a $400 million dollar budget, but as members of the city council suggested this is only the beginning.
I suspect that this vote to defund the department was only the final straw for the police chief after what Durkin put the city through during her ‘summer of love’, where she tied the hands of her police department and allowed Antifa to take over part of the city. I don’t think any reasonable person will blame Best for quitting.