This afternoon, Metropolis Council handed a nonbinding decision denouncing the Defund SPD motion and acknowledging the town’s actions to reform our police division beneath the federal consent decree. The vote handed by 6- 0, with councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Dan Strauss, and Cathy Moore absent from immediately’s council assembly.
Throughout his speech earlier than the vote on the decision, Saka invoked the homicide of George Floyd and the uprisings that adopted, claiming the earlier metropolis council’s pledge to defund the police was “purportedly made in my finest curiosity as a Black man, and different Black folks throughout this nice metropolis. But, surprisingly, these defund pledges have been made on the top of a racial reckoning when there have been zero Black or African American members of descent on the council.”
There’s so much to unpack there (and my editor, Marcus, assures me we’ll at a later date), however this revisionist historical past boils all the way down to Saka asking, “Do you consider me or your individual eyes?” No group is a monolith, certain—but when he or anybody else is inquisitive about who was truly marching and demanding a reallocation of police funding in 2020, a fast Google search will do the trick. And wouldn’t you recognize it? The identical communities the council claimed to be listening to on the time have been those main the cost. Spoiler alert: the receipts are usually not in Saka’s favor.
So why can we care a few non-binding decision?
This vote is a few conservative-leaning Metropolis Council that wishes you to consider that we stay beneath the consent decree due to the Defund motion of 2020, as an alternative of egregiously poor police habits.
First, the small print. Res. 32167 affirms the town’s assist for police, hearth, and different first responders, and disavows any efforts to “defund or abolish SPD companies or personnel.” Saka’s announcement of the decision advancing to full council stated that it will “[finalize] Seattle’s federal Consent Decree with the Seattle Police Division (SPD)” and “[shape] the way forward for public security in our metropolis.” It is going to do no such factor.
What it should do is ask different folks to try this. Once more, in Saka’s personal phrases: “As soon as SPD has up to date its crowd administration insurance policies to adjust to the Much less Deadly Weapons Invoice that we handed earlier this yr, my proposed laws would formally request that the Metropolis Legal professional submit the up to date insurance policies to the courtroom for assessment.”
To be clear, Metropolis Legal professional Ann Davison was 110% already going to try this. Certainly one of Mayor Bruce Harrell’s uncommon express targets has been to get out from beneath the 2012 consent decree, and regardless of the police persevering with to do unhealthy shit, we’re fairly rattling shut.
The explanation we’re nonetheless beneath consent decree has nothing to do with the Defund motion. In Rob Saka’s actuality, Seattle politicians pledged to defund the police by 50 p.c. He’s joined in that perception by cosponsor Bob Kettle and Mayor Bruce Harrell, who additionally got here out in favor of this, together with such luminaries as Brandi Kruse, Jonathan Choe, and Jason Rantz.
Moreover being our area’s most nightmarish of nightmare blunt rotations, all of these individuals are obsessive about one thing that by no means occurred.
Whereas seven out of our 9 councilmembers did categorical assist in 2020 for a proposal put forth by Decriminalize Seattle and King County Fairness Now to cut back the police price range by 50 p.c, they a) by no means put something down on paper about it and b) didn’t truly do it.
What occurred, after these seven councilmembers stated they’d assist defunding the police by 50 p.c, is that then Councilmember Kshama Sawant proposed a price range modification to take action and nobody voted for it. In order that’s about all their “pledge” amounted to.
“The concept that the SPD was defunded by 50 p.c in 2020 is a whole fantasy. I do know as a result of I used to be the socialist on the Metropolis Council who put ahead the laws that yr, which not a single Democrat supported. Metropolis Corridor Democrats like Councilmember Saka and Mayor Bruce Harrell have been doing the bidding of massive enterprise, slicing funding for social companies and pumping extra money into the already-bloated police division,” Sawant advised The Stranger.
Just a few weeks later, her fellow councilmembers voted by a price range that, Sawant wrote, “fails to handle the systemic racism of policing, trimming solely $3 million from the bloated division’s remaining 2020 price range of $170 million.”
The police price range did technically shrink after the council selected to maneuver parking enforcement beneath the purview of the Seattle Division of Transportation, however that merely moved the cash to a special division. It didn’t eliminate parking enforcement. As soon as they have been moved again, in Harrell’s 2022 proposed price range, funding for SPD was above 2020 ranges, the place it has remained since. In current budgets, it has solely grown.
(If you’d like an eye-opening take a look at how cops twisted and wriggled to keep away from ever being defunded, give this Actual Change investigation by watchdog Glen Stellmacher a learn.)
The explanation we’re nonetheless beneath consent decree then, has all the pieces to do with police misbehavior.
Seattle’s federal consent decree has been hanging round since 2012, due to a DOJ investigation that discovered SPD had a bit of behavior of utilizing extreme pressure—an investigation sparked by the police killing of John T. Williams. Since then, the town has burned by greater than $200 million attempting to show it may possibly police with out violating civil rights, and but, right here we’re, nonetheless speaking about police accountability prefer it’s some unsolvable thriller.
One main roadblock? The Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG), which has spent the previous decade ensuring that any actual oversight is lifeless on arrival. Working example: a 2018 contract that gutted a metropolis ordinance meant to enhance civilian oversight. Quick ahead to Could 2024, and Seattle’s newest love letter to SPOG handed officers hefty raises whereas barely touching accountability reforms, a lot in order that even the federal choose overseeing the decree, James Robart, and the Group Police Fee threw up their arms in frustration.
At a March 2025 listening to, Robart admitted Seattle has made progress however remained unimpressed by the obvious lack of accountability fixes. Town’s subsequent steps? Finalizing a crowd management coverage and pushing by laws on much less deadly weapons earlier than asking the feds to formally finish the decree. Robart expects it to wrap up quickly however is clearly irritated that he can’t do a lot concerning the SPOG contract’s flimsy disciplinary measures.
So, after six mayors, seven police chiefs, and 12 years of authorized wrangling, Seattle is nearly free from federal oversight. However in case you thought that meant SPD out of the blue fastened its accountability and bias points, effectively, you’d be as cartoonishly improper as Rob Saka.
Nonbinding resolutions are helpful for at the least one factor: telling us how politicians need to be seen. And, in some circumstances, how they see issues. That is a kind of circumstances.
And, certain, it sounds nice to say that Seattle defunded the police in case you’re, say, a right-wing commentator attempting to painting us as a “socialist hellhole.” However a sitting councilmember within the precise metropolis that you just’re truly alleged to signify? Why?
Saka’s decision concludes by claiming that the council’s unexpectedly deserted dedication to a 50 p.c defund “led to the resignation of tons of of law enforcement officials.” Complaining that the concept of possibly presumably defunding the police did a lot emotional harm to the police that they stop in droves is as shut to driving as his argument will get right here, however even that declare is doubtful at finest.
We get that a lot of the present council has by no means seen a pair of trainers they didn’t need to lick, however come on.
“Defund is lifeless,” Rob? Actually?
It was by no means alive! It by no means occurred!
Marcus Harrison Inexperienced contributed reporting to this text
