Seattle City Council approves new police contract, boosting pay and expanding crisis response

The Seattle City Council voted 6 to 3 Tuesday to approve a new contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild, covering 2024 through 2027; the new contract is partially retroactive.

Dozens of people gave public testimony opposing the new contract, and the final vote took place over chants of “jail killer cops,” which made it difficult for Council members to hear one another. Council President Sara Nelson then adjourned the meeting to continue remotely.

The agreement preserves the status of SPD officers as the highest paid in the state, according to Council staff. It also offers new bonuses for college degrees and bilingual skills, and it allows new civilian participation in the most serious misconduct investigations. The contract also expands the city’s unarmed Community Assisted Response and Engagement teams and allows them to respond to certain calls for the first time without a police escort.

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Nelson said Monday the “real prize” in this latest contract is the ability for solo dispatch of unarmed crisis responders on those CARE teams.

“This enables the thing that so many people in the public, in SPD, across the board have been wanting for so long, which is a non-uniformed emergency response,” Nelson said.

But the vote suggested a newly energized minority in the Council is prepared to press for more police oversight, following two years when Council members were more concerned about public safety and police recruiting.

Five of the Council members who voted to approve the contract sit on the Labor Relations Policy Committee that helped negotiate it: Nelson, Bob Kettle of District 7, Maritza Rivera of District 4, Dan Strauss of District 6, and and Debora Juarez of District 5. District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth also voted for the new agreement.

Rob Saka of District 1, Eddie Lin of District 2, and citywide Position 8 Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck voted against it.

Specifically, Saka cited the contract's lack of subpoena power for the Office of Police Accountability and the Office of Inspector General if they need officers’ texts or records from third parties, like banks or social media companies, as part of their misconduct investigations.

Despite a 2017 ordinance granting that power, labor negotiations have blocked its implementation.

“I cannot justify spending so much more on officers right now, who are already earning the most in the state, while essential accountability tools remain missing,” Saka said.

Rinck and Lin voiced similar concerns.

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Supporters of the contract largely agreed but said the latest agreement still contains hard-won gains and should be approved.

After the contract was approved, SPOG took to social media to celebrate, calling the vote a win for public safety and for the moderates on the Council.

The Council vote came amid a changing of the guard and potential changes in the city’s emphases around policing and public safety. Mayor-elect Katie Wilson kicked off the work of her transition teams this week and is preparing to take office on Jan. 1.

On Tuesday, Wilson told KUOW, “Obviously, we’re going to be working within the confines of those contracts. It’s good, our officers deserve the stability of a contract. Within those bounds we’re going to be doing everything we can to make sure our police department is working closely in partnership with community, and making sure we have a really strong public safety system moving forward.”

Outgoing Mayor Bruce Harrell announced the tentative agreement with the guild – which includes rank-and-file officers and sergeants – in October, shortly before Wilson unseated him in the Nov. 4 election.

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According to the City Council’s central staff memo, the new contract covers approximately 983 current employees and 128 former employees at the Seattle Police Department. It is also expected to cover 100 “net-new” additional officers by the end of 2026.

The agreement calls for police officers to get a retroactive pay boost of 6% for 2024, and an increase of 4.1% for 2025, according to a press release. Officers will receive an additional 2.7% increase in 2026, and the boost for 2027 will be between 3 and 4%, depending on the Consumer Price Index.

Funding for the contract’s wage increases and backpay would be provided through separate legislation in 2026.

Special pay incentives include a 1.5% premium for an employee who is fluent in another language; a 1.5% premium for an employee who holds an associate’s degree in criminal justice, criminology, law enforcement, forensic science, or a related field; and a 4% premium for an employee who holds a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.

According to the City Council memo, the new contract removes the cap on the number of crisis responders that can be employed by the CARE Department. It also allows for sole dispatch of those unarmed responders in the following cases: a report of a person in behavioral crisis, a request for shelter resources, food or transportation resources, or a report of a person who appears to be in a physical state that needs to be checked on “for their own safety.”

In terms of officer discipline and accountability, the new contract clarifies the 180-day timeline for misconduct investigations, and it allows civilians to participate in the most serious investigations, where they were previously barred. It also allows supervisors to resolve more minor complaints without forwarding them to OPA.

But the contract does not advance the long-sought subpoena powers for oversight bodies. A memo from Council central staff said, “The City and SPOG have agreed to table negotiations on this topic.” It can only be revived in the next contract cycle.

And city negotiators said they reached an impasse with SPOG over current requirements that investigations involving officer dishonesty apply a higher standard of review because the offense is “stigmatizing” and would make it difficult for the officer to find work elsewhere. City negotiators said they will pursue this question through binding arbitration while the rest of the contract takes effect.

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In a letter responding to the contract, the city’s Community Police Commission expressed disappointment with the lack of progress on that point, saying “accountability remains out of reach if the City cannot reprimand for serious misconduct because of the heightened burden to establish it.”

The CPC praised the expansion of the CARE teams and the salary bonuses for language skills and education, but said the new contract still “falls short on ensuring accountability in fundamental ways.”

The CPC asked the City Council to work more closely with them in the future, and to advocate for state-level changes “to remove accountability, alternative crisis response, and discipline from the collective bargaining process and agreements” entirely.

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