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Seattle Now: A path forward on policing

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Less than a week to go until voters set the course for Seattle, especially when it comes to policing and public safety. We hear what former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best thinks about what the future of policing should look like.

PATRICIA MURPHY: Hey, good morning. It's Patricia Murphy. It's Tuesday. This is Seattle now.

Less than a week to go until an election that could set a new direction for Seattle, especially when it comes to policing and public safety. In a minute former Seattle police chief Carmen Best makes her case for what she thinks the future of policing should look like. But first, let's get you caught up.

First and update on the back and forth in the final days of the mayor's race. City council president Lorena Gonzalez now says her campaign will stop running an ad that her opponent and his supporters say is racist. The ad from the Gonzalez campaign criticizes Bruce Harrell for not calling for disgraced former Mayor Ed Murray to step down over sex abuse claims. All of Murray's accusers were men and some were Black men, but the ad featured a white woman suggesting Herald sided with abusers. Gonzalez said yesterday she wishes her campaign had worked harder to elevate the voice of a survivor who was also a person of color.

Meanwhile, Northwest powerpop group The Posies have broken up and shelved their latest album after sexual misconduct claims against a founding member. Three women who spoke on the record with KUOW accused Posies singer songwriter Ken Stringfellow of unwanted sometimes physically aggressive sexual advances. Stringfellow insists it was all consensual, but it was enough for Posies co founder John Auer to end their partnership. Too many details to tell you here. If you want the full story, head over to kuw.org and read it for yourself.

And the first new part owner of the mariners in 20 years is a familiar name. The team announced yesterday that Ken Griffey Jr. is joining its partnership group. Griffey is the first former Mariner to buy into the team's ownership. Also the first Ms owner with a statue of himself outside the ballpark. No details on how big Griffey's stake is.

(Sound of people chanting "Black lives matter" over and over)

PATRICIA MURPHY: The calls for racial justice and the protests from two summers ago are front and center for candidates running for office in Seattle. The city is at a crossroads when it comes to policing and no matter which candidates prevail, the next leaders of this city have a lot to navigate. Former SPD chief Carmen Best is here to offer some perspective on the path forward. She officially retired in September 2020. Chief Best really glad to have you here. Thank you so much for taking the time.

CARMEN BEST: Patricia, thank you. I'm really glad to be here.

PATRICIA MURPHY: We're picking a new mayor, a new city attorney and two city council positions. This next election will determine a lot about the future of policing here and one of the candidates is an abolitionist another leans that way, and is strongly in favor of funding alternatives to SPD. You and two other former chiefs recently wrote an editorial that said not only is that bad for the department, but ultimately it will hurt the people we're trying to help. Explain a little bit tell me why you take that position?

CARMEN BEST: Well, you know, I will say this, I'm not opposed to and I don't think either the chiefs are opposed to although I don't speak for them to alternatives and other options for a police response to calls for service. Certainly the intersection of public health, public safety, mental health, homelessness, they're all overlapping areas. So absolutely think that there should be some alternatives to responding to those types of calls. But we don't think it's an either or zero sum game is to both and in my view, and we need our police services, we need people to respond to emergency calls for service to be those frontline responders that we need in the field every single day.

PATRICIA MURPHY: You know, I think that's where the intersection has been problematic is that there are people who will simply never see police as a part of the solution here. How can we rectify that is there even a way to deal with the historic distrust of the police department from some people in this city,

CARMEN BEST: I recognize the distrust a particularly from communities of color. You know, I'm an African American woman, I have family and I but I also believe wholeheartedly that there's a path forward, that there is a place for the police organizations to be part of the fabric of community that responds to calls for service, that if your house is burglarized, and someone is in there, that somebody is able to respond, to have been trained, and to be able to, if needed, take that person into custody if located, those types of things need to occur, to have a society where we can live safely with our children, with our families and so on. That said, you know, there may be better responses to, you know, some people in crisis, it would be great if we had early on further upstream responses that help keep people who are in crisis, or who needed help or who needed shelter. You know, give them the services that they need. And I recognize, and we have to acknowledge the historical distrust that comes from particular communities. I will be the first to say that, you know, police have often been on the wrong side of history, you know, that they were used to perpetuate racist perspectives or, you know, throughout history, but I also recognize that we've improved as a as a profession, and that we can do better and do more, you know, I'm highly aware of the statistics and the disproportionality around police and policing. So I do believe that there needs there's work that needs to be done. But I believe that work can be done working collaboratively, I just don't agree that we're safer with less officers responding to calls.

PATRICIA MURPHY: you spent 30 years in the department here, Carmen Best you probably know this city better than most people and some of the problems that we're talking about have been around as long as you have been in law enforcement so clearly, the things that have been tried, haven't worked, at least enough to satisfy the situation. What do you think specifically could be done within the department?

CARMEN BEST: Yeah, you know, I would say, "haven't worked" as little bit strong. For me, I would say, there's been improvement. I mean, there's definitely from the time I came on, you know, the organization almost, you know, 30 years ago, to now there's been a lot of improvement. You know, we've had the Federal Consent Decree, the Federal Monitor, we've had lots of changes to oversight accountability civilians brought in. So there have been a lot of things that have improved the responses and the accountability and the transparency within the organization over time. So in my view is not a failed process. But certainly there are things that need to be done better. If you think that making the police department go away, or that having the police department be completely nonracist, is possible in a very racialized society, you know, that's going to be difficult to do. I think the department and departments across the nation should be looking at ways to improve the engagement with community. I've never seen a more polarizing time I'm, I'm really I'm close to 60. In my lifetime, I'm very hopeful that we can come together and figure out a way but not at the risk of losing any police services that we also need to have.

PATRICIA MURPHY: I'm glad you brought up the polarization because there certainly is a polarization right now about the ideas about policing and where we should be heading. Is there a role though, for those extreme viewpoints? So somehow, we land in the middle.

CARMEN BEST: So I wholeheartedly believe they focus on police, which I get it because officers carry guns and they can take your life and they can take your freedom. But I would say this, that communities, particularly communities that might be struggling economically, you know, having no police further exacerbates those issues, because people will not go to areas they will not shop there. They will not take their kids there. If bullets are flying,

PATRICIA MURPHY: I would submit that that extreme position is a result of extreme frustration.

CARMEN BEST: Yeah, I would agree. I mean, I think every time we look at the headlines, and you see another African American male, or person of color, that dies at the hands of police is frustrating. So I understand the angst around that, and that people are waiting for change, and they're wanting change.

PATRICIA MURPHY: King County has made a commitment to funding alternatives to incarceration, especially for young people who are vulnerable. We talked a little bit earlier about historical distrust of the police department within the community. And a lot of those community members are doing this work trying to keep kids safe and act as mentors and create safe spaces. Is there a role for the department in that in building that bridge?

CARMEN BEST: Absolutely. In fact, you know, officers often come across young people in these criminal circumstances in some cases. And wouldn't it be great if we had officers able to defer those kids or young people into other resources and other services, or either through mentoring to help them along the way? There are many programs in existence, I think, that are doing just that, and we could partner with them and help them?

PATRICIA MURPHY: You know, I'm curious about your sense of the mayor Council SPD relationship as it stands right now and I'd love to get your advice to your former colleagues in SPD about how to make this work moving forward. Whomever gets elected.

CARMEN BEST: They have to be collaborative. You know, my experience was pretty difficult. I mean, the communication was really broken. I've never seen that level of lack of communication between a police chief and the council ever before in my whole entire career. And so I think it's really critically thinking And that those conversations and dialogues happen, that you know, the elected, you know, while they need to get involved, you know, let the Police Chief run the department and the operational parts of it. But also extreme accountability and oversight have to be a part of that as well. And you can't just kowtow or pander to one segment over the other.

PATRICIA MURPHY: What's the biggest hurdle for this next slate of electeds here?

CARMEN BEST: Well, you know, it's interesting, you know, I'm tracking this, and I'm not, you know, endorsing or not endorsing anybody, but I would say that, you know, one is the polarization of views on how best to move forward. And so we got to find some middle ground there, and do so in a way that brings all the stakeholders to the table. By that I mean, all the stakeholders, so people living unsheltered, people who are trying to help those folks, people who have businesses, people who reside in the city, people who don't rely on the city, but work in the city, there are a lot of people who have invested interest in what happens in Seattle. And so there's got to be collaboration, extreme views aren't going to be helpful on either end. So it can't be all police and police are good. And they're perfect, because we know that's not true. But it can't be abolish the police, get rid of the police and do something different. And so what are you going to do when somebody burglarized or raped or robbed or assaulted? Is that just you know, everybody on their own total chaotic melee? What is the plan going forward to address those issues? And I think that's critically important that, that whoever people decide to vote for, they need to understand what is their plan for you, they live here and work here and try to, you know, go to the parks here and jog here, all the things that people try to do in the city, you need to be really clear about what their expectation is, and how they're planning to move forward.

PATRICIA MURPHY: Well, the only thing that's totally true about all of this Carmen Best is that it is nuanced, hard work.

CARMEN BEST: Yes, it absolutely is. It absolutely is. But I really, really, really hope that you know, whoever is elected, that they will really look at, you know, trying to make a difference in a broad way that they will I understand that police department, the men and women who work there, they're just a microcosm of the larger society, you know, we only can get from the society that we recruit from and that's in any career field. So I'm hoping that they will recognize that and move forward with a holistic public safety plan that is inclusive for you know, not just for the police department, but for every segment of community that needs to be represented.

PATRICIA MURPHY: Former Seattle police chief Carmen Best now author really great to talk to you thanks so much for your perspective on this really appreciate it.

CARMEN BEST: Thank you, Patricia take care.

PATRICIA MURPHY: Former SPD chief Carmen best. If you want more of her take on the city's policing issues. You're in luck. She has a new book just out it's called Black in Blue lessons on leadership breaking barriers and racial reconciliation.

PATRICIA MURPHY: Thanks for listening today. And hey, KUOW's fall membership drive is still going on. But just for two more days. If you count on us to bring you the news each morning. Know that we count on you to make it possible. If you have already given thanks so much if you haven't, and can make a gift that works for your family on your budget at kuow.org/donate. And thanks,

Diana Opong produced today's show. Our production team is Jenny Cecil Moore. Caroline Chamberlin-Gomez. Jason Pagano, and Clare McGrane. Matt Jorgensen does our theme music, I'm Patricia Murphy.


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