Rantz: Seattle police eviscerate ‘misogynistic’ snub of Carmen Best

To say Seattle police officers are upset with interim Chief Carmen Best’s snub would put it mildly.

RELATED: Police union ‘angered’ after committee snubs interim Seattle chief

“Pissed off to a person,” one officer tells me. “The only ones who aren’t pissed are the ones who thought this would happen as soon as [Mayor Jenny] Durkan got this nod. Carmen is the real deal.”

In one doozy of a Friday news dump, a Seattle search committee named three finalists to lead the Seattle Police Department, replacing former chief Kathleen O’Toole. All three finalists are outsiders, whereas Best is a well-respected, 26-year-veteran of the force.

“The person serving as chief will be crucial to the effort making continual and ongoing reforms and cultural changes in our police department, building community trust and making us all safer…” claimed Councilmember Lorena Gonzalez, a longtime critic of police. “Our search committee was focused on finding a chief committed to lasting reform, an understanding of police culture and policing, a commitment to procedural justice, and an articulated vision on how accountability and community coexist.”

Interim Chief Best posses all these characteristics, which is why so many were shocked when she didn’t make the finalist list. The inevitable shock likely played a role in the committee making this announcement on the Friday before a long weekend. That didn’t stop cops from expressing their anger.

“I’m very disappointed,” the officer told me. Since the officer is not cleared to talk to the press, I’ve agreed not to print the officer’s name. “Best is as committed a leader as you can find anywhere. Quite seriously, if this was happening at a Fortune 500 company, the [media] would be incinerating the Board of Director for passing over the best candidate (a black woman)… On merit and intangibles, Best wins.”

This cop is not alone.

“The fact the former Councilmember Tim Burgess thinks he knows better than the community and rank and file about who they want as police chief is appalling, misogynistic and unacceptable,” explained another Seattle police officer.

Burgess, a former councilmember, was on the committee that snubbed Best, though he downplayed that action by pointing out Best was in the top five. He told Q13’s Brandi Kruse that the committee wanted an outsider to take over the SPD. What message does that send SPD officers?

“Chief Best has done an outstanding job supporting the rank and file of SPD and connecting with the community during her time as interim Chief,” the second cop explained to me. “We have come along way and have been found in full and effective compliance with the terms of the settlement agreement with Chief Best as Deputy Chief under Chief O’Toole. The search committee got it wrong and the process should start over.”

Best was apparently removed from consideration by Durkan advisers, according to Crosscut’s David Kroman, who were not part of the original committee. And, in internal emails published by Kroman, Community Police Commission members slammed the secretive process that whittled the five finalists to three and claimed Councilmember Lorena Gonzalez violated a significant promise on how the finalists were to be treated: no rankings.

This decision has been so ill-received, community activists are calling for a re-do of the entire process, per Kroman.

This is a rare case of community activists and rank and file SPD members unequivocally agreeing: Carmen Best is right for the job. Will Mayor Durkan reconsider?

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