SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Seattle police contract drama shows why cops are leaving city

Oct 23, 2018, 3:21 PM | Updated: 4:01 pm

Three members of the Seattle City Council — Mike O’Brien, Kshama Sawant, and Lisa Herbold — are thinking of rejecting the contract between the Seattle Police Officers Guild and the City of Seattle. To approve the Seattle police contract, you need a super majority, seven out of nine on the council, to approve it.

My colleague at KTTH, Jason Rantz, has a piece on MyNorthwest called, “Seattle police on the verge of extinction over contract dispute, cop says.” Jason talked with a Seattle police officer off the air who said that there is a mass exodus in SPD. My buddies, who are Seattle cops, have told me the same.

According to this former cop quoted in the article, 32 officers have contacted him within the past five days seeking information on how to laterally move to another agency.

RELATED: With the way we treat them, it’s no wonder we don’t have enough Seattle cops

Seattle cops have been without a contract for years. They finally reach an agreement, and then the anti-cop Seattle City Council decides there needs to be an independent review of the Seattle police contract.

Between this contract issue and then Initiative 940, where they want a citizen panel to oversee all cops — a panel that would include illegal immigrants, children, and previously incarcerated people — things are really going nuts around here.

Why would you want to be a cop in our state? They’re risking their lives every day, and they’re hearing from a Seattle City Council member that they are murderers. We’ve got an anti-cop mania around here.

The cop in Jason’s story said that SPD is on the verge of extinction because police officers are leaving in droves. They have a city council that calls them murderers when they’re not. They have a community that is saying people are joining the police department just to kill. And those people are writing initiatives that would allow children and criminals to oversee police officers.

This is spreading throughout the region. When Seattle sneezes, all of the Puget Sound gets that cold. And you’re seeing what’s happening on the streets. The drug criminals have taken over around here.

I’m telling you right now — and nearly every major prediction we’ve ever made on this show has proven to be true — when we have the inevitable economic downturn that will come one day, if we don’t have cops on the street and if we have radicals running the city, it’s going to be really ugly.

FILE - People march while taking part in a protest against the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, and agai...

Associated Press

Republicans face a midterm verdict as Iran war drags on months longer than Trump promised

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) — Mike Gibbons sat out the presidential election two years ago, frustrated that Democrat Kamala Harris did not take a stronger stand against Israel’s war in Gaza and unable to bring himself to cast a vote for Republican Donald Trump. That is not his plan this year. The 33-year-old restaurant server in […]

2 hours ago

Palestinians walk past a food-aid warehouse damaged in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a nearby ...

Associated Press

Regional powers seek off-ramp from Iran war, and other Middle East developments

JERUSALEM (AP) — Regional powers sought an off-ramp from the war with Iran as another tanker attack was reported in the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran dismissed Washington’s latest sanctions. Elsewhere in the Middle East, a Jerusalem court acquitted a man accused of beating a Catholic nun but ordered him to undergo years of psychiatric […]

3 hours ago

FILE - China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the Comprehensive Strategic Dialogue between Indone...

Associated Press

Chinese foreign minister calls for US and China to ‘overcome obstacles’ ahead of presidential summit

BANGKOK (AP) — China’s foreign minister said his country and the United States should overcome obstacles between the nations ahead of an expected summit next month between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Wang Yi met with U.S. ambassador to China David Perdue on Wednesday and called on both sides to “focus […]

6 hours ago

A person walks near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thu...

Associated Press

Asian stocks are mixed after Wall Street losses following economic updates

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks were mixed on Thursday following modest losses on Wall Street, while oil prices declined. U.S. futures were trading higher after Nvidia’s latest quarterly earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations as demand for its advanced artificial intelligence chips surged. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2% to 66,162.72. Multinational investment holding […]

7 hours ago

Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Abdul El-Sayed speaks at a news conference at the base of the Sp...

Associated Press

Michigan Democrats want to fight Trump. First they have to stop fighting each other

SAUGATUCK, Mich. (AP) — When Democrats gathered this week in a West Michigan congressional district they’re trying to flip blue, they wanted to talk about the cost of living under President Donald Trump. But it didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to a controversy dividing their party. One attendee chided U.S. Rep. Hillary […]

8 hours ago

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, ...

Associated Press

After six months of Iran war, US goals have shifted. The Strait of Hormuz is now a top concern

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump launched the war with Iran in late February, he initially forecast it would last four to five weeks. Six months later, there’s still no off-ramp in sight despite Trump’s repeated assertions that the war has been won or a deal to resolve it was nearly complete. A June […]

8 hours ago

Dori: Seattle police contract drama shows why cops are leaving city