Rantz: Anger, concern with ‘concerted effort’ to take down Seattle police

Cops from the Seattle Police Department have all but had it ahead of Tuesday’s vote to approve their contract. There is a sense of panic and frustration as officers work nearly four years without a contract, while the city council plays politics with their future.

The council is scheduled to vote on a new contract that was overwhelmingly approved by the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild. It would make Seattle police the highest-paid in Washington. Community activists argue the contract makes it too difficult to discipline officers, setting back hard fought police reforms, a charge Mayor Jenny Durkan and SPD Chief Carmen Best reject.

The council is expected to vote on Tuesday, but it’s anyone’s guess how council members will vote. Councilmembers Kshama Sawant and Mike O’Brien are rumored ‘no’ votes while Lorena Gonzalez will vote to approve, in order to send it to a federal judge to rule on whether or not the contract rolls back mandated reforms. Lisa Herbold was a rumored ‘no’ vote but it’s unclear where she now stands. Any of these council members can give themselves political cover from the fallout from activists by claiming they advanced the contract so that the judge could give the definitive ruling.

There are some voices, however, that don’t want a federal judge offering a ruling — they want this contract killed now.

“All I know is that there is a concerted effort to encourage the council to reject the contract, rather than sending it to the court for review,” a member of the SPD Command Staff told me on the condition of anonymity. “And as you can image, many officers are confused and hurt by this.”

The “concerted effort” comes from a variety of fringe voices actively trying to reshape policing, using Seattle as their test subject. Not merely satisfied with officer’s being in “full and effective compliance” with the federal consent decree, these activists aim to recreate a police force, built through a “social justice” lens that places an emphasis on community policing where officers cannot proactively police.

“The Community Police Commission want two things,” an SPD officer told me, also under the condition of anonymity, since he’s not cleared to speak to the media.

“They want to be written into language so they’re permanent and they want to be at our table at future negotiations,” they said. “These are people who absolutely despise us. They’re not Average Joe Citizens. These are people who absolutely despise us and want to see the force burn.”

The officer says his colleagues are growing more frustrated, because they know they have few options.

“What are we gonna do?” he asks. “It’s the only thing they have to recognize our job and say ‘thank you’ to us. What other agency does this? Four years without a contract! Think of teachers… federal law says they can’t strike, but they strike. We can’t even consider striking and the city knows that, and it’s why we’ve been [almost four years] without a contract.”

Instead of striking, officers are leaving in historically large numbers. And they’re heading to agencies where the pay is higher and relationships with city officials are better, including Bellevue Police Department, which is now offering $16,000 signing bonus for officers who lateral. They’ve already seen an uptick in interest from SPD officers to Bellevue, Tacoma and elsewhere.

Say goodbye to Seattle police?

There is a significant fear of catastrophic consequences if the contract is not approved.

“We need to have this contract go through,” Chief Carmen Best told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH in October. “We are not going to be able to provide effective public safety, in my opinion, unless we fairly compensate the officers. Too many officers will leave. They’ve worked too hard. No one expects nurses, or teachers, or anyone else to work without a contract. Why should the officers have to do that?”

As dire as her concerns sound, they’re underplaying how serious it is. Over the weekend, a number of officers — and their spouses — contacted me to express their outrage.

“If the council voted down the CBA on Tuesday, all hell is going to break loose,” one veteran officer told me.

“If rejected, I’m going to say ‘good luck’ to Seattle residents because on community policing and outreach, we are going to be unbelievably reactive,” another officer complained. “Anyone who’s even sitting on the fence will be gone. If you had an application in or debating it, there will be no question about it, they’ll be gone.”

One officer was more blunt with the message a ‘no’ vote sends to cops: “Thanks for bending over backwards to retrain, thanks for becoming the most progressive department in the country, thanks for going four years without a contact and never once striking but <expletive> you — you mean nothing to us.”

RELATED: ‘Mass exodus’ of Seattle officers over disgust with city leadership

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday mornings from 6-9 a.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jasonrantz