‘He can taste it’: Curley suggests Bob Kettle is using Katie Wilson’s public safety struggles to position for mayor

Thirty-eight Seattle-area business leaders — including executives from Microsoft, Starbucks, Costco, Alaska Airlines and the Seattle Mariners — sent a letter last week demanding Mayor Katie Wilson and the City Council adopt a 100-day public safety action plan with measurable benchmarks. A poll cited in the letter found only 34% of Seattle voters are confident the city has an effective public safety strategy.

Wilson responded by telling KUOW the data doesn’t support concerns about police staffing, pointing to about 3,500 applications in the hiring queue and more than 100 officers hired this year, while pushing back on Councilmember Bob Kettle’s concerns about ending the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) hiring incentives.

John Curley, host of “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio, noted the political dynamics behind the fight are hard to ignore and suggested Kettle, who chairs the council’s public safety committee, sees an opening.

“Bob Kettle wants to be mayor. He can taste it,” Curley said. “He sees this Katie Wilson; this is a vulnerability, and he’s public safety guy, so he’s bashing away at it.”

KIRO producer Joe Wallace agreed.

“I think there’s a coalition around Bob to push her out,” he said.

Curley questions who the bonuses attract

Curley noted the incentive question isn’t just about money; it’s about motivation.

“You’ve got some guy sitting there on the couch going, ‘Ah, I don’t really want to be a cop. How about for 25? No. 30?'” Curley said. “When you’re motivated by the dollar, I think you get a different quality of person.”

Curley compared the incentive to a dare.

“Hey, would you jump off the roof and try to jump into the swimming pool for 10 bucks? Nope. How about 2,000? I’ll do it for two,” Curley said.

He pointed to his friend, retired Sgt. Hockett, a former Marine who became a cop for a simpler reason.

“I said, ‘Why’d you ever sign up for this thing?’ He said, ‘I like helping people,'” Curley said. “You get guys that were in the Army, Navy, Marines, whatever, serving. They like the idea, the camaraderie of it.”

Wilson told KUOW the city can’t justify the spending given its budget deficit.

“We can’t just be tossing around $50,000 if it doesn’t actually get us anything,” she said.

Curley thinks a different part of the data is worth keeping an eye on

Curley then pulled up SPD’s own Sept. 8 staffing data and said the numbers Wilson glossed over are the real story.

“936 sworn deployable personnel, and 864 are deployable, rank-and-file officers,” Curley said. “Roughly 490 actually assigned to patrol. That’s the problem.”

KIRO producer Joe Wallace said he’s made a hobby of pointing those numbers out on Seattle’s Reddit forums, where users bash police and then complain nobody shows up.

“There are 400 of them in a city of 700,000. They’re not coming,” Wallace said. “And you think it’s a hate crime because somebody stole your flag, and you’re mad that they’re not showing up.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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