Seattle council’s post-election stance on police funding begins to take shape
Nov 9, 2021, 8:12 AM
Kshama Sawant (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)
(Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)
In what will become the first litmus test for Seattle City Council’s position on police funding after the general election, Councilmember Kshama Sawant has introduced a counter resolution to Mayor Jenny Durkan’s order to increase hiring bonuses to Seattle Police Department.
Many of the progressive candidates who championed the restructuring of SPD’s budget to facilitate more articulate emergency service triage were voted down in their respective elections.
Sawant’s counter resolution removes most of the language which would grant SPD candidates up to $25,000 per new hire.
In council sessions on Nov. 8, Sawant made her opposition to Mayor Durkan’s police funding resolution clear, calling the payment a “shocking double standard” when police salary is “more than double what is paid to social workers.”
Sawant acknowledged concerns about rising gun violence as the predicate for Mayor Durkan’s attempt to attract new hires to a police force that reports 310 vacancies and 61 new hires as of July 2021, but argued that crime is largely a function of poverty, and increasing spending on social services is a more appropriate mitigation effort.
Mayor Durkan, city council could be primed for another showdown over SPD hiring
In September, the council roundly rejected Councilmember Alex Pedersen’s attempt to bolster SPD new hires with a more modest new-hire incentive proposal of $15,000 in individual bonuses (in addition to provisions which allocated $3 million toward officer retention). Pedersen’s only vote of support came from Councilmember Debra Juarez (District 5).
A further proposal, which scaled back the funding, failed as well, but with narrower margins saw Pedersen, Juarez, Dan Strauss (District 6), and Andrew Lewis (District 7) vote in approval.
Sawant’s amended resolution does preserve funding which grants 911 dispatch similar leeway in its new hire bonuses. Community Safety Communications reports 21 vacancies and 17 new hires as of July.
The council is scheduled to vote on the resolution Nov. 22, along with the city’s 2022 budget.
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