Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, the city’s first Black police chief, announced publicly Tuesday that she will be retiring on Sept. 2 after more than 28 years of service. Her decision follows the Seattle City Council’s vote to reduce the police force by up to 100 officers and cut about $3 million in police department funding, according to The Washington Post. Best, however, assured the public her decision was “not about the money” but her desire to move forward with a plan and to have her officers respected.
“This is not about the money - I have thicker skin than that,” she tweeted Tuesday. “This is about the disrespect shown all SPD officers.”
Best said in another tweet: “The Council gave us $1.6 million to hire the best, brightest and most diverse. Now they want me to layoff 100 of those officers. I can’t do that.”
”I don’t want the people who work for me to be impacted by the animus directed toward me. That animus felt personal,” she added.
Following the brutal death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Seattle is one of several cities pushed to the forefront of a resulting protest movement to defund police departments and reallocate a portion of their bustling budgets to social, health, and education services as a preventative approach to crime. Similarly, activists have been pushing the Seattle City Council to not only cut, but redistribute half the police force’s budget to community programs, The Washington Post reported.
Council member Kshama Sawant, who cast the sole vote opposing the city’s much more modest funding cut, said in a statement that the council didn't go far enough. “This budget fails to shift the misplaced priorities of the Democratic political establishment,” she said in the statement. “It continues to hand more money over to the bloated police department than to eldercare, homeless services, and other human services, affordable housing, neighborhoods, and arts and culture combined.”
Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County also released a statement of support for the chief Tuesday. “Today’s news of the retirement of Chief Carmen Best is a loss,” the organization said. “It does nothing to further our fight for authentic police accountability and the safety of Black lives, that the first Black woman to hold the position of Chief of Police of the Seattle Police Department has been forced out of her job by the Seattle City Council. Racism is racism.
“We demand the Seattle City Council stop prioritizing performative action that solely suggests the appearance of change. We demand transparency and accountability for the series of actions and inactions that led to Chief Best’s resignation. And we demand a successor that serves Black Lives.”
Deputy Chief Adrian Diaz will fill Best’s role as interim chief upon her retirement, Best said.
“I am confident the department will make it through these difficult times,” she wrote in the letter, the Seattle Times republished. “I look forward to seeing how this department moves forward through the process of re-envisioning public safety.”
RELATED: What does defund the police actually mean? Here's what protesters and activists are talking about
RELATED: A roundup of reforms aimed at fighting police brutality since George Floyd's death
RELATED: Viral video depicts protestors pouring milk and water on child allegedly pepper-sprayed by police