Seattle council passes Seattle Police Officers Guild agreement

SEATTLE -- Seattle police officers will be getting a long-awaited pay raise.

On Tuesday, the Seattle City Council approved a contract negotiated by the officers’ guild and Mayor Jenny Durkan. The contract, which guarantees years of retroactive pay, creates set policies for body-worn video cameras and focuses on civilian oversight, had generated controversy in recent days.

More than two dozen organizations, led by the Community Police Commission, asked the council not to approve the contract. Members of the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, El Centro de La Raza, Mothers’ for Police Accountability and others claimed the contract, as approved by the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild and Mayor Jenny Durkan, “rolled back” key accountability measures.

“It’s a slap in the face,” said Andre Taylor, whose brother was killed by Seattle police during an undercover drug operation in 2016.

Taylor, who is with the group “Not This Time!” spoke during the more than two-hour council hearing Tuesday. He walked out of council chambers before a vote was taking, saying it appeared councilmembers’ minds were made up.

Community leaders from Seattle’s Chinatown-International District told the council police deserve to be supported. One woman, speaking through an interpreter, criticized the city for treating officers poorly.

Seattle Police Officers’ Guild President Kevin Stuckey and Police Chief Carmen Best both thanked the council during a news conference in Durkan’s office after the vote.

“We are absolutely committed to reforms,” Best said.

As the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington Durkan helped negotiate the 2012 consent decree between the City of Seattle and the Department of Justice. Six years ago, Durkan promised major changes to the Seattle Police Department, an agency under federal scrutiny for reported excessive force and biased policing.

“Today is a very strong step forward for public safety, for fairness for our officers and for police reform and accountability,” Durkan said.

Durkan said the guild contract will now be reviewed by U.S. District Court Judge James Robart, who is overseeing the consent decree. While labor issues are not part of the consent decree, issues surrounding police accountability and discipline are.

As far as a timeline on when the contract will be reviewed by Robart, and when officers will start receiving their retroactive pay, dating back to 2015, nothing has been announced. Councilmember M. Lorena Gonzalez said Tuesday that the city has a major job ahead of itself in creating a payroll office to handle the payments. The city doesn’t expect to start paying officers what is owed until early next year.