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Multiple Sources Say Police Chief Barnes is Out; Mayor’s Office Not Responding to Questions
Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes speaks outside City Council Chambers

By Erica C. Barnett

Update on Thursday at 11:30 am: As of this morning, Mayor Katie Wilson’s office still has not responded to multiple requests for comment or clarification on Barnes’ employment status. Sources have told PubliCola that Wilson asked for Barnes’ resignation yesterday and that he declined to resign, which would force Wilson to fire him if she wants him out. The silence from the mayor’s office makes it impossible to clarify exactly what is going on with Barnes.

Meanwhile, a group of mostly older Black community leaders held a rally at City Hall calling on Wilson to keep Barnes this morning, saying they represent “the Black community” in Seattle.

Some City Councilmembers have reportedly begun pushing back on the mayor’s decision, although none of them have said anything publicly. Under the city charter, the mayor can fire the police chief “upon filing a statement of his or her reasons for so doing with the City Council.”

Original story follows:

On Wednesday night, multiple sources in several branches of city government told PubliCola that Mayor Katie Wilson fired Police Chief Shon Barnes earlier this afternoon. Barnes was reportedly seen leaving Wilson’s office on the seventh floor of city hall Wednesday evening after a lengthy meeting. Barnes was in his uniform when he arrived at an early-evening vigil for the victims of a mass shooting on Sunday at Seattle Center, but left before the vigil was over.

Multiple sources, including a recently retired SPD officer, said Barnes called at least some of the department’s captains Wednesday night to tell them the news.

PubliCola has not been able to officially confirm Barnes’ firing with either SPD or the mayor’s office. An SPD spokesperson said they had no information, and neither Wilson nor her communications office responded to requests for confirmation and comment tonight. The mayor reportedly canceled all regularly scheduled staff meetings this afternoon before meeting with Barnes in her office.

Rumors had been swirling about Barnes’ future at the department all afternoon, after Barnes canceled about a half-dozen TV interviews he had scheduled to discuss the shooting and address questions about his travel schedule. I reported on the canceled TV interviews Wednesday afternoon.

Barnes was out of town, attending a conference in Dallas, when gunfire broke out Sunday night; I broke the news about his absence from Seattle on Sunday.

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As I reported last year, Barnes rents in Seattle while his wife and kids remain in the family’s home in Chicago. The chief has traveled frequently throughout his time in Seattle, giving keynote speeches, attending conferences, and visiting his family in Chicago. He kept up his heavy travel schedule this year, traveling nearly seven weeks in the past seven months, on top of about two weeks spent on vacation and out of the office. SPD provided a partial copy of his schedule in response to PubliCola’s request, so these are conservative estimates based on information SPD provided for the first three months of the year.

A breaking point in Barnes’ relationship with the mayor may have come after clips of the chief confronting a reporter who asked about my reporting on his travel. When South Seattle Emerald reporter Connor Nash asked Barnes how often he was out of town, the chief Barnes tried to shut him down, said my reporting was inaccurate, and had to be hustled away by his chief of staff Alex Ricketts, who inserted himself physically between Barnes and Nash.

The confrontation, which Barnes brushed off a day later by saying he was just showing his “passion” for the job, made international news. It also sparked new interest in Barnes’ whereabouts since former mayor Bruce Harrell hired him in late 2024.

This is a developing story.

Mayor Wilson

Partial, Altered Schedule Shows Police Chief Out of Town Nearly 7 Weeks So Far This Year

Barnes, under fire after we reported on his absence from the city during Sunday’s mass shooting, had planned a half-dozen TV interviews to talk about his schedule today. All were canceled.

By Erica C. Barnett

In response to PubliCola’s request for Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes’ schedule for 2026, the Seattle Police Department provided a copy of his schedule that begins in late March, along with limited information about his trips to his family home in Chicago, where his wife and kids live. Prior to Sunday’s mass shooting at Seattle Center, Barnes was scheduled to be out of the office from July 22 until August 3 at the earliest.

The partial 2026 schedule was altered before SPD provided it to PubliCola and no longer says where Barnes planned to be this week; instead, it includes events related to the shooting. We’ve asked SPD Barnes’ original August schedule.

Barnes has been under fire for several days over his frequent absences from Seattle, after I reported on Sunday (with a followup on Monday) that he was out of town, at a conference held by the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) in Dallas, when gunfire broke out at the Bite of Seattle event at Seattle Center.

When I first reported on Barnes’ frequent absences back in 2025, I noted that during the four months for which SPD provided his schedule, he spent most weekends out of town, typically traveling to Chicago, delivering keynote speeches, or attending conferences.

An SPD spokesman said Barnes has been to Chicago to visit his family four times so far this year, in February, March, June, and July, totaling 17 days. During one of those trips, he attended a Jack and Jill Teen Leadership Conference with his son, according to his schedule and social media posts.

Additionally, according to his April-through-July calendar, Barnes attended five conferences in those four months, including a different NOBLE event as well as conferences held by the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing, the Police Executive Research Forum, and the Major City Chiefs Association. Those conferences took Barnes out of town for 21 days (Barnes’ schedule shows him out of commission this past Monday as well, but he returned to town from Dallas so was here that day).

Editor’s note: This post originally described two additional events as “conferences”—a two-day event in Chicago and a breakfast at the Jack and Jill Teen Leadership Conference, also in Chicago. PubliCola has since confirmed with SPD that the second event was part of a planned family visit; because the other event, at the University of Chicago, was also in Chicago and came immediately prior to three days when Barnes had nothing scheduled in Seattle, we removed it from the list of conferences as well. Those two events totaled four days.

As PubliCola previously reported, he also went on a five-day recruiting trip to the Central Intercollegiate Athletics Association (CIAA)  basketball tournament in Baltimore; the group of 12 Historically Black Colleges and Universities includes Barnes’ alma mater, Elizabeth State University.

And Barnes’ schedule shows he was on vacation from April 23 to 26, with Deputy Chief Yvonne Underwood serving as acting chief.

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The travel on the calendar provided to PubliCola, plus the earlier trips, add up to 47 days or almost seven weeks,  out of town through July 26 of this year. Since we don’t have the chief’s calendar for January, February, or most of March, it’s impossible to say with certainty if Barnes was out of town for additional periods during those three months. Barnes’ weekends are mostly empty, except when he is at a conference.

Additionally, Barnes’ calendar shows that he was out of the office, with Deputy Chief Andre Sayles serving as acting chief, between July 8 and July 13. The calendar does not say where he was those six days. Deputy Chief Tyrone Davis stepped in as acting chief of police between April 3 and April 5, also with no indication of where Barnes was when he was out those three days.

Altogether, Barnes’ out-of-office days when someone else stepped in as chief, his vacation days, and his documented out-of-office time, indicates Barnes has been in other cities or out of the office for almost nine weeks so far this year.

Barnes’ planned absences during late July and early August has been the source of questions from the media ever since I reported he was absent during the shooting and referenced my previous reporting that his family lives in Chicago.

The altered version of the police chief’s schedule does not say where Barnes originally planned to be this week. SPD’s media relations office told me yesterday that he had planned to be out of the office between at least July 22 and August 3. Subsequently, Barnes told me at a press conference that he’s having a medical procedure on Friday, and that if he’s not “good to go” on Monday, “I’ll take all the time that I need to make sure that that I’m okay.”

PubliCola has requested the original version of Barnes’ schedule for this week as well as the entire month of August, as well as his schedule for the time prior to March 29, and will update this post when we receive it.

On Tuesday, Barnes bristled at questions about how often he is out of town, saying (inaccurately) that I had reported that he would be out of town for “the entire month of August.”

On Wednesday, the chief scheduled a round of at least six interviews with TV reporters, who have generally been sympathetic to Barnes, to discuss his schedule; all of these interviews were canceled, however, reportedly after Barnes was informed that holding six interviews about his schedule three days after a mass shooting would not be a good look.

City Council, Mayor Wilson, Police, public safety

Police Chief Says No Plan to Slow Hiring Amid Budget Crunch; City Attorney Says “SOAP Orders Don’t Work” at Aurora Ave. Safety Event
Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans

1. Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes, responding to a question from PubliCola, said the police department does not plan to slow down hiring, despite a city council presentation this week that concluded, “SPD may need to slow hiring to live within its budget” because the speed at which it’s hiring new officers is outpacing the department’s spending capacity.

“I have not been notified that the police department will slow down on our current hiring plan for this year. We’re moving forward,” Barnes said. “I think we all share [the belief] that we need more police officers, but we also understand the constraints of a budget, and until I hear anything differently, we’re going to continue moving forward.”

A planned briefing of the council’s public safety committee, which was postponed due to time constraints earlier this week, found that SPD hiring will outpace the department’s budget by a projected $1.7 million this year. Recruitment has been up ever since a new police contract raised starting salaries, after training, to $126,000 last year, and the number of highly paid late-career officers leaving the department has declined. SPD is on pace to have just under 1,200 officers by the end of the year.

Mayor Katie Wilson has asked all city departments to come up with cuts of 5 to 10 percent to help close a budget gap of at least $175 million. The police department, whose nearly-$500 million budget is by far the city’s biggest general-fund obligation, was reportedly asked to come up with $20 million in potential cuts.

2. Barnes made his comments during an announcement about the city’s latest efforts to address gun violence and sex trafficking on Aurora Ave. N. City Attorney Erika Evans announced she would use Extreme Risk Protection Orders, a tool typically used to take guns away from domestic violence offenders, to remove guns from people accused of committing gun-related crimes, whether or not they have been convicted. (Violent gun-related offenses are typically prosecuted by the King County Prosecutor.) Evans also said she would seek funding for a full-time prosecutor to pursue the orders.

 

At the same press conference, Mayor Katie Wilson announced the Seattle Department of Transportation will install barriers on four streets that intersect with Aurora Ave. N to block traffic from getting through; residents who have demanded the city do something about increasing gun violence in the area have installed makeshift barricades in recent weeks.

City Attorney Evans broke with council members on one key issue, saying that she did not believe banishing men who pay for sex from the area around Aurora, which is designated as the city’s Stay Out of Areas of Prostitution (SOAP) zone, are an effective way to protect women and girls from pimps and traffickers. (Former Councilmember Cathy Moore, who sponsored the SOAP legislation, then skedaddled off the council, was in the audience for yesterday’s event.)

Noting that the city has had SOAP orders off and on for 30 years, Evans said, “If they were effective, Aurora and other areas of Seattle, including Little Saigon, would be safe, and they’re not. … SOAP orders don’t work. ERPO orders work.”

3. The press conference, which took place on the same day Wilson announced internally that she was reorganizing her office and that her communications director, Seferiana Day, was leaving, featured some internal drama of its own. According to sources, councilmembers frustrated with what they viewed as inaction on Aurora planned to hold their own press conference without Wilson at which they would criticize her lack of action on gun violence and sex trafficking in the area.

After a flurry of discussions, the mayor and council agreed to hold the press conference in the awkward, narrow space outside council chambers, rather than outside Wilson’s office. Councilmembers have repeatedly refused to participate in the mayor’s press conferences, despite being invited—an indication that council-mayor relations still have a long way to go after some dramatic early missteps by the Wilson administration.

Police, public disclosure, Tech

SPD’s Chief Spokesperson Asked AI for Help with Interview Prep, Rewriting Blog Posts, and More

SPD says the communications director only used AI tools a handful of times, and only “to evaluate their utility”

By Erica C. Barnett

The Seattle Police Department communications director, Barbara DeLollis, used AI chatbots that are not approved for city use to compose a sample script for a woman preparing for her first media interviews, to produce a list of “Interesting best practice on-camera ideas for big police Department,”  to produce a “Comprehensive Communications Toolkit for a Police Department Exiting a Consent Decree,” and to to rewrite a published blog post about a nuisance motel on Aurora.

That prompt reads, in full, “hi make this a better story for the public of a city that doenst liek crime or disorder” (sic).

DeLollis used ChatGPT to produce the sample blog post, and Perplexity to produce the other documents, according to records PubliCola obtained through a public disclosure request. The city’s information technology department confirmed that neither program is approved for use by city employees.

Last September, after noticing that a number of the department’s public communications had many of the hallmarks of AI, PubliCola requested “documents detailing all uses of generative AI” for the first nine months of the year by communications staff as well as Police Chief Shon Barnes and his staff.

The Seattle Police Department provided seven documents, all produced by DeLollis, and closed our request. We asked SPD to confirm that they are asserting that Barnes has never used generative AI, and that the seven documents represent every single use of AI by DeLollis and SPD’s entire communications team. They said yes.

However, the records themselves include two AI-generated documents for which SPD did not produce the written prompts that preceded them—an obvious omission of records responsive to our request that raises concerns about whether the documents really represent every use of AI by DeLollis or other staffers.

Last year, an anonymous person filed two complaints ahout SPD’s use of AI with the Office of Police Accountability, citing the apparent use of AI in a bio of Barnes’ chief of staff, Alan Ricketts, a bullet-pointed statement from Barnes about a violence prevention and enforcement effort, and other documents. The evidence in those complaints included a blog post full of passive-voice, AI slop-style sentences such as “On Thursday, we were confronted with a targeted homicide occurring in front of a place of worship.”  That complaint resulted in a supervisor action (essentially, a reprimand).

An SPD spokesperson responded to PubliCola’s nine detailed questions with a statement that read in part: “Last year, a department employee tested various AI tools to evaluate their utility in communication functions like editing, interview preparation, and blog strategy to see if they could offer fresh perspectives.”

The Office of Police Accountability “determined that using AI tools in this way without appropriate acknowledgement was a violation of city policy at that time,” the spokesperson said. “The department does not condone using generative AI to write narratives or communications.”

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A spokesperson for Mayor Katie Wilson told PubliCola, “Unapproved AI software is now blocked on city devices to ensure compliance with critical privacy, transparency, and records protections. The Mayor expects employees to use these tools in compliance with city policy.”

DeLollis’ prompts are riddled with typos that make them challenging to credit as official SPD work product and sometimes hard to interpret.

For example, in one Perplexity prompt—”Lost thengoala for a daily police blog where uoupost both police actions and responses to 911 callbut also show in compelling ways the other impactand resorts of work that a cutting edge evidencebased department does”—DeLollis appears to be asking the AI to define the goals for SPD’s Blotter blog. (The response, which includes generic advice like “Combining transparency with compelling storytelling and data will build trust while showcasing the full scope and positive impact of a modern police force,” seems less than useful.)

In two other conversations with the Perplexity chatbot, DeLollis appears to be seeking advice for a female employee doing her first media interviews and who, as a woman, tends to overprepare for things. SPD did not respond to our questions about the purpose of these prompts or whether they were on behalf of a specific woman.

“So we know why woken over prepare for media interviews but for our client we want to frame this advice on a positive way to prevent them from feeling negative. Help,” one of these prompts reads. “Frame this in positive way for client who is going to need prep for her first media interviews. Women typically over prepare for research drive reasons. It is t helpful though,” another begins.

The records SPD provided for the latter Perplexity query include an ongoing conversation between DeLollis and the chatbot, including a request for a sample script and two requests for academic research.

Because it’s AI (and AI sucks), Perplexity responded to the prompt about helping a woman avoid over-preparing with a list of reasons why it’s important to prepare. In the second conversation, the chatbot added 23 “sources” that included 10 duplicative links and several posts that were unrelated to the question, including guides for interviewers about talking to women who are researchers or subject-matter experts.

Perplexity also produced two guides for communicating about the end of the federal consent decree. (These are the two documents for which SPD did not include the AI prompts). The first is a series of bullet-pointed lists; the second, mentioned earlier, is more of a media “kit,” with sample op/ed language and social media posts, like this suggestion for a post on X: “We’ve made big changes in how we train, respond, and build trust. Now that we’ve met the federal standards for reform, our work continues—with you.”

In the final prompt, DeLollis asks Perplexity to come up with “Interesting best practice on-camera ideas for big police Department.”

It’s unclear whether DeLollis created the chat prompts from a city of Seattle computer or personal device. Washington’s public disclosure law requires city employees to produce all records that are responsive to a request, including those produced on personal devices or using personal emails or cell phone numbers.

Elections, Police

Former Burien City Attorney and Ex-SPOG Leader Both Run for Office; Seattle Is Paying Two Salaries for One SPD Position

1. Former Burien city attorney Garmon Newsom II has filed to run for the Seattle Municipal Court seat currently held by Judge Willie Gregory, who’s retiring. As PubliCola reported, Newsom was put on leave last year and returned only to be summarily fired by controversial city manager Adolfo Bailon earlier this month. The Burien City Council recently put Bailon on administrative leave.

As Burien city attorney, Newsom defended a city law that makes it illegal to sleep in public in the city, arguing that the ban created an “incentive” for people to go to shelter. (Burien does not have any year-round shelter for single adults).

He also argued for using city permitting rules to prohibit a church from hosting an encampment, and criticized the church for denying access to right-wing commentator Jonathan Choe, who was working for the Discovery Institute but whom Newsom described as a “member of the press.” During the debate over proposed shelter bans in Burien, we reported on a couple of instances in which he described existing or proposed laws inaccurately.

Newsom is represented by Northwest Passage, the Seattle consulting firm founded by Christian Sinderman. Last year, Northwest Passage was the consultant for then-mayor Bruce Harrell (who lost) as well as successful candidates Erika Evans (now Seattle City Attorney), Dionne Foster (now a Seattle councilmember) and Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck (who was reelected).

The other candidates in the race, so far, are Seattle attorney Lindsay Calkins and Snohomish County public defender Gabriel Rothstein.

2. Former Seattle Police Officers Guild director Mike Solan is running as a Republican for the Pierce County Council seat that’s currently held by Democrat Robyn Denson, who isn’t seeking reelection.

Solan has long lived in West Seattle, but Pierce County tax records indicate he bought a house in Gig Harbor last month. Solan is a controversial figure; in addition to (infamously) blaming the January 6, 2020, insurrection on Black Lives Matter protesters, Solan recently mocked the head of the city’s CARE Department and appeared to joke with then-SPOG vice president Daniel Auderer about the death of a young student killed in a crosswalk by a speeding cop.

Solan didn’t immediately respond to a text message asking about about his candidacy this morning.

Brenda Lykins, a former Gig Harbor City Council member, is running for the seat as a Democrat. So far, Solan has not reported any contributions.

3. During a presentation on the Law Enforcement Diversion program earlier this week, the Seattle Police Department was represented by Chief Shon Barnes as well as Acting Assistant Chief Rob Brown, a longtime captain and former South Precinct commander who now oversees operations.

Why does SPD have an acting assistant chief, rather than a permanent one? As it turns out, they have both. Todd Kibbee, the permanent acting chief, is out on paid leave while Brown does his job.

SPD Chief Operating Officer Sarah Smith would not confirm that Kibbee, who has been at SPD for 33 years, was burning his leave before retiring, a common practice that allows officers to continue receiving full pay and benefits while they use up their accrued sick and vacation time at the end of their careers. Smith said only that Kibbee was on “approved leave.”

Smith did not respond to questions about how long Kibbee would be on paid leave and whether Barnes plans to appoint Brown permanent assistant chief.

Kibbee makes around $313,000 a year, while Brown makes around $266,000, according to city salary data.

 

 

City Council, Drugs, Police

SPD Chief Questions Whether LEAD Diversion Program is “Meeting Expectations”
“Mark43 Recorded Diversion” refers to all completed referrals police made through arrests; LEAD also gets some referrals that don’t come from SPD.

Barnes allowed that LEAD was better than “no diversion at all,” while Councilmember Rivera said the city has already “thrown a lot” of money at the program.

By Erica C. Barnett

Police Chief Shon Barnes questioned the value of LEAD, the city’s main criminal justice diversion program, at a city council committee on Monday—saying the program could not, on its own, “deliver the level of order, safety and visible presence that residents, businesses and visitors believe should be indicative of a major US city.” For 15 years, LEAD has provided services as an alternative to arrest and incarceration; the model, which includes long-term case management, harm reduction, and connections to housing and treatment, has been replicated around the country and is considered a best practice for minimizing people’s involvement in the criminal legal system.

Since 2023, police have had the power to arrest and charge people with a gross misdemeanor for possessing or drugs or using them in public. That year, a new state law made drug use or possession a gross misdemeanor, rather than a felony, in response to a 2021 state supreme court decision called State v. Blake that overturned existing laws that classified possession and public use as felony crimes.

Between 2024 and 2025, according to a staff presentation during the council’s public safety committee on Tuesday,  LEAD diversions for people arrested for possession or public use declined almost 37 percent—from 173 to 109—while charges filed by police officers more than doubled and attempted jail bookings increased by 191 percent. (This number includes both jail bookings and people the jail declined to book because of medical and other issues). Misdemeanor drug use and possession cases made up just under half of all drug arrests.

This is not the outcome local leaders said they hoped for when they adopted the law in 2023. In an executive order that accompanied the new law, then-mayor Bruce Harrell directed SPD to adopt a policy that directed officers to divert drug users into LEAD or other programs whenever possible, rather than arresting them. That policy says, “When an arrest is warranted, sworn employees should prioritize diversion in lieu of booking.”

In general, the numbers show, police have continued to routinely arrest and book people using drugs in public rather than sending them to LEAD.

Both the new law and the executive order gave individual police officers the ultimate authority to decide whether to arrest someone or refer them to LEAD, based partly on whether they decide a person is posing a “threat of harm” to anyone in the public. (LEAD can also take referrals after an arrest).

The way SPD’s policy defines a threat of harm gives police a lot of discretion to decide whether they think someone is causing harm. But it specifies that any time a person is using drugs near a bus or rail stop, school, or park, a threat of “harm will be presumed.”

Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes said the list was almost too expansive. “A very important policy decision will have to be made whether or not officers can [arrest] people using drugs” when they witness it, “and whether or not we can make that arrest without having to go through the checklist,” Barnes said.

Barnes and acting Assistant Chief Rob Brown told the committee that they respected LEAD and planned to continue diverting people to the program. In “many cases,” Barnes said, LEAD “is better than having what we’ve always done, which is no intervention at all. But it’s also important to be clear-eyed about what the program can and cannot accomplish and whether it’s meeting the expectations of the people who live, work and visit the city.”

 

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LEAD was started in Belltown in 2011 and has expanded in size and scope many times since, so it’s inaccurate to say that the city has “always” done “no intervention at all.” Barnes, previously police chief in Madison, Wisconsin, was appointed chief by Harrell last year.

Brown, who was previously the commander of SPD’s South Precinct, said he was particularly interested in holding people accountable who engage in what he called “defiant” drug use—that is, drug use in highly visible places that make residents and customers “very uncomfortable.” These “defiant” users, Brown said, “feel like they’re entitled to consume. … I understand that [for] somebody who is an addict, that jail alone, by itself, is not necessarily going to help them get to moving beyond their addiction. But what I do want to see is behavior change for this type of defiant, open consumption.”

In a separate presentation, Purpose Dignity Action’s Lisa Daugaard, who launched LEAD in Belltown 15 years ago, said funding for the PDA-run program hit “a high-water mark” in 2022 and has been declining ever since, reducing LEAD’s capacity to take on new clients.

After a LEAD staffer described an analysis that showed people do better the longer people they stick with LEAD, Councilmember Maritza Rivera said she wasn’t convinced the program was doing enough to impact visible drug use and disorder. “I appreciate that it can take up to two years to get someone to accept services and get toward a path of recovery,” Rivera said, but businesses can’t wait that long to see improvements. “It taking two years to help someone get off of 12th and Jackson is not helping that small business be able to stay in business and stay open,” she said.

“I don’t mean any disrespect by this,” Rivera continued, “but everyone comes here and says, if we had more money, it would be different. … “You know, we have thrown a lot [of money at LEAD]—I mean, PDA gets $20 million from the city.”

“We’re in a budget deficit. So are there other things that we can do to address the problem? … Because I don’t know that we have more money that we can put into it.”

Last year, Rivera voted along with the rest of the council to increase the police department’s budget by $35 million, including millions for to expand SPD’s camera surveillance program into additional neighborhoods. That amount will grow this year even in he absence of new programs, as officers that received raises of 42 percent over the past five years get raises on top of their new higher salaries.