By Erica C. Barnett

Mayor Bruce Harrell officially announced that Police Chief Adrian Diaz will be stepping into an unspecified new role in “special projects” this afternoon, at a crowded press conference in which Harrell also announced that former King County Sheriff Sue Rahr will serve as interim police chief while the city does a national search for Diaz’ permanent replacement.

As we reported in our initial story on Harrell’s decision to remove Diaz this morning, at least half a dozen women and one man, former assistant chief Eric Greening, have accused Diaz or other department officials of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and creating a misogynistic culture. Two of the lawsuits, by veteran police detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin and Captain Eric Greening, also allege racial discrimination. Bouldin and Greening are Black; Greening applied for the permanent police chief position when Diaz was interim and was demoted from assistant chief after Diaz won the permanent job.

In his remarks, Harrell did not mentioned the allegations against the chief and others in the department, instead praising Diaz as a visionary leader who had turned the department around and deserved nothing but respect. “His integrity, in my mind, is beyond reproach,” Harrell said. “He’s a human being, and a good human being at that.”

In his own brief remarks, Diaz cited his own accomplishments, including the creation of a course for police recruits that includes trainings by representatives from marginalized communities and meetings with community groups, before breaking down in tears. “I’ve accomplished so much in four years as chief, but there’s more work to be done. I passed that challenge along to [Rahr], and I’ll continue to support the city in [its] transition,” Diaz said.

Harrell would not elaborate on what Diaz’ “special projects” role would entail, or what his rank and salary will be. Diaz’ most recent rank in the department was lieutenant, but Harrell suggested it was unlikely he would be demoted back to his previous rank.

Asked to respond to the allegations against Diaz, which include sexually harassing female subordinates and putting them in situations that made them feel uncomfortable, Harrell declined, citing the fact that the lawsuits are ongoing and that the city has appointed an outside investigator to look into the allegations against Diaz and others in the department.

“I will not comment on any litigation, and that’s an unwise move by any stretch of the imagination,” Harrell said. “There’s a process for that, and it’s called due process for a reason, and so we’ll let the litigation and the claims play out.”

But by praising Diaz at length while verbally waving away the allegations against him, Harrell gave tacit credence to a vocal contingent of Diaz supporters who claim he is the victim of an internal conspiracy based on fabricated allegations.

Two of these supporters, Community Police Commission member Rev. Harriet Walden and SPD African American Advisory Council member Victoria Beach, who is an employee of the department, have suggested that all of the women who’ve sued the department are liars. In a press conference last week, Walden and Beach blamed the women’s allegations on racism and an internal “mutiny” at SPD. Both women expressed support for Diaz from the audience during Harrell’s press conference when he called on them during a question and answer period.

“I know for a fact that he’s going to be proven innocent,” Beach said. “I’m not the chief, but I would say the hell with all of this, and I would be out of there, and I would have the biggest lawsuit ever. This is wrong. Nobody is safe in the Seattle Police Department.”

Prior to working as an employee at SPD, Beach had a $63,000 contract through 2023 to “assist in the coordination of the various advisory councils that the department works with.”

In 2022 and 2023, Walden held a contract with the Human Services Department to conduct around 14 in-person or virtual “Virtues Healing Circles” per year; in the circles, participants draw “virtue cards” from a deck and discuss how the virtue listed on the card resonates with their personal experience. The goal is to create healing and supportive environments for people who have experienced trauma, such as gun violence. Walden’s contract also required her “to distribute Virtues Cards at community events and encourage others to host their own circles” and “attend events at the request of the City to respond to crises whenever feasible for Rev. Walden.”

When PubliCola reached out to Walden earlier this year to ask about her contract, she said that “until you have the experience [of participating in a Virtues Circle] I don’t have anything to say to you,” adding, “I’ve never had a contract with the city before, so why shouldn’t [I] have a contract with the city?” Beach did not respond to our request for comment at the time, and approached me on Wednesday to say that she did not “owe” me an interview (which, of course, neither she nor anyone else does.)

While the lawsuits wind their way through the courts, several insiders observed that Harrell’s effusive comments about Diaz’ performance could help him find a job as police chief elsewhere, which Diaz said he would be open to doing in the future. After Diaz broke down crying during his own brief remarks, Harrell said, “You can’t make up that kind of heart,” and claimed Diaz “gets calls all the time to lead other departments.”

“The city should have ultimate faith in the police department,” Harrell said. “We don’t make panic moves, we make strategic moves… If there’s one takeaway from this press conference, it’s that I stand with this fine leader.”

Rahr is an advisor for SPD’s 30 by 30 initiative—an effort aimed at increasing the number of female police recruits to 30 percent by 2030—and a national expert on police recruitment. At the end of the press conference, PubliCola asked Rahr whether she was concerned about the allegations of misogyny, harassment, and discrimination in the department and what she would do, if anything, to address what many women have described as a misogynistic culture at SPD.

“I’ll be honest with you, I have concerns about the culture of all police department,” Rahr said. “I don’t think the Seattle Police Department is worse or better than others. I think we have work to do in every department. One of the reasons I was very anxious to jump in is, I think the Seattle Police Department is open to doing something meaningful and implementing systemic change.”

Councilmember Rob Saka, who came to the press conference along with Councilmember Tanya Woo, said he stood by Harrell’s decision and declined—in response to a reporter’s repeated questions—to say that he “stands with” Diaz.  In a statement, council public safety committee chair Bob Kettle said the “gender equity issues identified by women within the department in the 30×30 Report. … are serious, they are real, and they need to be addressed. I am excited to work with Interim Chief Rahr to continue that work.”

During the public safety committee’s meeting on Tuesday, Saka raised questions about Diaz’ frequent use of security detail, asking rhetorically whether it makes sense to pay for the chief to have full security at all times, the same way the mayor does.

Speaking to PubliCola after the meeting, Saka said, “I do think it makes a lot of sense for the mayor to have executive protection at all times. And I think as a policy matter, we should question whether it makes sense, as a standard practice, to have the chief of police have equal executive services protection rather than protection in response to a specific threat. We are grossly understaffed and under-resourced today… We’re in a $260 million and growing budget deficit. So always thinking about how we can best help drive efficiencies and streamline things and optimize our investments,

Harrell said he anticipates the search for a new permanent police chief will take between four and six months; Rahr does not plan to apply for the job.