1. Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes expanded the police chief’s office and command staff earlier this year, adding a second deputy chief, a chief of staff, an assistant chief, an Executive Director of Crime and Community Harm Reduction, and a Chief Communications Officer, each earning between $222,000 and $302,000 a year.
Given that extensive restructure, PubliCola was surprised to learn about a separate, $100,000 contract SPD signed earlier this year to “conduct a leadership and positional inventory to review the structure, responsibilities, and operational effectiveness of executive roles within the Office of the Chief to enhance accountability, efficiency, and strategic alignment across SPD’s leadership team.”
The contractor, Public Sector Search and Consulting, previously led the national search for a new Seattle police chief in 2022, making $75,000 for a process that led to the appointment of then-SPD lieutenant Adrian Diaz. The following year, Peterson received $150,000 to conduct a second national search for an assistant chief and deputy chief in 2023; that search, too, concluded with the promotion of two internal candidates.
By the end of 2025, Public Sector Search and Consulting is supposed to produce a report on what each person on command staff does and how their work might be streamlined “to enhance efficiency”; a comparison of command-staff responsibilities between Seattle and similar-size cities, and “recommendations for leadership development that includes a succession planning framework to ensure long-term leadership stability and a recommendation to improve leadership training and mentorship programs.”
A spokesperson for SPD responded to PubliCola’s detailed questions with a statement saying the new contract is necessary “to ensure accountability, efficiency, and efficacy, and to allow for continuous improvement. … In keeping with his desire for feedback, Chief Shon Barnes values outside perspectives that are usually unbiased.”
2. Multiple sources have confirmed that incoming Mayor Katie Wilson has not decided yet whether to keep Barnes, who was directly appointed by Bruce Harrell without the usual public process, or find a new police chief. (The city council rubber-stamped Barnes’ appointment in July). In recent weeks, Barnes’ supporters have reportedly been engaged in an all-out lobbying effort, including a letter-writing campaign, aimed at Wilson’s transition team—which includes multiple people who are pushing Wilson to oust Harrell’s pick.
Barnes has come under internal and external scrutiny for some of his high-profile actions, which included firing SPD’s top two civilian staffers, accepting hiring and recruitment bonuses meant to boost the number of deployable rank-and-file officers, and appointing a captain infamous for driving his SUV onto a sidewalk filled with protesters to head up Capitol Hill’s East Precinct. As chief, Barnes has emphasized strategies he deployed in Madison, such as “stratified policing” (focusing on crime “hot spots” and putting more resources into more serious crimes) and “Seattle-centric policing” (like “Madison-centric policing,” but for Seattle).
Before coming to Seattle, he told an interviewer in Madison that God was sending him to be a “blessing to others” outside Wisconsin and “extending” the prayer he had previously granted when Barnes became Madison police chief in 2020.
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3, SPD hired another consultant—North Carolina-based Tufano Media—to do a three-day “command-level media training” for SPD command and executive-level staff in January. According to a memo about the event, the training will focus on “strengthening the department’s communication strategy, improving media engagement, and preparing leadership to effectively communicate, both internally and externally.”
The lessons will cover topics like the “Anatomy of an effective press briefing,” “Advanced presence and tone control,” and “Strategies for managing hostile or misleading questions,” according to the overview.
SPD’s media relations department did not respond to PubliCola’s detailed questions about their media relations training, including how much the training will cost the city, how Tufano’s firm was chosen, or why the department is paying for command and executive staff to attend a media training so soon after a similar series of media trainings for command and executive staff just last year.
Instead, they provided a statement describing the trainings as a move toward transparency: “The Seattle Police Department believes that the public has a right to know what is happening in their city when it comes to public safety. Given leadership changes during 2025, we are preparing our current Command staff to be trained by a national expert. Speaking to the public through Seattle’s media is an important skill and one that doesn’t come easy to everyone, which is why Chief Barnes is providing people with training and practice.”
PubliCola, I appreciate your tenacity regarding this issue. Funny how SPD’s “commitment to transparency” disappears when questions are asked. It’s not doing much to inspire any trust in SPD by regular folks like me. Keep doing what you’re doing!
You are about as regular as the next guy I guess. A bit self important but regular.
I like that Chief Barnes is a former teacher. It gives him a different and welcome perspective than what you find with most police chiefs. I am concerned however about continued abuse of power and the desire to return to pre-consent decree lack of accountability. A bigger part of the SPD problem is people like Mike Solan (SPOG president) who incredibly said the consent decree was not necessary. It is THAT “blue code of silence” mindset that needs to change, and it is unclear whether Barnes is the right person to bring about that change. There is also the important issue of changing the focus to community policing and expanding the use of non-police CARE officers for calls that don’t require the police. It appears that Barnes still wants a police officer dispatched with a CARE officer, when this kind of defeats the purpose of defusing incidents so they do NOT become police matters.
I personally like Sacramento Chief Kathy Lester who has championed community policing her entire career. Another great option would be San Francisco Deputy Chief Nicole Jones if she is passed over in favor of Derrick Lew. Jones has publicly called for alternatives to police for many calls, and is therefore more in-line with what Katie is trying to do at SPD.
I’d recommend looking into Barnes’s intervention to dramatically reduce the discipline of Ofc. Nathan Patterson after Patterson badly beat an unarmed homeless man. OPA (not generally known for assigning harsh discipline) recommended a 15 day suspension and Barnes reduced it to 1 day with no public explanation.
Barnes also reduced the discipline for an officer who ran a stop sign and hit a bicyclist, even though that officer has caused several other traffic accidents.