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.