During the holidays, a rotating group of deputies will take over for Police Chief Shon Barnes, who’s out of town.
1. If you’re wondering who’s in charge at the Seattle Police Department during the historically busy holiday season, including New Year’s Eve, it isn’t Police Chief Shon Barnes, who’s been taking a two-week vacation since December 20. Barnes’ family lives in Chicago, and he has not bought a home in Seattle, continuing a practice from his days as police chief in Madison, Wisconsin, when his family remained in Chicago.
During Barnes’ absence, the role of Acting Chief of Police will rotate between Deputy Chief Yvonne Underwood, Assistant Chief Tyrone Davis, and Deputy Chief Andre Sayles. Underwood and Davis were at SPD prior to Barnes’ arrival; Sayles was previously police chief in Beloit, Wisconsin, a small town outside Madison with a population of 36,000.
Police chiefs are generally expected to be on call for incidents that happen outside regular working hours, including on weekends, evenings, and holidays, and typically show up in person at events that involve a major police response, which isn’t possible when the chief is out of town.
SPD’s communications office did not respond to a list of questions about Barnes’ lengthy absence. Earlier this year, when PubliCola asked why Barnes was spending almost every weekend out of town, a spokesperson told us that crime was down and that Barnes was “tirelessly working to protect the Seattle community.”
Historically, Seattle’s police chiefs have lived in or near Seattle full-time, as have other high-ranking SPD officials, making Barnes’ administration an outlier. At least three of Barnes’ top staffers reportedly rent apartments in Seattle while their families live in their permanent homes out of state.
During Barnes’ time out of the office, he will earn just under $12,500.
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2. SPD’s communications office also declined to respond to questions about two recent operations—one involving alleged “human trafficking” at a strip club on Aurora, and one about the “Dear John” letters SPD sends to men whose cars they photograph during sting operations targeting menwho pay for sex. The department announced both anti-prostitution operations with blog posts claiming success at fighting sexual exploitation, the legal term the city uses to describe any exchange of money for sex, but said they could not answer any questions about either announcement because “This [sic] is an open investigation.”
Another spokesperson declined to provide copies of the three police reports related to their strip club sting, telling us to file a records request. (In the past, SPD put police reports online, but they have made these public records increasingly inaccessible). PubliCola does not file records requests with SPD because they do not meaningfully respond to them. In 2025, SPD provided a single one-page document in response to one of our 10 unfulfilled requests, which go back to 2023, giving us a new “placeholder date” of December 31, 2026 for the rest of our requests.
A spokesperson for the King County Prosecutor’s Office said the city has not referred any cases from the strip club sting for charging or a first appearance, despite the seriousness of SPD’s allegations—human trafficking is a Class A felony.
As for the “Dear John” notices, which are designed to embarrass men who pay for sex and potentially sprak explosive conflicts with their partners,, SPD did eventually provide the sample letter we requested. It says the women and girls who work on Aurora are “almost always the victims of criminal trafficking” and that prostitution “is not a victimless crime.”
The letters include photos taken by police conducting the stings and note that any vehicle used when buying sex is subject to impoundment, with fees that “often exceed $2,000” to get a vehicle back.
SPD’s legal counsel reportedly argued against sending the letters on the grounds that people have a right to privacy in their own homes, opening the department up to potential lawsuits.
Police Chief Shon Barnes speaks at a press conference.
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.”
This morning, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes fired two of SPD’s top civilian staff, Chief Operating Officer Brian Maxey and General Counsel Rebecca Boatright. The two were members of Barnes’ command staff, and both had worked under multiple police chiefs for a decade.
According to internal sources, Barnes relies heavily on a small, tight-knit team of staffers he hired from outside SPD, including chief of staff Alan Ricketts, crime and Community Harm Reduction Director Lee Hunt, and communications director Barb DeLollis, along with deputy chief Yvonne Underwood. Barnes’ decision to bring in a large cadre of executive-level staff has created a budget issue at SPD, because the chief only has a certain number of executive positions, or “pockets,” he can fill on a permanent basis; firing Maxey and Boatright potentially gives Barnes the authority to move some of his new staff into these permanent roles.
Barnes’ inner circle, which multiple insiders have described as reflexively supportive of the chief’s ideas, did not include Maxey or Boatright, who pushed back on some of his proposals as impractical or politically nuclear. Both were reportedly blindsided repeatedly by some of Barnes’ decisions, including some that blew up publicly for reasons that might have been obvious to people with longer tenure at SPD.
For example, when we reported that Barnes had appointed Michael Tietjen, a former lieutenant who was disciplined for injuring and endangering protesters in 2020 (and who failed to report alleged harassment against a trans woman by officers under his command), Barnes was apparently shocked by the public blowback and angry that no one had warned him Tietjen would be controversial.
After our story ran, Barnes reportedly launched an investigation into who “leaked” the information about the promotion, which SPD had announced on their own Instagram page. There have been multiple efforts to find out who is “leaking” to reporters, including when PubliCola reported on the salaries and bonuses Barnes and his new staff are receiving.
Compared to previous police chiefs, Barnes reportedly spends more time in his office and less time talking directly with sworn officers and others on SPD staff, SPD sources say. Since Harrell hired him earlier this year, Barnes has held one full meeting of his senior command staff.
Boatright and Maxey both worked on SPD’s efforts to comply with a federal consent decree imposed on the department in 2012 in response to allegations of racial bias, excessive force, and inadequate accountability for officers who violate SPD policies or the law. As SPD’s most senior civilian leaders, they carried institutional knowledge about the conditions that landed SPD under federal oversight as well as the reasons the city adopted specific accountability measures in the past.
Without talking to people with institutional knowledge about things like accountability, past contract negotiations, and the relationship between SPD and the public, some worry that Barnes is making decisions untethered from important, Seattle-specific context.
Boatright and Maxey reportedly disagreed with Barnes on some decisions and department initiatives. These included SPD’s recently announced “Dear John” operation, in which SPD detectives stake out men paying for sex on Aurora Ave. N and photograph their cars, sending the photos, along with letters saying they were seen participating in “illegal sexual exploitation,” to the vehicles’ registered owners. The theory behind the surveil-and-shame operation, which deputy Seattle City Attorney Scott Lindsay has been pushing for years, is that embarrassing men who pay for sex, and potentially setting off explosive conflicts with their partners, will reduce the demand for sex work.
It’s unclear whether Harrell directed Barnes to remove Boatright and Maxey, or if he even knew Barnes planned to fire the pair. Harrell’s office declined to answer our questions, saying, “We would defer to SPD related to internal personnel decisions.” (None of our questions for the mayor were about SPD’s internal decision making).
SPD responded to our questions with this statement: “This message is to inform you that Brian Maxey and Becca Boatright are no longer serving in their roles as COO and General Counsel. They served the public with honor. We do not discuss personnel matters. More information regarding the department’s organizational structure will be forthcoming.”
1. Two weeks ago after PubliCola reported that Police Chief Shon Barnes had picked controversial police captain Mike Tietjen to head up Capitol Hill’s East Precinct, Barnes announced internally that he was removing Tietjen, blaming our “recent article that has raised unease within the East Precinct, leading to a crisis of confidence among our LGBTQIA+ community members.”
As of Thursday, though, Tietjen was still in charge of the precinct, with no clear timeline for replacing him. An SPD spokesperson responded to a list of questions from PubliCola by saying, that “no movement has been made of yet. I do not have a timeline for completion at this time.”
Tietjen has been a high-profile, controversial figure at SPD since at least 2007, when he and his bike patrol partner were accused of planting drugs on a man and arresting him. City investigators later concluded that Tietjen and his partner lied about the arrest (and likely pocketed weed belonging to the suspect). The allegations raised questions about the two men’s credibility in 17 other drug and firearms cases.
More recently, Tietjen became notorious for his actions during the 2020 protests against police brutality after driving onto a sidewalk toward a group of protesters, calling them “cockroaches” when they fled the path of his unmarked SUV. (Tietjen was suspended for that incident and another in which he shoved a protester into a bus stop, slamming their head). During the same period, Tietjen failed to report an incident in which a group of officers, including one who was his direct report, allegedly harassed a trans woman in Capitol Hill, asking her if she “had a dick under” her skirt.
SPD did not respond to PubliCola’s questions about why Tietjen is still at the East Precinct and the process for replacing him.
2. During a recent meeting with restaurant owners at a West Seattle cafe, Mayor Bruce Harrell appeared to commit to considering the reinstatement of the “tip credit” for restaurants or other “exemptions” that could make it less expensive to run their businesses.
Seattle’s minimum wage law, passed in 2015, included a “tip credit” that allowed employers to pay sub-minimum wages as long as their workers made enough in tips to bring their overall “minimum compensation” to the city minimum.
The conversation was overheard by a bystander who provided a brief recording of the conversation to PubliCola. In the recording, Harrell can be heard saying that if reelected, “I fully commit, in January, to convene just restaurants” to discuss “what the city can do, from a policy perspective,” to help them deal with Seattle’s high minimum wage—”whether it’s exemptions, or re-discussion of the tip credit, I’ll have that discussion.”
Contacted by PubliCola, a spokesman for the mayor said, “Rolling back the minimum wage and reinstating the tip credit is not a policy we’re considering now or in the future. The mayor will always meet with small businesses to hear their ideas[.]”
The 2015 minimum wage law, passed unanimously by a city council that included Harrell, gave restaurants and other businesses that rely on customers to pay their workers’ wages through tips 10 years to adjust to the fact that they would have to pay the full minimum wage in 2025. Last year, Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth tried unsuccessfully to preserve the tip credit indefinitely.
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3. Harrell’s proposed budget preserves cuts made last year to the Department of Construction and Inspections’ tenant assistance program, which the city reduced from about $2.4 million to $1.6 million between 2024 and 2025. The tenant services program pays for counseling, legal aid, education, and other assistance to tenants facing eviction or navigating landlord-tenant conflicts. Some of organizations whose city funding was cut or remained flat this year include the Tenants Union, United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, Solid Ground, and the Housing Justice Project, along with half a dozen others.
Harrell’s 2026 budget proposal includes no inflation adjustments, meaning that in real terms, nonprofits whose funding stayed flat will continue to experience reductions in their ability to pay staff salaries and other costs that are funded through SDCI.
In a letter to the city council earlier this month, seven groups that depend on city funding to operate their programs asked the council to reverse the cuts made last year and add more funding to address inflation and augment programs at a time when evictions and homelessness are approaching record highs. The most cost-effective way to address homelessness is prevention, by helping people stay housed,” the organizations wrote. “When rental assistance is paired with tenant services it becomes far more effective, ensuring resources are used efficiently to keep people stably housed.”
Progressive Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck reportedly plans to introduce a budget amendment that would add $1 million to the budget for tenant services, restoring last year’s cut and addressing some of the inflationary cost increases over the past two years.
Last year, then-councilmember Tammy Morales did manage to get $355,000 in the budget to reduce the mayor’s proposed cuts to tenant services, but failed to get support for restoring another $456,000 in cuts. The council is similarly constituted this year, with Rinck, rather than Morales, as the lone consistent progressive on a centrist council focused on boosting the police budget, not helping tenants access legal aid.
We’ve reached out to Rinck about her amendment and will update this post if we hear back.
Police Chief Shon Barnes, flanked by Council President Sara Nelson and Mayor Bruce Harrell
In theory, the new contract allows the CARE Team to respond to more call types. In practice, it says they can’t go to homeless encampments, residences, businesses, or calls where a person is using drugs or being “confrontational.”
By Erica C. Barnett
This morning, Mayor Bruce Harrell and Police Chief Shon Barnes announced the new police contract we reported on yesterday, including starting salaries of $118,000 for new recruits, rising to $126,000 in six months.
Sergeants’ pay will increase from a base wage of $140,000 ($146,000 after six months) to $159,000 ($167,000 after six months). After 18 months on the job, new cops and sergeants will make $132,000 and $177,000, respectively.
In 2021, the starting pay for a brand-new police officer was $83,000 a year. Last year, Harrell signed a three-year retroactive contract that raised Seattle police salaries to the highest in Washington state. Once the new round of raises go into effect, that number will have gone up by $35,000—a remarkable 42 percent pay increase in just five years. New officers also receive bonuses ranging from $7,500 for new recruits to $50,000 for officers transferring from other departments.
“This contract ensures Seattle will remain competitive with other major city police departments and adds incentives for the skills that modern policing requires,” including a 1.5 percent or 4 percent salary boost for officers with two- or four-year criminal-justice degrees, Harrell said Wednesday.
“These recruitment improvements will allow us to build a police force that reflects our community’s diversity and meets the demands of 21st century public safety with respect to accountability. This contract delivers significant account accountability reforms that address concerns raised by the accountability entities and the community, and builds on the successful resolution of the federal consent period earlier this year. ”
In fact, the contract includes just two changes related to accountability. First, it simplifies a 180-day “clock” for disciplinary decisions, removing some carveouts that have contributed to very long delays between the time when someone files a misconduct complaint and when it gets resolved.
Second, it allows sergeants, rather than the Office of Police Accountability, to determine discipline for misconduct that doesn’t rise to the level of a fireable offense. Whether this is an improvement to accountability, as opposed to a simplification of OPA’s workload, remains to be seen; the federal consent decree SPD was under until earlier this year called precinct-level discipline “admittedly ‘appalling,’ quoting an OPA supervisor), so bringing this kind of discipline back inside SPD will have good or bad consequences depending on how sergeants use this new authority.
Bob Kettle, head of the city council’s public safety committee, said bringing discipline back in-house would produce better sergeants, which would lead to “better lieutenants, captains, assistant chiefs, deputy chiefs, and maybe chiefs of the future. We have to invest in our leaders early to get the return later.”
One accountability issue the contract does not address is arbitration—an outside process police officers can use to get disciplinary decisions overturned Harrell’s chief of staff Andrew Myerberg said the two sides remain at an impasse on arbitration because the Seattle Police Officers Guild does not want to make concessions on four separate issues related to discipline.
Under the current arbitration rules, officers can bring in new evidence and witnesses that the city hasn’t seen, and the arbitrator can use any standard of proof they want to decide whether a cop is guilty of misconduct. For example, arbitrators can require the city to present “clear and convincing” evidence that an person is guilty of misconduct that justifies the punishment they received. Arbitrators can also completely relitigate an officer’s case after the fact (known as de novo review).
Myerberg said the city couldn’t get SPOG to bend on changes to these requirements, as well as a request for a new standard saying that an arbitrator can’t overturn a disciplinary decision (such as firing) by the police chief unless the chief’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious.”
All those issues are now heading to interest arbitration between the city and SPOG, a secondary bargaining process overseen by the state Public Employee Relations Commission. If the city succeeds in placing more guardrails on arbitration, it will come at a cost—likely additional salary increases for officers in exchange for agreeing to restrictions on arbitration.
“The city had an opportunity to finally deliver on the promise of the 2017 accountability ordinance, to build a system where misconduct is investigated swiftly and discipline can stick. Unfortunately, this contract largely maintains the status quo,” Jazmyn Clark, smart justice policy program director for the ACLU-WA, said. “While some procedural clarifications are welcome, meaningful accountability reforms, especially around arbitration and disciplinary appeals, remain unresolved. Public confidence in the police cannot grow if the mechanisms for accountability are still subject to closed-door processes.”
As Harrell telegraphed earlier this year, the CARE Team, a group of social workers that currently responds alongside SPD to certain 911 calls, will be allowed to expand without restriction in the future and can respond to more types of calls, including behavioral-health calls from the public and requests for shelter and transportation from people on the streets.
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During Wednesday’s announcement—and before she had actually seen the new contract—CARE Department Chief Amy Barden said the changes would allow the CARE Team to respond to up to 47,000 calls a year.
However, the contract language actually places so many restrictions on what types of calls CARE can respond to that the true number of eligible calls is likely much lower. What’s more, the contract actually prohibits CARE from responding to exactly the kind of calls Barden has repeatedly said are more appropriate for social workers than armed police.
Under the new agreement (which CARE played no direct role in negotiating), SPD won’t allow CARE to respond to 911 calls on their own, and will instead send armed police officers, in the following circumstances:
If a person is anywhere besides a public space, such as a car, business, or residence;
If a person is in a homeless encampment, defined as four or more tents;
If there has been any report of “aggressive or threatening behavior towards others, destructive or confrontational behavior, or behavior posing a danger to others”;
If “drug paraphernalia” is present, indicating drug use;
If a minor is present;
If there is an “indication” that the person has committed any crime;
If the person is exhibiting “extreme behavior that might warrant investigation for a potential involuntary commitment (e.g., public nakedness accompanied by crisis.”
This list arguably covers most circumstances in which CARE might be called to respond to a person in crisis. Under these criteria, CARE can’t respond to a call about someone living in permanent supportive housing or staying in a shelter, or someone whose behavior stems from public drug use. They can’t respond to a person in their car or who has wandered into a business, or someone who lives in a tent that’s near other tents. Barden
Many of the terms in the list are subjective, leaving it up to officers to decide whether a person is being “confrontational” or if their behavior is “extreme.” (The example given in the contract, of someone who takes their clothes off while “in crisis,” is a good reason not to let SPD decide which calls require police—people who remove their clothes in public are often using drugs that make them hot, which doesn’t on its own mean someone needs to be involuntarily committed).
The contract still has to be lawyered and approved by the city council before it can go into effect. Historically, dissent on police contracts is rare, since rejecting a contract would force the city back into negotiations—a process that, with the exception of this year’s speedy approval, typically takes years.
Those new salary figures don’t include overtime, paid at time and a half, which accounted for about 500,000 police hours in 2025. In a budget paper, the city council’s central staff noted that SPD is proposing to include less than 500,000 hours in the budget for the second year in a row; last year’s initial budget funded 489,000 hours, but the council had to amend that during the year to add 11,000 hours at a cost of $1.2 million.
The salaries also don’t include recruiting bonuses that range from $7,500 for new recruits to $50,000 for fully trained officers transferring from other departments (including Police Chief Shon Barnes, who accepted this “lateral” bonus on top of his $360,000 salary earlier this year.)
The retroactive contract the city approved last year did not include any meaningful new accountability measures, such as progress toward implementing a 2017 accountability ordinance that called for major changes in the way officers are investigated and disciplined for misconduct. At the time, supporters of the retroactive contract generally agreed that it was important to make sure officers got paid as soon as possible for the years they worked under an expired contract, and that significant new accountability measures would be part of the 2024-2027 agreement.
Because the new spending on officer salaries is retroactive to 2024, meaning that police officers will get back pay for 2024 and 2025 to bring their pay for those years up to the amounts in the new contract. Although the city sets aside reserves to pay for negotiated increases to officer pay, these increased costs become an ongoing part of the city’s budget, adding to projected deficits in the hundreds of millions of dollars starting in 2027.
Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes (l) and Michael Tietjen (center) pose during a celebration of Tietjen’s promotion to captain of Capitol Hill’s East Precinct
By Erica C. Barnett
Two days after PubliCola exclusively reported that Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes had promoted controversial police lieutenant Michael Tietjen to captain and put him in charge of Capitol Hill’s East Precinct, Barnes announced internally that he was removing Tietjen and appointing a new commander for the precinct.
In an internal email to SPD command staff, Barnes blamed our article for “leading to a crisis of confidence among our LGBTQIA+ community members” and said his decision stemmed from “internal leaks” and “a lack of comprehensive input from those involved in employee assignments” for his decision to remove Tietjen.
Tietjen became infamous during the 2020 protests against police violence after he drove his unmarked SUV onto a sidewalk full of people and, when they scattered, referred to them as “cockroaches.” His punishment in that case was being reassigned to a different precinct. Tietjen was suspended without pay for another protest-related incident, in which he shoved a person who was trying to render aid to a demonstrator blinded by tear gas into a bus stop, slamming the man’s head into the structure.
That same summer, Tietjen was reprimanded for failing to act when he was in an SUV full of police who allegedly harassed a trans woman, asking her if she “had a dick under” her skirt. Tiejten has a child who is part of the LGBTQ+ community, from whom he is estranged.
In the email, Barnes blamed “internal leaks within our department” as well as PubliCola’s article for creating “unease” that forced his hand.
Among the immediate concerns is a recent article that has raised unease within the East Precinct, leading to a crisis of confidence among our LGBTQIA+ community members. This situation has prompted several community partners to withdraw their support. To address this, I will be reassigning our East Precinct Commander and appointing a new leader to help restore our community engagement efforts. This decision stems from a lack of comprehensive input from those involved in employee assignments and internal leaks within our department. My priority is to always restore trust within our community.
Far from resulting from “leaks,” Barnes’ decision reportedly received massive internal and external pushback after PubliCola reported it. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office reportedly did not support Tietjen’s appointment and may have been blindsided by the decision.
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
At a recent debate, Harrell, who is seeking a second term, called Barnes a “superstar” who could “work for any department in this country”. “[He’s] a PhD, he’s a Marine, he’s smart, and he has a great command team,” Harrell said of Barnes.
After this article ran, SPD provided the following statement:
This summer, SPD proudly continued to build support and collaboration across the community of Seattle through extensive neighborhood meetings and district public safety forums.
After a recent standard promotion process where we promoted several highly qualified candidates, we received additional information and feedback that had not been previously surfaced. As Mayor Harrell has said, we are a learning organization, and the SPD executive team took this as an opportunity to improve the process. Moving forward, promotional decisions will feature a full review of the person’s history to ensure we place the right candidate in the right position. As a department, we are committed to bolstering relationships throughout Seattle and continuous improvement.
Joel Merkel, the co-chair of the Community Police Commission, told PubliCola after our story came out that promoting Tietjen to head up the East Precinct raised concerns about Chief Barnes’ “knowledge and insight into SPD’s history history and dynamics … particularly as we’re trying to change the culture of SPD.”
We’ve reached out to SPD for comment.
Barnes’ letter went on to say that if SPD leaders aren’t “aligned with” the department’s strategy toward “human trafficking along the Aurora Street corridor.”” they should “have an open conversation with me or consider their place within our department.”
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PubliCola reported yesterday on the promotion of Marc Garth Green, a former deputy chief who was demoted by former chief Carmen Best after he made insensitive comments about sex workers on Aurora Ave. N in 2019, saying that many of them “liked” being out there. Garth Green was defending a policy SPD had at the time of arresting sex workers, rather than focusing on buyers. Currently, SPD uses elaborate sting operations to catch men trying to pay for sex, a misdemeanor; these operations, which require special training and can involve as many as 20 officers, have long been a staple of SPD’s response to street sex work.
SPD’s “ongoing initiative to combat human trafficking along the Aurora Street corridor has faced internal resistance,” Barnes wrote. “I want to reiterate that both I and the mayor’s office fully support this program. Leadership sometimes involves taking risks, and I firmly believe that proactive measures are necessary, even in the face of opposition. Those who are not aligned with this mission are encouraged to have an open conversation with me or consider their place within our department.”
Barnes also noted that there has been “scrutiny regarding the sharing of public records with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” a reference to independent journalist Glen Stellmacher’s story alleging that SPD expedites public disclosure requests from ICE while using delay tactics like “grouping” to delay records requests from citizens and journalists. Under this policy, SPD takes multiple requests from the same requester or media outlet and “groups” them all into one single mega-request, responding to individual requests one at a time in full before moving on to the next one.
“While we are still clarifying the specifics of this situation, please prepare for potential media coverage that may highlight our actions without complete context,” Barnes wrote. “Our focus will be on ensuring transparency and working closely with the mayor’s office on a response, given the sensitivity surrounding immigration issues in our city.”
During Barnes’ absence, the role of Acting Chief of Police will rotate between Deputy Chief Yvonne Underwood, Assistant Chief Tyrone Davis, and Deputy Chief Andre Sayles. Underwood and Davis were at SPD prior to Barnes’ arrival; Sayles was previously police chief in Beloit, Wisconsin, a small town outside Madison with a population of 36,000.
As of Thursday, though, Tietjen was still in charge of the precinct, with no clear timeline for replacing him. An SPD spokesperson responded to a list of questions from PubliCola by saying, that “no movement has been made of yet. I do not have a timeline for completion at this time.”