Tag: Shon Barnes

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.

Mayor Wilson, Police

Confrontation With Reporter Was Just “Passion on Full Display,” Police Chief Says; OPA Complaint Filed

After the chief twice mischaracterized PubliCola’s reporting, SPD confirmed the chief planned two weeks off before Sunday’s tragedy at Seattle Center.

By Erica C. Barnett

During a briefing on the mass shooting at the Bite of Seattle at Seattle Center on Sunday, Police Chief Shon Barnes responded to a few questions about his claim that PubliCola’s reporting on his whereabouts and schedule has been inaccurate. (Yesterday, Barnes lashed out at South Seattle Emerald reporter Connor Nash, who politely asked about my reporting on Barnes’ planned two-week absence, saying my stories were “wrong.” Clips of the confrontation quickly went viral.)

After telling me (inaccurately) that I had reported he would be out of town for “the entire month of August,” Barnes said, “I have a medical procedure on Friday. If I’m good to go, I’ll be in the office as my usual cheerful and bubbly self. But if not, I’ll take all the time that I need to make sure that that I’m okay.”

Barnes did not answer my followup question about how long he had originally planned to be out of the office before the shooting forced him to return from a conference in Dallas. (“Asked and answered,” he said.) After the press conference, SPD media staff told me the two weeks he had planned to take off actually extended from July 22 to August 3, with a planned return on August 4. The comms folks didn’t how much additional time the chief might have to take off because of his medical procedure.

Another reporter said she wanted to give Barnes an opportunity to “quash” criticism of his “heated exchange” with Nash about my reporting.

Barnes disputed that characterization, told the reporter, “I respect our media,” and said his reaction—which prompted his chief of staff, Alex Ricketts, to insert himself between Barnes and Nash and hustle the chief away—was just an example of being “passionate about what I do as a police officer” and “community member.”

“Sometimes that passion is in full display, especially if someone is questioning my work ethic or my integrity,” Barnes continued. “You know, having a two-year-old shot should evoke strong emotions in people.”

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Since his confrontation with Nash, at least one person has filed a complaint against Barnes with the city’s Office of Police Accountability, alleging that he violated a section of SPD’s policy manual that requires SPD employees to “treat everyone with respect and courtesy, guarding against an officious or overbearing attitude and refraining from language, demeanor, and actions that may cause the individual feeling belittled, ridiculed, or intimidated.”

Referring to published videos of the confrontation, the complaint continues, “Connor appears fearful and intimidated by Chief Barnes in this video. This violent outburst coming from the Police Chief, who is presumably armed during this encounter is completely unacceptable. Officers would be disciplined for behaving this way toward any community member. The fact the Chief left the room and then returned to begin this confrontation makes this more concerning.”

At Tuesday’s press conference, Barnes took another opportunity to dispute something I reported. Since former mayor Bruce Harrell hired him as interim chief in December 2024, Barnes’ wife and kids have continued to live in their family home in Chicago while he rents an apartment in Seattle. More than a year ago, I reported that Barnes was out of town for more than half the weekends during a four-month period for which I requested his schedule.

Asked how often he’s in Chicago (by—credit where it’s due—right-wing activist Jonathan Choe), Barnes again mischaracterized my reporting, saying “any reports that I’m gone every weekend are grossly misstated. I don’t have that kind of money.” (Since he brought it up, Barnes makes $373,000 a year and got a $50,000 signing bonus when he started.)

“I’m here in Seattle. I love the neighborhood that I live in. I love my community. They love me. They know me. They see me all the time,” Barnes said. “So I feel good about being here in Seattle. I love this community.”

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.

Crime, Police

SPD Dedicates Three Officers to Magnuson Park, Citing Success with “Disorder” and Property Crimes During Pilot
City Councilmember Maritza Rivera and Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes

By Erica C. Barnett

Citing a “double-digit” reduction in crime since the launch of a pilot that added police patrols in and around Northeast Seattle’s Magnuson Park last summer, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes announced that SPD will assign three full-time officers to the park. The officers will report to the North Precinct, and will essentially be on call there if needed, but otherwise, their jobs will involve patrolling the park and doing what Barnes calls “neighborhood-oriented policing.”

PubliCola first reported on the pilot expansion in January.

Barnes said SPD chose Magnuson Park, which is surrounded by some of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods, “because it’s the second largest park in our city [and] we have housing on the property”—hundreds of low-income and affordable units run by Mercy Housing and Solid Ground.

“We also chose this location because I heard from the community about … the rise in disorder crimes” such as noisy parties and street racing, Barnes said.

In the expanded program, SPD will assign three full-time officers, working in pairs to do bike and foot patrols in and around the park, getting to know people who live in the area and “fulfilling our obligation of problem oriented policing and community policing, which is the hallmark of my leadership philosophy,” Barnes said. The officers will be assigned to the North Precinct and will still be expected to respond to calls from other areas if necessary.

Asked why the city didn’t expand the Magnuson pilot into neighborhoods that have experienced more crime, like Rainier Beach or Little Saigon, Barnes said, “It’s not always about [putting resources in] the highest-crime area. One of the reasons we chose this particular location [is that] it’s our second biggest park. It has homes here as well. We’re hearing from the community. It just seemed like a good place to start and kind of work through some of those bugs.”

SPD has assigned new police academy graduates “who are not quite ready for patrol” to the area around 12th and Jackson, Barnes added. Additionally, “We’re looking at a space now, I believe at Third and Pine, that could be available for us” in the future. An SPD spokeswoman declined to provide additional details about the space Barnes mentioned.

City Councilmember Maritza Rivera, who represents Northeast Seattle, said there are “people living in the park that I very much care about, and I want to make sure that our families and the kids that are living here at Mercy Housing and Solid Ground are living in a safe environment, as well as the surrounding neighbors and all the people that come to visit the park.”

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The “double-digit” crime reduction Barnes mentioned appears to refer to a drop in reported crimes during the 90-day pilot period compared to the same period in 2024.

SPD’s public crime database shows that the number of reported crimes in the Sand Point neighborhood, which includes Magnuson Park, shows that there were 113 fewer reported crimes during the pilot period than the same period in 2024. However, a broader look at crime trends in the area and in Seattle as a whole shows that crime was lower across the city last year, and continues to trend lower in 2026 than in 2025, indicating a more general reduction in crime than the success of a specific pilot in one area.

One of the most infamous incidents of police violence in Seattle happened in Magnuson Park several years ago, before former mayor Bruce Harrell hired Barnes away from his previous position in Madison, Wisconsin. In 2017, officers shot and killed Charleena Lyles, a Black mother of four who called 911 during a mental health crisis, in her apartment. Lyles’ killing was one of the incidents that spurred calls for unarmed first responders with social work backgrounds to assist people in crisis. Although the city never admitted liability, Seattle paid $3.5 million in 2021 to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit by Lyles’ family.

SPD’s press event took place about 700 feet from where Lyles was killed.

When a TV reporter asked about past “officer-involved shootings” (shootings by police) in the park, Barnes appeared confused. “Officer-involved shootings?” he said.

After the reporter, who did not mention Lyles by name, attempted to elaborate— “there have been some tense events that have happened in the past”— Barnes responded: “I think no matter if it’s Magnuson Park or any other area in the city, we want to make sure that we’re policing in a way that’s procedurally just and that’s according to the expectations of our community. … That’s what policing is to me—knowing the people who may be dealing with issues, the people who may be dealing with mental health crisis, because when you know them and you can communicate with them, you have better outcomes.”

Morning Fizz, Police

SPD’s National Recruitment Push Includes Police Chief’s Alma Mater; Chief Attended Tiny Desk Concert with Security In Tow

1. Seattle Police Department officers are traveling across the country on a college recruitment tour, including a five-day trip this week to the Central Intercollegiate Athletics Association (CIAA)  basketball tournament in Baltimore. The CIAA includes a dozen Division II Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including Police Chief Shon Barnes’ alma mater, Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

A spokesperson told PubliCola last week that the department also “plans one coordinated annual recruitment trip that includes multiple universities in close geographic proximity, including several Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Consolidating multiple campus visits into a single trip allows for efficient use of travel resources while expanding outreach to historically underrepresented populations in law enforcement. These efforts are intentional, strategic, and aligned with our long-term workforce diversity goals.”

The SPD spokesperson said the inclusion of Barnes’ alma mater, which has about 2,300 students, was coincidental.

“The department prioritizes events that provide demonstrated applicant yield, and broad and diverse candidate pools,” the spokesperson said. “Our goal is to use our finite recruitment resources where they will produce measurable impact while expanding awareness of opportunities in Seattle.”

A majority of the CIAA colleges have fewer than 2,000 students, and several have student bodies in the hundreds. The spokesperson said SPD has no specific metric for measuring whether a recruitment event was an effective use of city resources, such as the number of people who applied after an event.

“Recruitment success is measured through overall applicant pipeline growth, diversity metrics, and long-term hiring outcomes rather than a single-event numeric target,” the spokesperson said. “Since implementing a more strategic and dedicated recruitment approach, SPD has seen applicant numbers reach historic levels.”

In fact, recruitment spiked shortly after the city signed a labor agreement with the police guild that boosted starting salaries to nearly $120,000, and more than $126,000 after a six-month training period, making Seattle one of the highest-paying police departments in the country. The raises represented a 42 percent pay boost over just five years.

The recruitment tour has included other stops outside the Pacific Northwest. This month alone, according to SPD’s recruitment events page, SPD has sent recruitment teams to a women’s softball tournament in Clearwater, Florida, as well as a Rutgers University event in Piscatawy, New Jersey; the University of Idaho; Brigham Young University; Utah Valley University; and Utah State University.

With the exception of the CIAA schools and Rutgers, most of the colleges and universities where SPD is holding recruitment events, including those in the Pacific Northwest, have student bodies that are more than 70 percent white.

The spokesperson said Barnes did not participate directly in the recruitment events.

Conservative talk show host Jason Rantz reported today that SPD was the “corporate sponsor” for the CIAA tournament and wrote the group a $25,000 check. We have reached out to SPD to ask whether they believe this sponsorship complies with state law prohibiting gifts of public funds.

Screenshot via YouTube.

2. Barnes did take a trip to Washington D.C. recently, accompanied by his security detail, where he attended a recording of a Tiny Desk Concert by Jill Scott, part of the long-running NPR series. A photo Barnes posted on Facebook shows him in the crowd, along with two members of his security.

SPD did not immediately respond to a question about how much it cost to provide Barnes with security while he attended the NPR concert. A spokesman told us late Wednesday afternoon that Barnes was in D.C. last November to attend the Active Bystander for Law Enforcement conference, “a nationally recognized program that trains officers to intervene when they spot officer misconduct and provides resources for officer health and wellness.”

Police, Women

In 2025, 90 Percent of New SPD Hires Were Men
Social media image for SPD’s ongoing “Come As You Are” recruitment campaign.

“We acknowledge we must do better to meet the 30×30 commitment but as we move into 2026, we will continue our work to resemble the community we serve,” a department spokesperson said.

By Erica C. Barnett

The Seattle Police Department hired just 17 women in 2025, according to figures provided by the Seattle Police Department—just 10 percent of 165 new hires last year. That’s a significant dip from SPD’s already dismal numbers in 2024, when just 14 percent of the 84 people SPD hired were women. It’s also less than half the average for police departments across the US, according to stats from the 30X30 Initiative—a pledge, which SPD has signed, to work toward a recruit class that’s 30 percent women by 2030.

The 17-woman total was bolstered by relatively strong hiring of women—six total—in the fourth quarter of 2025; in the two quarters encompassing April through September, SPD hired just 6 women, and the total percentage of female hires dipped to less than six percent in the second quarter of the year.

SPD, in other words, not only isn’t improving its lopsided gender balance—it’s backsliding. To achieve the goal of 30X30, SPD would have needed to hire an additional 33 women last year. Put another way, they’re currently two-thirds shy of their hiring goals.

It’s unclear how many women are leaving the department, which is currently the subject of several simultaneous gender discrimination lawsuits and allegations. In the past, SPD has provided a breakdown, by gender, of the number of men and women who left the department on numerous occasions in the past—an important data point that shows how many women are leaving the department compared to men. The department did not provide this information when PubliCola requested it, citing unspecified data issues.

However, they did provide the total number of people who left this year—69, down from 83 in 2024. We also know that as of April, 21 percent of the people leaving SPD were women. If that departure trend stayed consistent for the remaining eight months of the year, it would translate to about 14 women leaving SPD in 2025, for a net gain of just three women. We’re hoping SPD will eventually provide these numbers, which would give a clearer picture of SPD’s gender makeup.

Former Mayor Bruce Harrell said that he chose Barnes, in part, because he “brings proven experience advancing the Madison Police Department’s inclusive workforce initiative that has resulted in 28% of officers being women.” But Seattle’s new recruit classes have only become more overwhelmingly male since Barnes took over at the department.

In a statement to PubliCola, a spokesperson for SPD said, “The Seattle Police Department remains committed to increasing the hiring rate of women. We acknowledge we must do better to meet the 30×30 commitment but as we move into 2026, we will continue our work to resemble the community we serve.”