SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council approved a new contract with the Seattle Police Officer's Guild (SPOG), despite one councilmember's call for a pause on voting until the public has a chance to weigh in.
The full council voted on Tuesday to approve the contract; councilmember Tammy Morales was the lone opposing vote in the 8-1 result.
"This is a major step forward not just for the men and women and Seattle Police Department, but also for our goals of creating public safety, to create that safe place in our city," said Councilmember Bob Kettle, who is the chair of the Public Safety Committee.
The agreement between the City of Seattle and SPOG retroactively raises wages for the entire police force going back to 2021, which Mayor Bruce Harrell says would make the Seattle Police Department among the most competitively paid in the state.
Before this contract was approved, Seattle police officers had a starting salary of $83,000 which was ranked at 15th in pay for our region. With this new contract, officers will make a starting salary of more than $102,000 and will become the highest paid in our region.
The Seattle Police Department is at its lowest staffing level in about 30 years. The Department has lost more than 700 officers in the past five years and is at its lowest staffing level since the 1990s. In March, the department had 913 actively working police officers.
Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz previously said the shortage is impacting how police can serve the city. Diaz said his goal is to hire 125 police officers this year.
However, Councilmember Morales argues that the contract doesn't implement accountability reforms that were approved by the city back in 2017, as several high-profile police misconduct cases are still being resolved.
“This contract with SPOG is an incredibly important vote about the future of police accountability and civilian public safety alternatives in Seattle," Morales said in a press release. "The community deserves a chance to make their voice heard before we vote on it. We shouldn’t be rushing this."
Upon the announcement of a tentative deal with SPOG at the end of April, the Seattle Community Police Commission released a call for further transparency about negotiations and for the public to be able to review the full contract before it gets approved.
"Almost nothing from the accountability ordinance was included in the interim agreement," said Seattle Community Police Commission Co-Chair Joel Merkel, referring to the city's 2017 police accountability ordinance. "We've weighed in and made it very clear that the Community Police Commission and the community very much want the accountability ordinance fully implemented so that we can have a more transparent and fair process for holding officers accountable when they do violate policy."
The agreement, according to Harrell's office, focuses on improving police staffing and wages, enhancing accountability measures and expanding civilian response options to "build a diversified safety system and create new efficiencies."
Since the officer pay increases are for 2021-2023, officers will be paid in one lump sum for the increases over those three years.