♪♪
-Good morning everyone. Good morning!
-Good morning!
-Alright, my name is Chief Shon Barnes.
S-H-O-N, B-A-R-N-E-S.
I have the distinct pleasure of being the Chief of Police
for the Seattle Police Department.
It's my pleasure to welcome you to our training facility,
to discuss a topic that's been near and dear to my heart.
As well as the leadership here in Seattle
and of course our Seattle community
and that is returning our department to full strength.
I think we're certainly headed in the right direction
and so we have some remarks prepared for you,
from some of our leadership to discuss some of the things
that we have been doing in this great city in that regard.
So without further ado I'd like to introduce our mayor,
Mayor Bruce Harrell.
-Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Chief.
Hold your applause please.
So, the officers you see standing behind me are...
...symbolic of the direction we are headed as a great city
and as a great police department.
I want to ground us in a quote if I may.
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
That was a quote from JFK. So Chief Barnes,
thank you for welcoming us into your training facility
and to everyone that's worked on police recruitment,
a lot of fingerprints, if you will.
A lot of effort, a lot of energy, a lot of tenacity.
A lot of commitment in what you see here today.
So last year we hired 84 officers.
That was the most since 2019 and the first time
hiring was greater than separation since 2019.
And this year our recruitment pipeline is prime
to do even better.
So this year, we've hired 60 officers as of mid-April,
compared to 10 at this point in 2024.
That's six times the amount of officers.
That's what we call a sextuple.
S-E-X-T-U-P-L-E, sextuple.
That's an actual word.
I will not be using that in a lot of my speeches.
But six times the number of officers.
We have currently over 160 applicants
in the background investigations
as part of their application process, as of mid-April.
We are on a good trajectory.
And it's been very intentional.
We received over 1,200 applications this year.
By the end of first quarter compared to under 700
at the same point last year.
We have talked about in our administration,
that we want the country to see how we are doing here in Seattle
because we are proud of the efforts
and proud of the outcomes that we are driving.
I am inspired and excited to see these new officers here today.
We spent a little time in the back room.
We'll keep that amongst ourselves,
what happened back there,
but suffice to say, I was embarrassed.
But again as I started my remarks by saying,
they are symbolic of where we are heading.
These fine individuals,
regardless as to their journeys up to this day,
have decided to protect
and serve all communities out here in Seattle.
I couldn't be more prouder as a mayor.
I want to thank a few folks,
just whose names have come to mind in our notes.
Top notch instructors like Lieutenant Longley
and connecting with community with Dr. Jameelah Cage,
who heads our "Before the Badge" program.
Let's give those two individuals a hand right now.
You're going to hear from
Chair of Public Safety Councilmember Bob Kettle
and Council President Sara Nelson, as well.
I want to recognize Councilmember
Mark Solomon is here.
This is truly a team effort.
Now a few remarks about these new hires.
They truly represent our community.
They range in age from young adults in their twenties
to a seasoned public service employee who is 63.
While some of our hires comes from the greater Seattle area,
others grew up across the country and around the world.
Some of these new officers,
this is even a second or third career for some of them.
We have former paramedics, healthcare workers,
military members, lawyers, tech employees.
Even a former tour boat captain.
Different life experiences, different journeys.
That's what makes an organization great.
Relying on one another to learn from each other's stories,
to get to know each other's sort of back story, if you will.
One team.
What I shared with them in the back room
is that we are all in this together.
It is not an "us" versus "them" situation.
The city council, the city attorney, the municipal courts,
the city employees, the mayor's office,
the police department, the fire department, the CARE department.
We are one team!
And that is what their training teaches them.
That is how we're going to get this work done.
For the first quarter of 2025,
violent crime went down almost 25%
and total crime decreased by
by 24% compared to the first quarter of 2022.
Again, we are very intentional about making sure
every community is safe.
The progress is especially visible
and looking in our Downtown Activation Team,
we're able to reduce violent crime by 27%
in the pilot Pike/Pine area along 3rd Avenue.
But the progress in the numbers alone,
while to be admired,
for me is less than the progress in the attitude,
and the culture we're developing together.
My two words to the recruits, to the officers,
are just, thank you.
You have many choices in life on what you can do,
but you chose to protect and serve the employees,
the workers, the residents, the people of Seattle.
Thank you.
And with that, I will say that I am hopeful and optimistic.
And you're going to hear from some speakers after me
that I hope share my enthusiasm and optimism.
And in addition to the new officers, thank all of you,
who've helped us get to this point.
Thank you very much and I'll turn it back over
to Chief Shon Barnes, the MC for the morning.
Thanks, Chief. -Thank you, thank you.
I want to start my remarks by acknowledging
the challenges our department and many other departments
across the country,
have faced over the last four years in regards to recruiting.
Following a national pandemic
and the tragic death of George Floyd,
which resulted in free speech demonstrations
that challenged us, as a police profession,
to reflect and to reform.
Today our police force currently stands at over 1,000 officers
and faces a shortage of about 260 officers.
Despite this, we are committed to rebuilding
and strengthening our ranks,
with qualified public servants from across the country,
the state and of course here in Seattle.
To address these challenges here
at the Seattle Police Department,
we've made some significant changes
to our recruitment strategies.
We've shortened the hiring process,
making it more efficient for perspective candidates
to join our team.
We've embraced active recruiting,
making more direct interactions with applicants a priority.
This includes personalized outreach and support
throughout their entire journey,
of becoming a police officer, which includes our,
Before the Badge program.
This personal touch strategy includes the electronic
pre-employment background testing,
to reduce the time required to keep applicants moving
throughout our process.
We've reduced the hiring wait time in half,
from five to nine months, to three to five months.
We've hired additional examination support staff
to support the changing from a two month exam period,
to a biweekly exam schedule.
We've eliminated the travel requirements
for the physical agility test,
by allowing candidates to test where they live.
We've leveraged social media and electronic platforms,
to reach a broader audience.
Our messages focuses on the positive changes,
within our department and within the Seattle community.
Thanks to the leadership of our mayor and city council,
we are offering generous signing bonuses and salary increases
to qualified employees.
I am proud to share that we've hired,
as the mayor stated, over 60 new hires this year,
which almost exponentially increases
from what we did last year.
And that follows over 4,300 applications
that we received in 2024, the greatest number since 2013.
We're on pace to hire more police officers this year
than any other time in our departments history.
Illustrating the cities renewed commitment to public safety
and to community engagement.
As we emerge from these challenges,
it is essential to focus not on what we lack,
but on what we possess.
The dedication, resilience and commitment of our officers
and the community we serve is our mission.
We're channeling our strengths as we build a department
that is policing forward.
I want to take a moment to personally thank Mayor Harrell,
as well as our outstanding recruitment team,
our human resources department
and every member of the Seattle Police Department.
Your hard work is transforming our culture and showcasing
that the Seattle Police Department is truly
a great place to work.
For anyone who is watching,
who is interested in joining our ranks
and making a difference in your community,
we encourage you to visit our website
for more information about the application process
and other opportunities,
that are available within the Seattle Police Department.
My goal, our goal,
is to reinforce that while at the same time
we are working to make sure we are fully staffed,
that we're also working to ensure that every officer,
every employee within the Seattle Police Department,
feels valued and supported.
Thank you for your time and listening to my comments.
At this time, I will be bringing up Councilmember Kettle,
who chairs our Public Safety Committee.
-Good morning.
At the end of the day, this is not about numbers,
but rather it's about leadership.
And so thank you, Mr. Mayor,
for your leadership on the issue of police hiring
and across the board on public safety.
And also thank you Chief Barnes,
for stepping up and taking on this leadership challenge,
to ensure that the gains that we've made
are cemented and built upon. Key in this effort as well
is leadership with the Seattle Council regarding police hiring,
but more broadly,
the creating the environment that is supportive
while maintaining accountability
of our constitutional policing here in this city.
It's about the overall showing up at roll call,
it's about going to community meetings
and being on the street.
It's also about passing legislation
that can assist the mayor, Chief Barnes,
and the enter public safety system,
to help set up our city for success.
So thank you Council President Nelson,
for your work as Chair of Governance and Accountability
for the recruitment bill,
which directly ties to what we're here today.
But also the Incentives bills passed out of council.
I'd also like to highlight
and a thank you to Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth,
for the technology pieces that came out of her committee
and the council over all.
These bills, along with the labor agreement,
the interim and labor agreement,
and those passed out of our Public Safety Committee,
show that we understand
that while we're not part of chain of command
for the Seattle Police Department,
we do have our leadership responsibilities too
and we're acting on them.
To close, I want to thank those who work on this day-to-day,
either at the Seattle Police Department
or at the Public Safety Civil Service Commission,
for their work is very important.
And then finally to the men and women
of the Seattle Police Department,
thank you for your service.
And given that we have the recruits behind me,
I also want to thank all the recruits.
A lot of them I've met through the,
Before the Badge program, for the work that they're doing.
For them stepping up
and taking on this public service role
to help our public safety posture, to help our city.
So thank you as well.
And again, I really appreciate the opportunity to come here,
to highlight that this is a One Seattle team effort,
and we're doing our part, Mr. Mayor, on the city council.
So thank you.
-I shared with Councilmember Kettle,
when we first met,
that in my former life, I had 20 councilmembers.
I loved them all, should we do that here?
Should we go to 20? No? We're good.
We're not going to do that,
but I am going to have an opportunity to bring up
next our City Council President, President Nelson.
-Well good morning everyone.
You know, I've always said
that nothing is more critical to improving public safety
in the city of Seattle,
than building back SPD's staffing levels.
That is absolutely fundamental, as we all know.
And last year's reversal,
of the five year trend of losing more officers than we can hire,
was the first sign that showed
that our three year all hands on deck effort,
was really starting to pay off.
And I'm talking about everything from hiring bonuses,
to competitive compensation to improving recruitment
and hiring practices
and that is ordinance 127.026 which mandated the report
that we're learning from right now.
All of that made a difference.
And that was the result of layers of legislation
and then plus,
so much tremendous work from the executive.
Thank you very much.
And our accountability partners, et cetera.
So I just want to note that we see, of course,
that it takes a village and time
to build a police department back,
that reflects Seattle's values and also engenders trust.
And that is of course, always a work in progress
and it's going to take all of us to make sure
that we're still on hands on deck,
as we move forward
and I'll be monitoring the progress going forward.
But basically my message today is, to our recruits,
thank you very much for your dedication to taking
on keeping Seattle safe.
And also to anybody out there who is listening,
if you're considering a career in law enforcement,
definitely put Seattle at the top of your list.
So, thank you very much everyone.
-So I have been in charge of the Seattle Police Department
since February 1 of this year, with the exception of two weeks.
And those two weeks were spent at our regional police academy,
going through my certification process.
So for those two weeks my boss was Monica Alexander.
So it is my pleasure to bring up my former boss and head
of our regional training, Monica Alexander.
-Good morning.
What he failed to say is he fired me,
so unfortunately he fired his boss.
Thank you very much.
Thank you to Mayor Harrell,
thank you to Chief Barnes and thank you all for being here.
This is a really proud day,
because I know that Seattle is 100% committed
to building their agency back to what it was, before 2019.
In doing that, I've had conversations with Chief Barnes
and I have promised him that if he can hire 30 people,
we can put a 30 person Seattle class through.
With all of our regional academies,
thanks to the legislature, the governor and the funding,
we have space now.
We were at a 10 month wait just a year ago.
We are at a zero wait time now.
And being able to do that, will help us, help Seattle.
One of the things I want to thank Seattle for
and everybody in the city of Seattle,
we were having a difficult time getting tact officers,
trainers, at the academy.
And that was because everybody was running short.
And no one was running shorter than Seattle Police Department,
but they stepped up and they gave us five tact officers.
That is a huge commitment and a huge sacrifice
and I am eternally grateful,
because we were looking at having to reduce the number
of classes we ran.
And while we're in a crisis for training,
if we would have done that,
that would have been detrimental to every agency in the state.
So consequently,
Seattle Police Department helped every agency in the state
by making that sacrifice and giving us so many people.
I am happy to be a part of this because I do believe in what
Seattle Police Department is doing,
I have seen amazing recruits come through.
We have had a class that had a total of 14 out of 30 people
in one class from Seattle Police Department.
That says that the recruitment, the Before the Badge, and
all of the leadership is doing something really, really great.
And when I see that many people,
I know that things are truly turning around
and it takes all of us and I love the idea
that I have the opportunity to be a part of this.
So I just want to say thank you again, to the mayor, the chief,
and everybody that is separating Seattle.
Seattle is all of our city.
Whether we live here or not, we all go to the sports, events,
we all go to the restaurants, we all take a part in Seattle.
So let's be a part of making it what it has always been.
Just an amazing city.
So thank you so very much and I appreciate the time to speak.
Our last speaker is Ms. Erin Goodman.
I did see Councilmember Solomon, I thought, somewhere here.
I wanted to say hello to you sir
and thank you for your support as well.
So at this time, Erin.
-Good morning and welcome to SODO.
I'm Erin Goodman,
the Executive Director of the SODO Business Improvement Area
and I am not as tall as previous speakers.
The SODO BIA works every day to advocate for
and support the diverse businesses
that call this district home.
These businesses, many of them family-run operations,
are the backbone of Seattle's economy and the engine
that keeps this city running.
They create jobs, drive innovation and provide
opportunity for thousands of people across our city.
However, over the past several years and especially since 2020,
public safety is the most urgent
and persistent challenge they face.
SODO continues to grapple
with widespread property crime and drug trafficking,
which are direct impacts from the ongoing fentanyl crisis
that affects this district every day.
That is why today's announcement is so meaningful.
To truly address the public city issues we face in SODO,
we need more officers on the ground.
SODO businesses employees, customers and visitors,
deserve to be safe
and our ability to prosper and grow depend on it.
A visible and dependable police presence is essential
to restoring confidence and supporting a thriving industrial
and commercial district.
Today we're here to celebrate progress,
a renewed investment in public safety,
with more officers entering the pipeline
and real momentum in rebuilding a stronger,
more responsive police force.
I want to thank Mayor Harrell, Chief Barnes, City Council,
for their leadership and partnership.
And I especially want to recognize the dedicated officers
of the south precinct,
who have continued to show up
and serve this community every day,
even amid staffing shortages and growing demands.
This progress is encouraging and we are committed
to continuing to work together to make SODO a safer,
more productive and resilient place to do business.
Thank you.
-Thank you Erin, thank you for your words.
Okay, so that ends our formal remarks.
And I'll just close before we take a few questions by saying,
thank all of the speakers as well.
I said in my opening remarks,
it certainly is a village type effort.
And it all sort of culminates in the outstanding police officers
that we have standing with me, so thank you once again.
And are there any questions?
We'll take a few.
Okay, so Jamie, can you help me just call on them?
Because I -- I'll just, I'll start off with Chris
since you were the first student
and you were pretty aggressive with your hand.
Chris Sanders, you've got the first one.
-This is a question for both you, Mayor and the Chief.
-Yes.
-The Chief very optimistic last week when we thought,
thinking you could hire 200 cops by the end of this year.
What does that mean for the long-term police strategy
and the short-term strategy?
In terms of your public safety plan.
-And so Chief, I'll take a first shot at it
and I want to make it very clear
that
in our total public safety strategy
and I want to acknowledge
that we have a Chief Public Safety Officer,
Natalie Walton-Anderson here with us.
That it just doesn't rely on the police recruits,
the new officers.
That is a fundamental part of it.
But it also results in the changes
we made in our fire department
and our recruitment of our CARE department officers as well.
In addition to our park rangers.
And so we're looking at a very holistic approach,
with respect to the numbers themselves
and what were projected on trying to accomplish,
Chief would you like to say a few words there?
-Chris, what it really means is that to I'm pushing
and encouraging and providing the resources
that our recruitment team, our human resources department,
needs in order to get the job done.
I think just looking at the number of applications
that we're getting in and the quality of applications,
makes the process easier.
When the quality of the applicants
that are coming into the Seattle Police Department is good,
the background processes are shorter,
which means we can push more people through the process
and get them ready to go to the Academy.
We're also seeing increases in people who want to lateral.
That means that people
who are currently certified as police officers
and other states, and even in the state of Washington,
want to be a part.
I've received emails and phone calls myself,
from police officers, who I have gone to school with,
who they have sons that want to come over.
I received a call from a friend of mine
that I went to a class with,
his sons a police officer in Atlanta,
wants to come to Seattle.
I received a screenshot from a gentleman
that I spoke with in North Carolina recently,
whose interested in coming.
And so my job is to give them everything
that they need in order to make their dreams come true,
so that they can become Seattle police officers.
And what that means for public safety,
is that we can get these officers trained,
get them through field training
and put them where we need them the most,
which is in patrol, which is certainly, I believe,
the backbone of policing and so we can answer calls for service,
we can respond quickly to 911 calls.
We can see our response times go down.
And we can give our officers some relief
that may need to take vacations
or have personal family or military leave.
-Let's say you do get those 200 within the year,
how do you play it?
I mean, what is your goal here with response times?
With public safety numbers?
The violent crime? Investigations?
How does 200 extra officers actually impact the police?
-Sure, I think it impacts it tremendously.
Again, with response times,
having more officers with unobligated time,
gets us to places quicker.
It helps us with some of our crime prevention strategies,
where we're looking at crime in some of our priority areas
that have historically been an ongoing challenge for us.
So you know, people say you can do more with less,
you really can't sometimes.
You do need the people. This is a people job, right?
We can't send computers out to do -- we need people to do it.
And so I think that's going to help us tremendously,
in fact, I know it.
And it also means we're going to be strategic about
where we place people and making sure that we start, number one,
with our patrol first.
And making sure that they are supported
and that they have the men and women to do the job.
When someone calls 911,
you know you're going to get someone qualified
and ready to handle business.
-Okay, I'll take a few more questions.
My ask would be to keep to one question each
and try and keep your questions concise,
because we don't have a lot of time so, Erica.
-Question for Chief Barnes.
Erica Barnett from PubliCola, I don't know I've we've met.
-Hi.
-I can't help but notice
that most of the people behind you are men.
One of your goals
is to hire a 30% female recruit class by 2030.
-Absolutely.
-So what are you doing towards that goal?
-Sure, I'm glad you asked that question.
So I looked at those numbers
and those numbers are not exceeding my expectations.
Last year we hired 10 females, this year we've hired five.
So we still have some work to do on that.
Certainly, probably one of the first supporters of 30x30,
Maureen McGough is a close personal friend of mine.
And so I had a conversation this morning with staff
about making sure
that we give a second look to any applicant,
a female applicant, before we give them a rejection letter.
Like, what's going on there?
Making sure that we have an additional layer,
if you will, of quality control.
But you know, a lot of police departments struggle with that.
But I think for me,
it's making sure that any applicant,
no matter your demographics,
you know that Seattle Police Department is a place for you.
People sometimes don't understand
or underserved minority recruiting,
whatever term you want to use,
you don't recruit what you want, you recruit who you are.
And so we're trying to show people
that Seattle is a place for everyone.
That's my strategy.
-And do the discrimination lawsuits concern
you on that front?
-I think anything that doesn't show our department
in a positive light, concerns me.
I'm very concerned about the branding
of this police department and who we really are.
Every police department goes through their bumps in the road,
but my job is to show everyone who we are.
We are a service, dedicated,
self-less service community policing agency,
that's willing to partner with anyone in order to reduce crime.
And not only reduce crime, but make people feel safe.
That's who we are.
And so you'll see that.
I talked a lot about that when I talked to staff
about who we are, what's our brand here?
And so, I don't think
that one thing clearly defines an entire agency.
-A mass exodus of police officers
and also after multiple allegations
of the toxic workplace and the discrimination
as you pointed out.
Any part of you worried about retainment going forward?
What's your plan with regards to retainment?
-Yeah, I think when it comes to retention,
you know, people sometimes don't leave their job,
they leave working conditions.
And so making sure that I give our employees
both sworn and non-sworn, by the way,
because our professional staff are very important to me.
And they do an amazing job.
If they all got up and left today,
our department would ground to a halt.
But making sure that everyone knows that they have a voice,
that they feel appreciated, that their work is valued,
I wish I could make the job of everyone easy, but I can't.
My job is to make sure that your job is safe and meaningful.
That when you go home every day,
you return the same way you came
and you know that you did something to make a difference
in the lives of others.
I think if we do that, retention will take care of itself.
-Sara Jean? -So a question about,
I know Governor Ferguson just passed a budget
with money for law enforcement agencies,
is that going to have any kind of impact?
I think that there's a proposed levy,
as well, for police and courts.
And then somebody had mentioned an interim labor agreement.
So, I'm just hoping to kind of get, you know,
where we are in terms of money
and where we are in terms of an agreement as well.
-That's like six questions, Sara Jean.
-I know.
-So let me address the Governor Ferguson issue first.
And so I think we know
that a potential sales tax is on the table and being discussed.
I think it's a 0.1% sales tax,
which should generate statewide about $100 million,
if my numbers are correct.
And Seattle would be a great beneficiary of that.
So, with the councils input, we're looking at it.
I mean, you know we have some budget challenges this year,
you all are following that as well.
So we're going to look at that, we'll make some decisions.
Certainly that will help, should we go down that path.
But we have not made any final decisions.
We recognize fully that public safety is one
of the highest priorities that our people in Seattle want.
So as we calibrate and balance our budget,
that is a lens by which we will make decisions.
That doesn't mean that housing and childcare and education
and the other climate change
and the other strong components of our ecosystem
are not important,
but we do have to center public safety to make sure
that our kids are safe and they are not traumatized,
so they can learn and people can come here to Seattle
to enjoy their lives and live here
and we can recruit talent here as well.
So we're looking at all of those issues.
You had another -- let's see.
SPOG.
Because of labor rules, I can't really talk too much about that,
but I'm very confident that negotiations are going well.
We are, you know, I get updated and I give input
and the council are our partners in that.
I think you see just by how we refer to one another,
that we're all in this together.
So I'm confident we'll have a good agreement,
that will make sure that everyone's protected
and we feel really good about it at the end of the day.
So we're heading down the right road.
-Clarridge? -Christine Clarridge, Axios.
Thank you.
Are people starting to say that they're feeling safer?
-Well you know, that's a great question.
This weekend I spent a lot of time
out in three parts of the city, just talking to folks.
And they feel very optimistic about where we are heading.
They are also very honest that there are parts of Seattle,
that they continue to be concerned about.
We know that homicides, for example, are down 27.5%.
We know that violent crimes are down 11%.
We know that crimes across all categories are down 18%.
Okay?
So we are a database city, we drive with data and statistics.
We are nationally recognized for our ability to create dashboards
and open up the numbers such that everyone can see.
But I will share with you,
those numbers mean absolutely nothing
until I have everyone saying that they feel safer.
And I can walk, I've said the analogy before,
I could walk downtown in some of our worst areas,
I could walk around SODO,
Erin, with my granddaughters and feel good about it.
So, we listen to folks.
People are feeling really good about trajectory we are on.
This is good news for them.
So it really depends on who you're talking to
and what point of the day.
And I got to also say that, in recruiting,
you know who some of the best recruiters are, right?
They are the officers themselves.
Say, come be part of this team.
And so I'm very pleased with
how the officers are helping us go about the recruitment.
That's how we're going to get this work done.
Thank you for the question.
-Okay, we have time for a few more,
we'll do Jonathan, Hannah and then Amy.
-Mayor, I've obtained a demand letter from the attorney
of former SPD Chief of Staff, Jamie Tompkins.
She claims that SPD subjected her
to a sexually hostile work environment,
that she was falsely accused by SPD employees
of saying that she had an Africa with former Chief Adrian Diaz.
What are your thoughts on these allegations
and how do you in the city plan to respond?
-So, thanks for the question, Jonathan.
So I can't comment on either litigation
or threatened litigation,
I'll have to defer to the city attorney's office.
But as you've heard before,
we take all allegations seriously, very seriously.
And what I've always said, from day one,
we are a learning organization as a city.
All of the departments under my administration
are learning organizations.
So we will take that into consideration,
should it come to us for making decisions,
but I'll defer to the city's attorney office
for any pending or threatened litigation.
-And how do you plan to respond
to the public masturbation concerns in the city park?
-Well that was sort of a rough segue
into a second question there, Jonathan!
Well again, I believe there's pending litigation.
I believe there's pending litigation on that issue
and I will just refrain from commenting
on pending litigation and allegations within the lawsuit.
-Hannah?
-Yeah, segueing back to Jamie Tompkins,
the Washington Employment Department did
their own investigation and found
that her allegations of sexual harassment
and that the city did not protect her, had some merit.
They gave her the benefits and the city,
it's benefits that the city denied her
when she quit the job.
So, were you aware of that information,
that the state employment department did
a separate investigation,
found that what she was saying was valid?
What are your thoughts on that?
-Sure.
So, again, I'm not going to comment on that,
on what you disclosed to me.
Because no doubt,
sometimes mayor's get deposed on what he
or she may know in any lawsuits, so in all due respect,
I'm just not going to comment on any allegations.
I think it still falls under threatened litigation,
versus litigation.
I'm not going to talk about anything
I was aware of or not aware of. I mean, I have 14,000 employees
and so certainly I'm not aware of every allegations
that made or every administrative hearing.
So, I'm just not going to comment on any of this.
-On the table for months now,
you were named specifically on that.
So I'm assuming that you knew about what she is saying.
And is there, when you say,
"lessons learned" and have to go back and learn from this,
is there an admission that this was handled improperly,
her case?
-So, you should not make assumptions.
I have both a city attorney's office to handle all litigation,
threatened, pending and actual litigation.
I have a general council that handles all litigation,
threatened, pending or actual litigation.
And we are running a city and moving forward today.
So it's very,
it's a poor assumption to know I know every complaint made
by every employee,
that's just not a good assumption.
So again, on this day, we're moving forward!
You guys are with me, right?
-Absolutely.
-We are moving forward in this city.
Taking our city back into a situation
where we are protecting people.
That's why we are here today.
So the lawsuits will take care of themselves,
we have a city attorney that will adequately
and effectively deal with those situations
and I'm not going to answer any questions on matter
that, quite frankly, are caught up in the legal process.
-Amy, last question.
-I have a question for the Chief.
Amy Sundberg, the Urbanist.
-Hi.
-I have a question about your real time crime center
and CCTV cameras that are supposed to,
some people have said they might act as a force multiplier.
So I wanted to know,
is that your opinion of that technology
and when can you expect it to be fully operational?
-We're currently in the process of trying
to get more public space cameras activated.
We do have some public space cameras
in our Chinese International District.
I think it's a force multiplier for making sure
that we can capture someone who may be harming someone,
that we reduce the chances
that we interact with someone who had nothing to do with it.
And I can tell you, I've been there before.
I've fit the description before, as a young man,
long before I decided to go to college.
Long before I decided to be a public school teacher.
Long before I decided to be a police officer.
And so for me,
if we can ensure that we are focusing our energy
where it belongs and not intruding on lives of people
that we don't have to be, I think that's a big win.
Thank you.
-Thank you Chief.
-Alrighty. -Alright, thank you.
It's a good news day on what we see in front of us.
I want to thank all the speakers once again
and let's make it a great week this week.
Thank you very much.