Okay, it's a warm room.
Good morning and welcome.
Thank you to members of the press for joining us today
and for the leaders of our public safety departments,
including the Seattle Police Department, Amy Barden,
chief of our CARE department, and Fire Chief Scoggins.
I also want to recognize Assistant Chief Tyrone
Davis, who was in charge on Sunday at the Seattle
Center and supporting the officers who ran into the
line of fire to save lives.
Chief Barnes was appointed by Mayor Harrell and made
real contributions to public safety in this city.
On Sunday, officers of the Seattle Police Department
responded with professionalism, courage, and care for the
people in front of them.
Chief Barnes expressed his pride in them and so do
I. I am grateful for his service and I share his
hope that we can return our full focus to what matters
most right now addressing youth gun violence and
making sure that every family in this city can feel
safe in their neighborhood and across Seattle.
That work does not wait, and I do not take lightly
what it means to make decisions that affect people's
safety and their lives.
I love this city and the people who make it what it is.
And this is what I know to be true about Seattle.
This is a city full of people who are trying to do right by
their families, their neighbors, and their communities.
People who go to festivals and block parties and
neighborhood events because they want to be together
because they want to enjoy everything the city has to
offer and all of the wonderfully diverse people who live
here every parent renter commuter and immigrant should
be able to walk to the light rail drop their kids
off at school shop at a neighborhood small business
and cross the street without fear.
Every neighborhood deserves parks and public
spaces that anyone can enjoy and feel proud of.
All young people should have positive places to gather
and develop that don't involve guns and plans to
harm each other.
Belonging in this city includes the
unconditional right to be safe in it.
Keeping those people safe is the job.
Everything else we want to build for this city starts
there. Seattle deserves a public safety system that
works. That means showing up for every neighborhood in
the ways that work for them, investing in what keeps
harm from happening in the first place, and making
sure that when something happens we send the right
people and the right tools for what that moment
requires. Safety built around what residents actually
need, not just what we decide to give them.
And that actually solves problems
rather than moves them from one block to the
next. That is what earning trust looks like.
And I'm standing here because we
are taking a significant step in turning that vision
into reality.
I have selected Deputy Chief Andre
Sayles to be the interim police chief of this
department. I chose Andre Sayles because he has done this job
before and can hit the ground running.
He served as chief of police in Wisconsin
where he led with a community focused approach that
strengthened both public safety and community trust.
He has earned the respect of our police force in his
time here and that is exactly what we need right now.
His background spans the full range of what this
role requires.
He has serious investigative and
operational credentials having led specialized
units including a drug and gang investigative unit
and served on a SWAT team for 12 years including four
four years as team leader.
He understands complex investigations.
He understands tactical operations.
He understands how to build and lead specialized teams.
And he is deeply committed to community policing
and youth engagement, consistently prioritizing
the relationships between law enforcement
and the people being served.
That philosophy aligns directly with what I believe
effective public safety looks like in Seattle.
And he will not be leading alone.
Deputy Chief Yvonne Underwood has been inside
this department since 1997.
She has led accountability reform, overseen use
of force investigations, managed the Professional
Standards Bureau, and built the systems that keep this
department answerable to our public.
She is the kind of steady, experienced leader
that this moment calls for.
I have confidence in this command staff and I
have confidence in the members of the Seattle
Police Department who show up every single day to serve
this city.
Interim Chief Sayles and I share a vision
for what public safety in Seattle looks like and he
is ready to do the work it it takes to get us there.
Now I'm excited for you to hear directly from him.
Thank you, Mayor Wilson.
Good morning, everyone.
Mayor Wilson, thank you for this opportunity.
I don't take this responsibility lightly.
This week has been difficult, but I also know what this
department and city are capable of when we come
together with a common goal of keeping our community safe.
My commitment to you all is simple.
We will be one department, united and grounded in
service, pride and dedication.
It is not just a slogan, but a standard we at the Seattle
Police Department hold, each of us two.
Every shift, every call, and every community interaction.
The ongoing investigation into the Seattle Center shooting
remains a top priority.
The men and women of this department continue
working tirelessly to identify and arrest
anyone responsible.
In light of the tragic incident, the Seattle Police Department
has heard from our community about safety concerns at
public gatherings and events.
We hear you.
We understand your anxiety.
In response to these concerns, the Seattle Police
Department will increase staffing at all remaining
major summer events.
The department is currently
reviewing staffing plans for all other upcoming
events as well as will ensure we have an appropriate
number of officers on hand.
While SPD does not discuss specific staffing numbers at
events, you can be assured that the busy events that are
occurring this weekend will be fully staffed.
You will see an increase of foot patrol officers, bike officers,
POET officers, which is our our police outreach
engagement team officers and other units from the
police department.
I look forward to the city's future and I'm confident
that ongoing efforts of our sworn professionals
staff here as PD to ensure the safety and
transparency, which is my highest priority.
Again, thank you, Mayor Wilson and everyone in
the city of Seattle for providing me with
this opportunity to work along this team
and everyone in this amazing city.
Thank you.
Thank You Chief Sayles.
I hope what you're hearing from
Interim Chief Sayles today helps you understand the
confidence that I have in his leadership.
The safety of people in this city is
our first obligation and we are ready to meet it
this weekend and every day that follows.
Now I want to talk about how we are
moving forward to find a permanent chief.
Permanent search will focus on someone
who drives operational excellence and leads
organizational change.
About the process, we will be moving
forward with urgency to begin a search for a new
permanent police chief.
The process for selecting a new permanent chief is
set by the city charter and we will follow that process
with the transparency and community engagement the city
deserves. We have let Councilmember Kettle know
about our intention to partner on this search
and I look forward to working with him and the
council on this process.
It is a rigorous process with multiple layers of
accountability and that is exactly as it should be for
one of the most consequential appointments a mayor
can make.
What the Charter requires is a floor
not a ceiling and I'm committed to making sure
that the people of Seattle have a genuine voice
in shaping what we are looking for in our next
chief and we will build real community engagement
into every stage of this search.
The people of Seattle deserve a voice in the
selection and I'm committed to making sure they have one.
The chief will be accountable to the
communities of this city and that means the communities of
this city need to be part of choosing who leads this
department. As we move forward we will be
announcing a search committee that reflects the full diversity
of Seattle, bringing together voices and stakeholders from
across our neighborhoods and communities.
We will build a meaningful
engagement process into this search so that residents
have a real opportunity to shape what we're looking
for in our next chief.
I want to say a little bit about what I will be looking
for in a new permanent chief.
I will be looking for someone who can be an effective leader
of our police department from top to bottom.
In particular, that means listening
to and building relationships with the people standing
behind me, the experienced and dedicated people who are
leading our officers on the ground in neighborhoods
across our city every single day.
I will be looking for someone who can earn
the respect of our police force while also leading
needed changes to culture and protocol in a way that is
firm and fair.
I will be looking for someone
who can practice clear communication in stressful
situations. I will be looking for someone who is
consistently present in Seattle, keeping travel to an
appropriate minimum, and who also ensures that when
they are away there is sufficient SPD leadership in
town to guide our city through any emergency.
I will be looking for someone
who can navigate the inevitable criticism that
comes with this job and who can course correct with
grace when needed.
I will be looking for someone who
understands the value of our alternative crisis response
system, our CARE and fire departments and our service
providers, and can forge the partnerships needed to
make that successful so that we are sending the
right response to every situation and our police
can focus on policing.
And I will be looking for a
chief who moves in strong partnership with our
accountability agencies to ensure effective policing
in our city and active pathways for community
feedback and input into how SPD approaches its
work. We have work to do to reduce gun violence, to
support our youth and keep them out of harm's way, to
to make sure that every neighborhood across our city
feels safe and is safe.
I know we can do this.
And I know how important the relationship
between my office and SPD is to our success.
Despite the challenges of this moment,
I feel deeply hopeful about the future
of our police department and of public safety in Seattle.
I believe that the vast majority of people in our city
want the same thing.
We want a response to public safety problems that is both
compassionate and effective.
We want our police to perform their essential role with
professionalism and care.
And we also understand that achieving true public safety
goes far beyond policing.
To how we invest in our communities, support our
families and youth, and how we respond to and
care for people in crisis.
I believe that we can make great progress.
and I am looking forward to working with Chief Sayles,
our police department, our City Council members, and
everyone in communities around Seattle to make this
happen. Thank you.
Mayor, you still haven't told the people of Seattle
why. Was it him being out of the city too often?
Was it taking too long to release information that night
or was it the kerfuffle with the reporter or was it all for?
I will say that in the conversations that I had with
Chief Barnes over the last few days that resulted in our mutual
agreement to his resignation, there were multiple
factors some of which were related to the events of
someday but that that certainly was not the
only thing mayor wilson I wanted to ask about your
relationship with the city council because many of
them were very critical of this decision and
very critical of your leadership in this moment I want to give
you a chance to respond to that and explain how you're going
to improve relationships with city council especially
as you need them to move forward with on policies for the city
absolutely thank you for that question yeah I understand
that many of my colleagues on the City Council
disagree with the decision to move forward with a
leadership change at SPD at this time and I respect
their differences of opinion I guess what I
will say is that as the mayor as the executive
of the city I do have a different window into our police
department than they do and I'm confident that as we move
forward with our search for a permanent chief we will
be able to come together because I really think that
we want the same thing for our city and I think we're looking
for a lot of the same qualities in a leader for this department.
What is your criticism of your leadership in this moment?
I am making what I firmly believe is the right
decision at the right time.
Yeah, Chief, excuse me, Mayor Wilson, you had
released a high-level gun violence reduction plan,
and much of that plan relies, of course, on the
Seattle Police Department buy-in from the council
and parts of our community.
And right now, you've got a new police chief here
at odds with the council, And at least some voices in
our community, of course, objected to your move here.
Considering the situation now, what is the status of this plan?
And what does the timeline look like for you to be able
to implement this gun violence reduction plan in our city?
Yeah, I mean, I'm excited and extremely committed to
moving forward with this plan, which, as you noted,
has been in development this year in partnership
with council members, in partnership with community.
But we need to move forward, right?
And some of this was kicked off back in late January
when we had the tragic shooting of youth in Rainier Beach,
and that really kick-started a lot of this.
And I really believe that we're going to be able to move forward
more effectively now with this change.
I really appreciate Council's commitment to this work,
and especially Councilmember Rivera,
who I know has been working on these issues for years.
And you know my office participated in a symposium
that she organized recently that included
national experts in gun violence reduction and you know we've
been talking specifically about the group by group violence
interruption which is a you know part of the
strategy that's been successful in cities
like Baltimore that we haven't necessarily
really used here so we are committed to moving forward with
that work and we'll be doing that in partnership with council
of members and community.
Here, here, and then Chris, and then I'll just jump
back around this way.
All right, go ahead.
Oh, thank you.
That's why you pointed here.
Mayor, you've blamed much of the failures on Sunday night,
communications failures on Sunday night on the police
department and said that you didn't know that communication
wasn't happening.
Why didn't you know?
- Yeah, and I wanna be clear that I think there were gaps
in communication all around, and I definitely wanna own
my part in that, right?
So, I think part of this is communication failures
within SPD, and part of that is communication failures
between SPD and my office.
And so we're taking steps now, both internally at SPD,
to review protocols, make sure that they're being implemented
so that there is clear and consistent,
appropriate communication with the public much
earlier when an incident like that happens and
that includes improving communication between my
office and SPD and I think just to be very clear you
know one one part that I want to take some
responsibility for is just thinking back to the press
conferences earlier this week right I should not
have defended the failure to use Alert Seattle to get
information out to the public in our after-action review
I've since learned that there was a miscommunication
between departments that led to that tool not being used
when it actually would have been a good tool to use.
So I think there's there's a lot of things that we can
learn from and how Sunday unfolded and we're really
committed to moving forward in a better way and you know
this leadership change I think will facilitate that.
Madam Mayor, members of the public are telling me that it
appears, the optics are, that you are making Chief Barnes
the fall guy for missteps that happened after the Seattle
Center shooting, including the five-hour lack of information,
except for a statement from your office which contained errors.
What do you want members of the public to say?
You've made him the fall guy.
Yeah, I'll say again, I firmly believe that I'm
making the right decision at the right time.
And part of this is a feeling of
urgency around upcoming events this summer, including this
weekend, wanting to make sure that we have the
right leadership in place at SPD, the right
communications protocols so that as we move forward, we can be
much clearer with the public.
If something like that should happen again.
In place with that fast switch in leadership,
are we going to be ready for the weekend?
Absolutely, absolutely.
And I want to open it up if Chief Sayles
wants to say anything about our preparations
for this weekend.
But again, we have seasoned, experienced leadership
that has been already doing this work.
And so we are confident as we move forward into the weekend.
Mayor, this is obviously the biggest decision you've
made during your term.
The council is not here, the council is not
standing behind you.
The council, as you know, is criticized, and I want to get
down to their exact words.
Joy Hollingsworth, the council president, called
this move irresponsible, and it's a tad bit reckless.
Debora Juarez says the emergent issue is this.
You do not fire your chief of police in the middle
of a murder investigation.
What we're seeing under this administration, her
words, are more than just gaffes or missteps.
I see a complete lack of leadership and for us for
some of us no confidence in this administration
This has reached a level where we have to have
a serious conversation about the confidence we
have in this executive So this is your chance
to respond to the council Why should the city of
Seattle in this council have confidence in your
leadership going forward?
Yeah, I mean, I think I'll repeat what to it when I said
to one of your colleagues here which is that I respect
their differences of opinion.
And as the mayor, as the executive of the city,
I do have a different window into our police
department than they do.
And I'm making the decision that I believe is best
and urgent at this time for our police department
and for this city.
Mayor, the last two chiefs have been asked to resign by mayors.
Is there really a problem going on with these
chiefs or within SPD?
Or is there something bigger systemically happening within
City Hall and the relationship with City Hall and SPD?
I mean, I think it's no secret that we've that the
Seattle Police Department has had a lot of different
challenges for for a long time.
And you know leadership change is kind of part
of those challenges but certainly not necessarily the
root of them so you know I think moving forward
I will be looking for a leader who is really
committed to the city to being here and really wants to lead
the department in in a good direction and that means
really building relationships within the department from
from top to bottom and being both committed to a reform
agenda change when needed, but also in bringing the department
along as we do that work.
And yeah, I'm not in terms of making this
position attractive to whoever is is the final pick, right?
How are you going to do that if there are concerns?
Hey, you know, the last two have been ousted.
I mean, I think Seattle's a great city, right?
We have great neighborhoods.
And I think that the chance to lead
a department like this and to contribute to such an amazing
community, I think that that is an attractive opportunity.
returning to the subject of Sunday's investigation.
There is still a suspect outstanding.
Chief Barnes indicated earlier this week that
there is the possibility of there being another
suspect. Why has the department not released more information,
including a description of the outstanding
suspect or suspects.
Yeah, I think all defer to them.
Thank you for that question.
When you look at the gravity of that situation,
there were so many people involved over
at the Seattle Center.
And our investigation team want to make sure that we
have the appropriate person that we're looking for.
We don't want to have any injustices by taking
someone in custody that may not be the
actual shooter or involved in that situation.
We are working diligently, we are working tirelessly to
bring these people to justice.
We're gonna continue to do that as a police department.
But at the same time, we wanna make sure that we have it right.
We don't want to put someone and take someone's
liberties away from them, because we think
that is the person.
We want to know 100% that that is the person and bring
that person into justice.
The department still believe there's no danger to the public?
We believe that whenever there's gun violence, there
is a danger to the public.
And we're going to say that, but we're going to continue
to look for that person.
Because guns cause danger to the public.
It would be reckless of me to say that it's not, but
we're continuing to go out and do what we need to do
as a police department.
But we know that this situation was amongst two
fractions of people, and and we're continuing to
look for those individuals involved in this is also a
question for interim chief sayles.
Um, you like Chief Barnes, maintain a home
out of town in Wisconsin.
And I wanted to ask how much you typically have been
traveling to Wisconsin and how much and how that will
change in this new role.
Thank you for your question.
I maintain a home in East King County here.
I also also have a secondary home in
Illinois, not in Wisconsin.
I was the police chief in Wisconsin.
I do frequently go back to visit my
family, uh, probably about every eight weeks or so.
But my wife spends most of her time out here with
me. We're looking to make this our home.
This our area that we can retire to one
day. But right now we have some kids that we need
to get settled and then one day would make this
area our home but I currently live in East King County
mayor this is a question for you you talk a lot
about transparency and trust this is something
that you campaigned on so why did it take more than nearly 24
hours for the community and even council members to know what was
happening with chief barnes can you be transparent about maybe
be the one single decision that Barnes made that
it caused you to lose confidence in his leadership
or was this just solely about what happened at the
Bite of Seattle and that miscommunication?
Yeah absolutely so
conversations between me and my office and Chief Barnes
over the last couple of days.
These are confidential personnel conversations
and we had to have those conversations and come to
the agreement around our path forward, around a
resignation. We also had to have conversations
with potential interim chiefs.
These are sensitive confidential matters
and so it was simply not appropriate or possible
for us to share the outcome or details of those
conversations until those agreements and decisions had
been made.
And I know that you know rumors were flying
around and there was impatience but this is simply
part of leading a large organization where you have
to have sometimes these confidential processes.
Why not have these conversations and maybe even alert city
council members who even the public chair of the
safety committee said that he never received a
phone call that they found out many of them through the
local media.
Yeah, we we were in the process of having
conversations with council members and rumors started
flying before we were able to complete those calls.
So, you talk about the rumors and the
speculation. I think it's because there's a related
information and the transparency of what happened
Sunday night.
So, just wanna ask again.
Uh you have command staff who's there in those
meetings. Many of them are here here tonight, we again
are hearing that your office told them to hold
off on media briefings.
Are you telling the truth when it comes to that night
about your office telling them to hold off?
Yeah, so to be transparent about what happened, the piece of
this that my office was directly involved in and that I want to
own is in the time period from 9:45 p.m.
to 10:45 p.m.
when the press conference
ultimately took place.
I learned at 9:40 p.m., five minutes before 9:45,
that a press conference was being planned at Seattle Center.
At that time, if I had known that next to no information,
apart from my own office's blog post,
had been shared with the public since the time of the
incident at 6:00 p.m., I would have immediately said,
yes tell the press everything you know.
Yeah in that absolutely no
direction from my office not to share information.
You had no communication from your office
to anybody at SPD at that time?
We had communication but not we were not directing anyone
to not share information.
Information was coming out for five hours how did
you not know did you not turn on the tv did you
Did you not look at an app on your phone and no one
in your administration did?
I was not watching TV that evening.
Did no one in your administration knew
that no information was going out to the public
about a mass shooting that happened at the Seattle Center?
No one knew?
The reason why we put out a statement on our
website around 8.45 p.m.
is because at that point we did realize that nothing
was getting out there and we knew that the public
was desperate for information.
So we put out a statement with the best information we had
at that time from SPD, which, as everyone knows, included
some misinformation about the number of suspects who
had been taken into custody.
- Can we get on the dime please?
- Communications were flying around
and I personally at 9:40 was not aware
that basic information such as the status
of Seattle Center Campus and information
about potential suspects at large
had not gotten out in any form.
And that information should have been shared earlier.
It could have been shared in a number of forms.
Social media, the SPD blotter, our emergency alert system,
potentially an off-site press conference.
It begs the question why?
Sorry, sir.
We're just looking to go to the next one.
So Sunday's miscommunication is bad.
What's not understandable is on Monday at 1:30
King County Prosecutor's Office presented evidence
that the 19 year old who died at Seattle Center
was actually part of the shooting.
Less than two hours hours before that you held
a press conference with the police chief and didn't disclose
that information.
It is not possible in any world that the King
County Prosecutor's Office did not have that
information very, very early on Monday.
How is it possible that you didn't have that information?
And specifically, if it wasn't your office, how did SPD
communicate that to KCPAO but not to you?
I will just say that I was not aware of that
information at that time.
And also, just for everyone's knowledge, that was also the
root of the misinformation about two suspects
being taken into custody.
That second suspect, I understand, but I
was just clarifying something else for people.
But again, my question is, I think you do owe the public an
explanation for how there was a breakdown in communication.
Since SPD gave that information to KCPAO, how
did it not give it to you?
We did not have that information in my office at that time.
And then we're going to jump back over here.
So, tagging along to what my colleague said over here.
Since 2000, there have been around 10 police
chiefs, and only one of them have been temporary
or only one of them have not been temporary or fired.
So I've been hearing a lot of, I will do this,
I will do that for the next police chief.
But I've also been hearing a lot about community.
So how are you, especially in such a short time,
going to get the community aspect on a good police chief,
especially in the Chinatown International District,
a place that had been neglected by Seattle police so much?
Yeah, so we are committed to making sure that
communities around Seattle are involved in this process,
and so we're going to be working on that, and we'll come out
with more of a plan soon.
But I didn't hear you mention *unintelligible*, I didn't
hear you mention CARE, I didn't hear you mention the
BIA does a lot of work in Chinatown, or we deliver CARE.
So who specifically will be involved in these
conversations, if not the people who live here?
It is the people who live here and communities around our
city and many organizations have a stake in this process.
And so I'm not going to list them because there's going to
be some I don't list, right?
But we're going to create a process that invites
input from multiple angles.
Okay, all the way in the back there.
And then we'll go to the yellow side.
Okay, for Chief Sayles, what can you disclose right
now about the search for a suspect or suspects?
What is the status of this?
What does the public need to know about this?
How can they help?
What is the situation as far as finding this person?
I think we're very close in that finding that suspect and taking
that suspect into custody.
I've been working with Assistant Chief Nicole
Powell on this matter.
After we're done here today, we're going to meet with
our detectives on this and then start moving
forward in the right way.
Like I said earlier, to bring the right person to justice.
We want to identify the correct person.
We don't want to have a person that's arrested
that may have just been running to save their lives.
It is paramount that we get the correct person.
I do not want our police department to be put in a
bad situation where we're arresting the wrong person.
I wish I could give you that information right
now, but for the integrity of that investigation,
we want to keep that close to the vest right now and
make sure our detectives have the best angle to take
that person into custody.
We're going to get there, and that's what we're doing.
Chief, is your home in East King County or multiple people?
Multiple people.
Chief, is your home in East King County in Seattle?
Get started.
Thank you.
Mayor Wilson, there have been a lot of questions in
the room today about your relative lack of experience.
It's something that was brought up on the campaign trail.
Black community leaders brought it up yesterday, as Chris
alluded to, council members have brought it up as well.
You're seven months into the job.
What can you say to community members who are
concerned that you have not at this point shown the
leadership capability to run this city for three more years?
I'll just say I'm working with a great team and I
believe that we are making the right decisions for
this city.
Two quick questions.
So was the Chief of Barnes the fact that he
never fully moved to Seattle, that he was out of town
a lot, was that an issue for you that he wasn't here?
Again there were multiple factors that figured
into the conversations between me and Chief Barnes
that led to the decision that he would resign.
How is this severance agreement work?
Does he receive an extra year's
pay? Was there a sweetener thrown in?
We had conversations about the
terms of that agreement and we came to an agreement.
I'm not going to be sharing details of that at this
time. This statement that came out yesterday afternoon
from the Police Officers Guild, it just said that
that with your administration there's been confusion,
mis-mixed messages and chaos surrounding Barnes,
and that public safety does not seem to be your priority.
I want you to just address that.
What would you say about that?
- Yeah, I mean, I'll say again that there were
really good reasons why we weren't able
to offer information about Chief Barnes
and our path forward until we had actually finalized
those agreements and decisions.
And as soon as we did that, we sent out a release yesterday
and planned this press conference.
Are you placing that?
By any measure, the chief's tenure here was successful.
Do you agree with that?
And if not, what was the straw that broke the camel's back?
I'll just repeat that as the mayor, I have a different window
into the police department
than many of our council members.
And I made the decision that I firmly believe was
the right one at this time, as we are moving
forward with the summer, to put us in the best position
to keep our community safe and to communicate
transparently with the public.
-What deserves more than that, though, Mayor?
Respectfully, you can say I have this window
into the police department that nobody else has,
but that's not good enough for the public.
What wasn't Shon Barnes getting done?
Crime is down, recruitment is up,
major progress has been made in the last year and a half
under his tenure.
What wasn't he getting done?
-I'm grateful for Chief Barnes' service,
and I outlined in my remarks some of the qualities
that I will be looking for in the next chief.
I would just say that I believe that the path we are on now is
the one that is going to put us in the best position to achieve
our public safety outcomes.
And that includes transparent communication with the public.
That includes operational relationships throughout
the department that are going to allow us to
actually achieve our goals.
There's a cloak of secrecy here.
We've asked multiple times.
A number of media outlets have asked the same question.
You're refusing to give us transparent answers
on the reasons why.
Do you think that that's going to create more of
a problem moving forward, whoever takes over SPD?
That it's going to create this culture of secrecy on
you know no transparency?
I think there is a lot of information out there
that can suggest to people the reasons why this
decision was made.
What I'm saying is that there
were multiple factors.
The events of Sunday certainly played into it and
I think we've discussed some of the gaps and lapses that
that happened um and again my decision here is based on what I
believe is going to be best for this department and for the city
moving forward your process and how you're going to be working
with the mayor here it sounds like there's some
some concerns that yes I think the biggest thing
is first I'd be remiss if I didn't say that chief
barnes and I are friends we were main friends
I had the opportunity to come over with him from Wisconsin to
our work that we did together.
And then also my friend and colleague, Yvonne
Underwood, that we've known for several years, had a
role with me coming in here.
I think this morning when I had a meeting with the mayor, some
of the things that we're going to do as a police department
is to be very proactive.
If you look at some of my statistics from when I was
in Beloit, Wisconsin, we were a very proactive police
department identifying the individuals that are causing
the gun violence and the gang problems in that city.
And we're going to identify them here in Seattle and we're going
to put an effort, a concerted effort, into identifying
those individuals, making the appropriate arrests, and
sending them over to the King County Prosecutor's Office.
The message that I received this morning and the message
that I gave to the mayor aligns with what we want
to do.
It's about public safety, it's about being
committed and working together not just as a police
department but as the police department, the mayor's
office and the council members of this city of Seattle
and working with our outreach groups.
It takes all of us and you know I know it's
cliche but it takes the village to save some of
these individuals in this in this community and that's
what we're going to do.
So that's the message that we have.
- One more question and it's going to go to Connor
because I called him.
- Mayor Wilson, you said that you do have a window into SPD.
So when were you aware of former Chief Barnes's travels
and for transparency that you said that you want to have
for SPD, are you going to release his full calendar
to show exactly how much he actually travels
during his tenure?
We can discuss releasing that.
I think that should be a matter of public record.
I'm wondering where specifically.
You said you have a window into that.
Of travel specifically?
Yeah, of how often he traveled.
I mean, I think that that has been something that
has been discussed in public for quite some time.
Thank you, everyone.
I do have one question for Chief.
You said that you were friends with former Chief Shon Barnes.
I don't know if there's been any conversations with him today
and any advice that he's given you to take
over this department.
I'd like to keep that matter private between him and I.
Are you speaking here permanently?
That's way too early for me to discuss that.
It's been a very busy last five days.
Are you making any command changes?
Not at this moment.
You made it sound like there was an agreement between you
and Chief Barnes to leave.
But is it the fact of the matter that you gave him an
ultimatum that he would either leave or he'd be terminated?
I asked him to resign.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.