By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
The City of Seattle recently hosted a candidate forum for the three finalists for Seattle Police Chief. The forum, hosted by Brian Callanan, host and producer for the Seattle Channel, brought up questions that stood out such as “what policing alternatives do you support”, “does the Seattle Police Department need a culture change” and “how would you address the violence and firearms issues in our communities” that were posed to each candidate.
The chief of police is appointed by the Mayor of Seattle and confirmed by the city council. Three finalists for the position are Interim Chief of Police Adrian Diaz, a dedicated member of the Seattle Police Department for more than two decades; Seattle Assistant Police Chief Eric Greening, who has served the Seattle Police Department for 28 years; and Assistant Chief Kevin Hall, who is a thirty-year member of the Tucson Police Department. During the forum each candidate had five minutes to answer each question but were not obligated to take up all the time.
During his response to questions, Greening talked about establishing alternatives to the current way the department responds to 911 calls and community outreach.
“I have a great passion for alternative responses to 911 calls,” says Greening. “I think it’s clear since 2020, the community is clear, we want different options for 911 responses. Currently I have inherited the Collaborative Policing Bureau. I am currently leading the Community Service Office where we have about 20 officers and 4 supervisors and I’d would like to see this unit grow.”
“I think this unit was a very nice alternative to community outreach,” he added.
Diaz emphasizes some of the initiatives he has been a part of that he believes have made a significant difference in the quelching the violence in Seattle.
“We [the police department] started an executive initiative that brought a lot of different services to the community,” says Diaz. “Because we know that social services and investment in our youth will actually help avoid finding them in the criminal justice system.”
“So, we help to build those initiatives from a variety of different things like jobs to case management, to aggression replacement training and this all helps the police department because it reduced violence, as we almost went 11 years without youth related homicides in certain communities,” added Diaz.
As the conversation shifted towards how the candidates would address new cultural and policing alternatives, Hall said that while he supports many policing alternatives, it is important for these initiatives to be data driven, and informed by science and evidence.
“What I support is any alternatives that have some sort of evidence based, science informed, and data driven foundation,” says Hall. “And that could be tough in this space because they are new concepts but it’s starting to come out.”
“Paying attention to what actually works and doesn’t cause harm with these types of programs is very important,” Hall added.
Another topic of discussion was whether or not SPD was in need of a culture change, as critics from minority communities across the country have been demanding a change in police culture that they believe has led to many policing disparities that exists nationwide.
“I think we need a culture change,” says Greening. “I’ve worked with three different departments. The first ten years I had a certain culture, the second ten years was a different culture and now after the Settlement Agreement it again has changed.”
“We are supposed to be a learning organization so the culture should be shifting during these processes,” he added.
Diaz also believes in changing the police culture; but he also believes that a police chief must adhere to the well-being of his officers.
“Culture change, the positive and negative culture, we address this through officer wellness,” says Diaz. “How do we create a level of wellness? It’s really about making sure our officers are whole. From providing psychologist in precincts, to wellness dogs such ideas go towards how we police and actually the way we train officers.”
When addressing gun enforcement and violence the candidates all believed that a mutual effort between the police and the community are essential when it comes to addressing this problem.
“In two years, we saw an increase in violent crimes, we saw the amount of shots fired double since 2019 and we saw staffing reductions in the department, right away we tried to make sure we got ahead of it,” says Diaz.
“We are using community partners that we have shared responsibility with to address this violence,” added Diaz. “We will also look to legislation to help address the gun issues and gun reform.”
“We need to bring everybody to the table. There is a network of folks we have to concentrate on, not just firearms,” says Greening. “Who are the people at risk? “When we bring people to the table, working with community organizations like Community Passageways and regional peacekeepers, to try and mitigate where we can’t as a police department. I would make sure I bring everybody to the table.”
