By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
In a city seeking strong leadership and transformative vision, Seattle’s new Police Chief Shon Fitzgerald Barnes brings more than 24 years of law enforcement experience—and a lifelong commitment to service and leadership. Known as a builder at heart, Barnes sees his role in Seattle as an opportunity to create lasting, meaningful change for the community he now serves.
Before entering law enforcement, Barnes began his career as a public school teacher, an experience that profoundly shaped his commitment to service. It was during his time in the classroom that he realized he needed to do even more to protect and guide young people, leading him to the police force as a new avenue for making a difference.
“After I graduated from college, I began a job as a public-school teacher, and it really was my calling. Probably still is a big part of the way I present, the way I do things, is rooted in my foundations as a classroom manager and as a public-school teacher,” Barnes said.
However, a tragic loss ultimately shifted his career path.
“I had a very promising student who went missing and discovered that he had, along with another older gentleman, committed what’s called a home invasion robbery and then of course, had killed the homeowner,” Barnes said. “What sparked from that was a lot of confusion around how someone so promising could end up in a situation like that and really shaped my view of school as a safe place.”
According to Barnes, a conversation with a school resource officer offered a new perspective.
“He began to talk about how do we keep kids out of trouble, and at the end of that conversation, he says you should be a police officer,” Barnes recalled.
From that moment forward, Barnes went on to build a distinguished career in law enforcement. He served with the Greensboro Police Department before becoming deputy chief in Salisbury, North Carolina, and later, director of training and professional development at the Civilian Office of Police Accountability in Chicago. Most recently, he served as chief of police in Madison, Wisconsin, before accepting the top position here in Seattle.
His academic and professional training reinforce his dedication to leadership and service. Barnes holds a Ph.D. in leadership studies from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a Master of Science in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati, and a Bachelor of Arts in history/pre-law from Elizabeth City State University. He has also completed executive education with the Senior Management Institute for Police, the Southern Police Institute, and the FBI.
Barnes said his career is driven not by ambition, but by a desire to build and uplift communities wherever he serves.
“Yeah, it’s like asking a grand architect, why do you build just one building? Why don’t you just stop? You built the Empire State Building, which was built in a year. Why would you go and build something else? Right? Builders have to build. Leaders have to lead. You have to do what it is you have to do. And I’ve never been in a state of being, I don’t rest on my laurels ever,” he said.
At the center of his leadership philosophy is the principle of selfless public service.
“The philosophy is selfless public service. That is my overall philosophy,” said Barnes. “Anyone who knows me or pretends to know me knows that selfless public service shows up in everything I write. It shows up in the way I behave. It’s going to be on my challenge coin that I created for Seattle. It is the foundation of how police officers should operate.”
Barnes believes that when policing goes wrong, it often stems from a lack of that core value.
“If you’ve ever seen policing do something that shocks your conscience, the one thing that’s missing is selfless public service,” he said. “You’re putting someone else’s interests over your own. You may be mad, you may be upset, but you’re putting someone else’s feelings over your own. You don’t punish people, you don’t abuse people, because to do so, you’re trying to gratify yourself. In this job, it is not about you. It is about the people that you serve, and I know that.”
Supported by his wife, a dean at DePaul University, and their three children, Barnes said his leadership style is grounded in family, faith, and hard work.
“I am someone that was raised by two God-fearing parents and grandparents. I come from a very big family of people who may not have had as much as others, but we were overflowing with love and that is who I am as a human being,” he said.
As Seattle’s chief, Barnes said his priorities are straightforward: focus on crime prevention, build stronger community partnerships with young people, improve case clearances, and support the department’s officers.
“My priorities are really simple. Number one, I want us to remain focused and continue to be focused on crime prevention and not be so reactive,” he said. “I know the scarcity of the number of officers we have kind of lends to that, but I do think we have enough to get the job done. We have to start preventing crime.”
Barnes said strengthening outreach to young people through new partnerships is key to long-term public safety.
“I want to make sure that we’re servicing our young people a little bit better, and so I have to establish some partnerships to do that,” he said. “I want to make sure that we can investigate cases a little bit better and that we can clear cases. Year to date, we have about an 80 percent clearance rate on our homicides, which is amazing.”
“The other priority obviously is retention and recruitment,” Barnes said. “I want to retain the officers that we have. We’ve hired 50 officers year to date this year; last year at this time, we had only hired 10, so we’re certainly moving in the right direction there.”
Barnes said he is equally committed to supporting officer wellness, citing best practices from President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
“I certainly want, number one, officers to know that this department is a great place to work and that they are supported,” he said. “The other priority for me is going to be officer safety and wellness, which was a part of and appeared in President Obama’s task force on 21st century policing.”
Barnes said he believes a department built on love, service, and accountability can restore public trust.
“I’m someone that certainly leads from a space of helpfulness and service,” he said. “I believe that we’re going to create a police department and continue to create a police department where the city of Seattle is satisfied and proud of their police department.”
