Lawmakers OK New Contract for Seattle Police Officers, Managers

The Seattle City Council signed off on two new police contracts Tuesday that will give both officers and managers significant new raises, while freeing the city’s primary police alternative to operate more independently.

The agreements, with the Seattle Police Management Association and the Seattle Police Officers Guild, were a priority for Mayor Bruce Harrell before the end of his term. The deal with the guild, which represents rank-and-file cops, came together weeks before the election.

It was celebrated by some members as a step toward the continued improvement of the Seattle Police Department.

"This agreement is crucial to make progress in our public safety reform, and specifically with alternative response," said Councilmember Bob Kettle, chair of the public safety committee.

Rejection of the contracts, which had already been ratified by both unions’ members and received preliminary approval from the council's secretive labor relations committee, risked drawing an unfair labor practice complaint.

Nevertheless, the final vote was divided, taken while members of the public opposed to the contract drowned out the roll call with shouts of protest. While the vote for the police management contract was unanimous, 9-0, the vote for the officers' contract was 6-3, with council members Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Eddie Lin and Rob Saka voting against.

Their primary concern was that it moved only minimally toward finally implementing a 2017 ordinance enacting new officer accountability measures, which has been partially undercut by police guild contracts since its passage.

Saka forecast his opposition to the guild contract earlier in the day, saying in a statement that it did not do enough to enact new accountability measures. In particular, he faulted the agreement for not giving the city’s oversight bodies subpoena power in their investigations.

"The proposed contract moves in the right direction, but it does not move boldly enough," he said during Tuesday's meeting.

Councilmember Dan Strauss, who voted in favor of the contract, agreed the accountability measures didn't go far enough, but said the only way to force the issue was by passing the agreement and sending the outstanding conflicts to arbitration.

New officers with the Seattle Police Department were already the highest paid in the state. This new agreement means recruits can earn a starting salary of nearly $120,000, with quick escalations after six months. That’s a nearly 13% bump from last year, including both retroactive and proactive raises.

In turn, the city is cleared to deploy non-police crisis responders, housed within the city’s Community Assisted Response and Engagement department, or CARE, without the help of sworn officers.

Coming out of the 2020 police protests, city leaders prioritized the establishment of a non-police response team that could answer welfare calls and nonviolent crisis situations.

Though individual officers are often glad to give up these kinds of calls, the union saw them as part of its members’ body of work and exercised its rights to bargain how the new team would be used.

During negotiations, crisis responders were allowed to be used under a temporary agreement with the guild, but they had to dispatch alongside sworn officers. That arrangement occasionally spurred conflict, and leadership within the alternative response department complained about officers stonewalling their workers.

The new contract removes the so-called dual dispatch requirement, freeing crisis responders to answer their own calls. However, it limits those dispatches to a narrow set of behavioral health and welfare situations unfolding in public spaces. It still limits crisis responders from entering homeless encampments or private spaces, such as homes, and gives sergeants veto power over civilian responders being dispatched.

Harrell and the City Council were largely united in their support for paying officers more and raising the Police Department's budget. The majority of City Hall’s current slate of elected officials ran in 2021 and 2023 on a message of hiring more officers. Indeed, the department has recently seen a surge in hiring, a trend that has been correlated with recent pay raises.

In his 2026 budget, Harrell proposed a more than $40 million increase in the Police Department's budget, even as other departments saw cuts. He also proposed a new sales tax to fund the police alternatives and other public safety measures.

Critics of the new contract argue it gets little in return for its cost. Though it allows for more civilian involvement in certain aspects of policing and provides flexibility regarding how quickly misconduct investigations must be completed, it punts on some of the thorniest issues.

The Community Police Commission, the city's citizen advisory body, acknowledged in a letter last week that some accountability improvements are baked into the new contract, but ultimately concluded the agreement "falls short on ensuring accountability in fundamental ways."

In addition to the lack of subpoena power for oversight bodies, it also leaves unanswered the question of arbitrators’ ability to overturn disciplinary decisions. In Seattle and nationally there have been a slew of high-profile incidents in which officers were fired and then rehired on the order of an outside arbitrator.

The contract also leaves in place an elevated standard for justifying firing an officer that must take into account whether it would be "difficult for the employee to get other law enforcement employment.”

Harrell's office said they came to an impasse with the guild over that and other accountability measures, and said they would continue to push for improvements — a job that will now fall to mayor-elect Katie Wilson next year.

Speaking Tuesday, Wilson said, "Our officers deserve the stability of a contract. Within those bounds, we're going to be doing everything we can to make sure that our police department is working closely in partnership with community and making sure that we have a really strong public safety system moving forward.

The up-front cost of the new contract is largely covered by reserves the city has squirreled away during negotiations. But, council staff said, in 2027 and beyond, the city will likely need to allocate more money to the department to keep up with the new rates.

The current projected budget deficit for 2027 is $140 million.

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