Police and Public Safety

With a 24% raise and backpay, Seattle police officers are collectively earning an extra $96 million in compensation from the City in 2024. City leaders hope to spur hiring, but the contract did little to increase police accountability and blew a bigger hole in the City's quarter-billion-dollar budget deficit.

The tentative labor contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild fails to strengthen accountability while offering huge retroactive pay increases. With a contract that is expired as soon as it's signed, it’s difficult to understand why the City is giving up leverage in these negotiations. Council will vote to ratify the deal Tuesday.

It would be a big mistake for Seattle City Council to approve the new Seattle Police Officers Guild contract because it fails to ensure Seattle is safer by promoting proactive policing and civilian alternatives for low-level calls.

City leaders are weighing laxer hiring standards rather than improving SPD's culture and accountability systems. But SPD's bad reputation could be the bigger drag on hiring – not to mention safety outcomes.

Research has showed the promise of guaranteed basic income programs to interrupt the cycle of poverty, and participants in King County's pilot program told The Urbanist that it had helped them improve their circumstances.

Vacant building fires have become increasingly common in Seattle in recent years. In response to the threat that these fires can pose, Mayor Bruce...

Ray Delahanty of CityNerd goes through a litany of reasons why car dependency makes American society worse off from public health and environmental quality...

Mayor Harrell's contract would make Seattle police the highest paid in the region, but no more accountable. The long-awaited new proposed contract between the City...