From 'unreasonable scrutiny' to hope: Why Seattle's police union president is optimistic

The Seattle Police Officers Guild has hope that things will get better around town for the first time in a long time. Why? There's a new City Council at City Hall.

"We, for a very long time, have not had the political support from our elected leaders in this city," SPOG President Mike Solan recently told Soundside. "And the 2020 movement, the Defund movement, really hindered our ability to be an effective police force. And we’ve lost, since 2019, 700 officers."

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Solan adds that Seattle police officers have been without a labor contract with the city for more than three years. It's all added up to a sour mood among officers. Solan places a lot of the blame on progressive politics in the city, and a past council that was largely unsupportive.

"We remain extremely hopeful and optimistic that those bad vibes from before won’t resurrect on this current council,” Solan said.

Novembers election put seven out of nine council seats up for grabs. Most of the winning candidates are viewed as more moderate. Some have promoted greater support for hiring police officers. In fact, KUOW reported in July that council incumbents distanced themselves from 2020's Defund the Police effort, sensing its unpopularity among voters. Councilmember Dan Strauss even sent campaign mailers stating, "Defund the police was a mistake."

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The gap between Seattle's police and its city council did not originate in 2020, however. Tensions have rising for years. For example, in 2016, officers were found on dash cam video telling a Seattle resident that the council was the root the city's issues with homelessness and property crime. In 2017, two Seattle police officers sued Councilmember Kshama Sawant for defamation after she commented that the death of Che Taylor, a Black man, was a "brutal murder." Officers shot and killed Taylor in 2016 during a drug sting. Police reported that Taylor was reaching for a gun before officers shot him.

It's not a one-way street, however, and Seattle police have faced multiple high-profile controversies. In September, one side of a phone call between Officer Dan Auderer and Solan was recorded on Auderer's body cam. That side of the conversation appeared to show the officer laughing and joking about the death of a pedestrian, after being struck by a patrol car, hours after the incident.

Last summer, body cam footage also revealed that an officer break room had a Trump flag and a mock tombstone bearing the name of Damarius Butts, who was killed in a shootout with police. The incident spurred questions around the culture among officers.

RELATED: Seattle police face reckoning over 'culture' in 2024

At the same time, Solan points to Seattle's record homicide rate, considerable loss of officers in the department, and the fact that officers have gone three years without a labor contract.

“If you look at some of the exit interviews that … the police department does when people exit, some of it is very clear — people cite a hostile work environment," he said. "The political climate is just too polarizing. There is too much of a legal risk to your well being and your financial status in terms of being a police officer. The possibility of being charged with a crime is heightened here. The scrutiny is too immense. The overall word that I use, and I hear it quite often, is ‘unreasonable.’ I think that is what Seattle has gravitated towards, this unreasonable scrutiny with police accountability."

Solan said he is optimistic that the 2023 election and changes in the makeup and mindset of the Seattle City Council will lead to an improved relationship between the city and police.

"This current council, to me, that was just elected, gives us hope," he said. "For the first time in, jeez, I don’t know how long, I’ve been a cop for 24 years, I don’t recall ever City Council members publicly declaring that we need more cops and that we should support the police. It’s stunning.”

This interview with SPOG President Mike Solan was featured on an episode of Soundside. Listen here for the full conversation with more insights and perspectives around policing in Seattle.