Seattle Public Safety Committee Meeting - May 12, 2026
Seattle Public Safety Committee Meeting - May 12, 2026
The Seattle City Council Public Safety Committee met on May 12, 2026, from 9:33 AM to 12:58 PM in Council Chamber. Chair Robert Kettle presided with members Saka, Juarez, Lin, and Rivera present, joined by guests Councilmembers Rink and Foster. The meeting began with a chair report on recent gun violence, followed by public comment, a deep-dive sentinel event review of the May 24, 2025, Cal Anderson Park protest, and annual updates from the accountability partners (OIG, OPA, CPC).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Gabriel Diaz (in person): Called for accountability for SPD, citing violence against trans folks and criticizing the sentinel review as insufficient. Noted only one officer received a written reprimand.
- Kelsey Burns (in person): Described being beaten and arrested at Cal Anderson; demanded officer firings and community-led oversight.
- Cedar Boucher (in person): Linked police funding to ecological crisis, arguing militarized police without accountability while basic needs are underfunded.
- Castile Hightower (in person): Spoke as surviving family member of Herbert Hightower Jr., killed by SPD; demanded voices of survivors be centered, not representatives.
- Avery Summers (in person, Citizens Group P4): Urged early contract negotiations with police unions and alternative response support.
- JC Saunders (in person): Criticized continued neck kneeling and lack of OPA investigations; called for divestment from SPD budget and community-led oversight.
- Howard Gale (in person): Quoted SPD Lieutenant saying "we're here to fuck people up"; argued the event was not a one-off; accused the council of gaslighting.
- Sean Kelly (in person): Described unsafe parks due to fentanyl dealing; called for accountability and help for addicts.
- Lucky Jordan (remote): Characterized policing as murder; called for funding victims of police violence and supporting effective persons program.
- David Haynes (remote): Thanked SPD for protecting Christians at the May Day rally; criticized drug pushers and called for collaborative safety.
Discussion Items
1. Mayday 2025 Sentinel Event Review (Inf 2891)
Deputy Inspector General Alyssa Perez-Morrison and Deputy Chief Yvonne Underwood presented findings. The sentinel event review examined the July 24, 2024 (not a typo, but the event was the May 24, 2025 protest) protest at Cal Anderson Park. Key findings: 23 arrests, 16 uses of force, 6 OPA investigations. The panel identified 66 contributing factors (e.g., lack of inter-department coordination, cultural context, anticipatory defensiveness) leading to 24 recommendations in four areas: community legitimacy, situational awareness, communication, and tactics. SPD committed to implementing changes, including training, updated briefings, and community outreach. Councilmembers questioned status of implementation and potential legislative needs; OIG pledged a written memo. Chair Kettle emphasized training and the need for better event siting.
2. Accountability Partners Annual Update (Inf 2892)
Three presentations were given:
- Office of Police Accountability (OPA) – Director Bonnie Glenn reported on the mid-year budget (31 FTEs, $1M in savings), frontline investigations pilot (targeting January 2027), mediation program expansion, complaint impact statement development, and community outreach including a youth art contest. OPA noted cuts to overtime and lost communications staff, making operations lean.
- Office of Inspector General (OIG) – Deputy IG Alyssa Perez-Morrison summarized ongoing systemic oversight: crowd management monitoring (including April 19 protest analysis), use-of-force assessments (including racial disproportionality analysis), alternative response (CARE analysis), surveillance audits (RTCC, ALPR, CCTV), and overtime controls audit. OIG also highlighted work on the controlled substance ordinance and traffic stop prioritization evaluation.
- Community Police Commission (CPC) – Executive Director Eci Ameh presented the "Community at the Heart" theme, noting CPC is fully staffed (10 FTEs) and has 13 of 15 commission seats filled. CPC’s 2026-2027 strategic plan aligns with budget cycles. A case study showed CPC translating community feedback into advocacy for two additional CRT (Crisis Response Team) FTEs in the SPD budget. CPC called for ordinance amendments to remove restrictions on commenting on closed OPA cases, increased resources, and centering survivor voices. Ameh acknowledged the day's public testimony as reflecting deep community pain.
Key Outcomes
- The committee heard both information items (Inf 2891 and Inf 2892) and voted to adopt the agenda without objection.
- No formal votes were taken on the items presented; both were briefing and discussion only.
- Chair Kettle committed to follow-up on sentinel event recommendations, including a written status memo from OIG.
- Councilmember Rink proposed a proviso on SPD’s training budget to ensure crowd management training occurs, and requested next year’s training schedule.
- Councilmember Saka questioned resource allocation for crowd management expertise.
- The meeting adjourned at 12:58 PM.
Meeting Transcript
The public safety committee will come to order. It's 9 33 a.m., May 12, 2026. I'm Robert Kettle, Chair of the Public Safety Committee. Will the committee clerk please call the roll? Councilmember Juarez. Here. Here. Councilmember Rivera. Present. Councilmember Sacco. Here. Chair Kettle. Here. Chair, there are five members present. Thank you. We have our five members of the committee president, and we also have a guest attendee today. Councilmember Rink has joined us today, and I believe there will be one more joining us in the not too distant future. Um I wanted to start off chair comment uh today. First, I do have uh a comment that I was going to read um to uh this morning, but I wanted to start with the fact of um what's been happening in our city, and I wanted to say 18. 18 is the year of the young man, uh a senior at Renier Beach High School that was recently shot over the weekend, shot in the head, and thus far surviving. I don't have details on his condition. Um first thing I thought of is uh representative Gabby Giffords who I met again last summer. You know, you know, the impact is immense, and what's in front of this young man is incredible based on her experience, and uh so we think of her, we think of gun violence, and this is one reason why we've taken it up as a uh a topic for the committee and and and part of our strategic framework plan, and we look to work with SPD. Um Chief Barnes has a lot of experience in this there in this area, Dr. Hunt, but also outside experts, um, council member Rivera is working that, and then we're doing our piece here on the committee as chair with my team. It's on so important gun violence. Remember 18 is the age of the woman at UW that was killed over the weekend, 19 years old, just starting her studies at University of Washington, and what this highlights too, and it's always important not to comment when you first get reports, but my understanding based on UW uh statement was that this young woman was part of the LGBTQ plus community, and we often have members of the LGTQ plus community here, either at community and particularly at council, and I've talked many times uh within that community to the trans um uh folks who come to our meetings and talk about their concerns, their concerns about their public safety, their concerns about unemployment within the community across the board, but on the public safety side. You know, we are a welcoming city, and that community is fleeing the the rest of the country due to the hate that they're being uh subjected to in various states across the country, and they come here as you know as a refuge, if you will, and so to have this happen that you dub with this uh this 19-year-old is concerning for many reasons for the person herself, but also for the broader community and for our city. And lastly, 20. 20 is the age of the young man Q, who was killed at the tap room, uh, North Seattle, just found one morning after working at his as a place of employee at the tap room, and he was found dead by a worker coming in the next morning, recent graduate of Nathan Hale, high school. You know, these three instances, these three individuals, these three people, an 18-year-old, a 19-year-old, and a 20-year-old, is a stark reminder that we have a lot of work to do in this city. We have a lot of work to do on this committee and this council, and it touches so many different areas, and it's so it's really important. And uh, I think that we should just you know reflect on this again 18, 19, 20. I'm still gonna read the you know my chair comment, because it's really it's it's connected in a sense, some ways. The recent arrests of a second suspect and the assault of a seventy-seven-year old man near Third Avenue in Pine, where I was yesterday. Actually, actually. I was at that McDonald's meeting with community, is a significant milestone. This development highlights the critical public safety value of the real-time crime center and the close circuit television camera program. It's highly probable that this arrest would not have been possible without the real-time crime center. Given the brazen and callous nature of the attack of a seventy-seven-year-old on Third and Pine, it is also likely that these individuals have committed similar acts before, and importantly, and would have continued to do so if not for this tool, if not for being arrested. The analysts who staffed the real-time crime center provide a clear contribution to Seattle safety that far exceeds the costs of their salaries and the in the center itself. Their work is a force multiplier and demonstrates how technology can enhance the capabilities of the cop on the street. We're making significant progress to achieve our goal. Speaking of cops on the street, we're making significant progress in our goal of achieving 1,250 officers, 1250 by the end of the year. It is imperative to main these types of investments, both in people and in the technology and the systems in the safety public safety's uh programs. We must continue our forward progress on public safety. After saying that, yes, we've made progress, but as I started with our 18, 19, and 20 year olds, there's still more work to be done. So thank you. Um if there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted. Seeing hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
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