Two City Council meetings today had SPD in the spotlight:

2025 CRIME STATS: When the Public Safety Committee met in the morning – as mentioned in our daily event list – the biggest agenda item was SPD’s year-in-review update, including a look at crime/safety trends through the end of November. First, here’s the meeting video – the SPD item is 47 minutes in:

Here’s the slide deck that accompanied their briefing. Among the slides, this one mentioned a drop in several crime categories:

Of the homicides that did happen – so far this year, none in West Seattle – SPD says they’re solving more of them:

Gunfire has been an area of concern, here and elsewhere, throughout the year. In the lower right corner of the next slide, SPD lists the top 10 neighborhoods for shots-fired incidents, and none are in West Seattle:

One other slide of note – SPD says its hiring is still going well:

POLICE CONTRACT VOTES: In the afternoon, the full City Council voted to approve two SPD contracts. Here’s the meeting video:

The documents are linked from the agenda. The Seattle Police Management Association contract was approved unanimously, while the Seattle Police Officers Guild contract was approved by a vote of 6 to 3, according to District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka, who was one of the three “no” votes. He explains in part:

I approached this contract with two priorities: keeping our community safe and making sure our systems are worthy of your trust. That means strong response options, clear expectations, and accountability that works.

This agreement offered some positive movement, but it did not meet those standards. It also came with a significant cost increase to the city, even though Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers already are and would have remained the highest paid officers in the entire state, with or without the deal.

Seattle deserves a contract that strengthens transparency and gives civilian oversight agencies the tools they need to do their job. This proposal left too many gaps, especially around investigations and consistency in discipline. Those gaps weaken trust, and we cannot afford that.

Read Councilmember Saka’s full explanation, in an email newsletter, here.