Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson advanced a bill Monday to make hiring bonuses for cops permanent while increasing bonuses from $35,000 to $50,000 for officers who quit their current jobs to work for the Seattle Police Department (SPD). 

During a meeting of Nelson’s Governance, Accountability, & Economic Development Committee, she argued the bonus program increased the number of applications to the department, even if it did not actually increase the number of officers hired. Council Member Bob Kettle claimed many officers are just waiting to jump over to SPD, though he pointed to no specific thing stopping those officers from joining the department now. He said that with all the recent moves by the council to address public safety, the department would certainly become very attractive to cops in other cities. One move he didn’t mention involved the council rubber-stamping the City’s latest contract with the Seattle police union, which failed to include any real accountability measures for officers. They’ll get to accountability next year, they promise! 

While Kettle basically drooled over the prospect of hiring a horde of laterals, it’s unclear if that move would even help the City fill the 400 or so open police officer positions. In 2023, then Chief of Police Adrian Diaz said that the department had 127 lateral applicants that year, but it managed to hire just six. He said many of the applicants failed to meet SPD’s hiring standards. That’s shocking, considering SPD’s 2019 hiring standards managed to wave through SPD Officer Kevin Dave, who had a sketchy driving history according to Publicola. In 2023, he hit and killed Jaahnavi Kandula as she crossed at a crosswalk. So, as the cash-strapped City prepares to spend even more money to recruit officers from other departments, let’s take a look at some of the stars they’ve managed to entice to the department since they began offering bonuses in 2019.

Bonuses Lure Back the Best
Case #2020OPA-0499

First we have West Precinct Officer Jared Campbell, who left SPD after the 2020 protests to go work for the Kennewick Police Department, but perhaps those sweet, sweet bonuses, drew him back, as he rejoined SPD in 2023. Campbell resigned amidst an OPA investigation into him slamming his patrol bike into the head and shoulder of a protester on July 25, 2020. 

Campbell argued that he believed the protester was preparing to dearrest someone, so he needed to protect himself from a possible attack from the protester. The OPA found the evidence did not support his justifications for the use-of-force, but a lack of evidence led to inconclusive findings, partly because investigators could not contact the person hit in the video and partly because Campbell had left the department and could not sit for an interview, though he did provide a written statement to OPA.

HardPressedMedia later published additional video of Campbell’s body camera footage from the 2020 protests, which showed Campbell telling other officers that “the motherfuckers on 7th and Pine are about to get wrecked.” Welcome back, Campbell!

Just Resting His Eyes
Case #2024OPA-0103

On February 24, 2024, West Precinct Officer John Shields pulled into the Olympic Sculpture Park Parking Garage at about 3 pm and marked that he was responding to a person-down call at about 3:15 pm. Internal messaging systems for the department show that Shields messaged another officer on the call and asked if they needed him. When the officer said no, Shields remained logged into the call. GPS data from Shields’s patrol car showed that he stayed in the parking garage until about 5:40 pm. A security guard in the parking garage later complained to the OPA that he saw Shields “deeply sleeping.” Shields remained logged into the person-down call until about 6:30 pm despite never responding to it. People made seven 911 calls to Shields’s precinct from 4 to 5 pm that day, none of which Shields responded to.

Shields later told OPA investigators that while he may have closed his eyes, he stayed awake the whole time. He said he pulled into the garage to be in the shade and to take a break because he had a headache. He said he monitored calls the whole time, and his precinct has a strict rule about responding to 911 calls outside an officer’s sector. He reported seeing the security guard as part of his evidence that he remained awake for the entire two-and-a-half hours he stayed parked in the garage. 

The OPA failed to prove Shields had fallen asleep but said it could not ignore that for two-and-a-half hours he remained parked in a garage with “his eyes closed or looking down at his phone.” They recommended a training referral for Shields on SPD’s work expectations. In 2023, Shields made more than $200,000 working for SPD, and under the new Seattle police union contract the City must pay him $79,000 in backpay. The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission showed SPD hired Shields as a lateral hire in 2019.

“I’m sick of you all”
Case #2022OPA-0149

On May 11, 2022, East Precinct Officer Ella Thomas arrived on the scene of an assault where someone had punched the victim twice, causing the victim to fall and hit their head on the ground. When Thomas showed up, a community member, who identified himself to the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) as a physician, had started to treat the person’s injuries. The doctor told OPA that by the time Thomas pulled up to the scene he’d already had a pretty frustrating call with 911. A dispatcher asked him a lot of questions about the suspect and then hung up on him. He said Thomas arrived shortly after and started “acting like an asshole.” Thomas immediately called for medics. She then started asking the doctor questions about what happened and about the suspect, but the doctor refused to answer. He said he’d speak with the medics when they arrived and asked if she called for medics; Thomas didn’t reply. 

Other community members standing around also asked Thomas if she’d called the medics. After several people asked, Thomas replied, “Yes. You heard me call medics.” That’s when things escalated. One community member shouted, “I didn’t hear you say shit,” and, “You ain’t helping shit. You’re fucking worthless …SPD fuck.” Thomas then called for backup to address a hostile crowd. The situation continued to devolve as the community member called Thomas a pig and other insults, and Thomas said something about how the man’s mother should be proud of him.

As another officer arrived, the doctor asked Thomas to step aside. Thomas refused and said, “Can you step aside?” At that point, the other officer intervened, and Thomas yelled, “I’m sick of you all.” She then walked away saying, “Sick of these ignorant ass people.”

The OPA knocked Thomas for falling short of SPD standards and issued her an oral reprimand. The City paid Thomas more than $170,000 in 2023 to deliver this kind of service. The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission showed Thomas as a lateral hire to SPD in 2019, when she received a bonus for joining the department.