After a behind-close-doors process, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes to lead the Seattle Police Department.
Barnes is planned to visit Seattle in January and the City Council will ultimately need to confirm his hire before Barnes officially takes over.
Early indications from council members suggest support for Barnes, especially among the leaders of the Council’s public safety committee.
“I extend a warm welcome to Chief Barnes to Seattle and congratulate him on the opportunity to lead one of the finest police departments in the country and build on the work that makes it so.” Council Member Bob Kettle said in a statement, who chairs the public safety committee.
Public Safety Vice Chair Rob Saka said he was “excited” to hear about the pick of Barnes. He thinks it was appropriate for an outside candidate to take over the department.
“Now more than ever we need to change the way we do business across the board, not just with policing, but I think it’s really clear we have an opportunity to continue to reform the culture within SPD and I just can’t imagine a better leader to do that than someone from the outside.”
Barnes hasn’t made a public visit to Seattle yet, though he was supposed to be in the Emerald City for his announcement Friday. Barnes, instead, has been responding to a mass shooting in his current community at a school that left a student and teacher dead and six others injured.
“You get called upon from time to time as a leader of any department and agency to handle tough situations,” Saka said, adding that seeing how Barnes has handled the tragedy this week will be part of the consideration he takes on whether or not to ultimately support the new chief.
If confirmed, Barnes will step into a City grappling with how to better handle public safety, after years of pervasive car thefts, drug use, and gun violence has mired the city’s image nationally and across the rest of the state.
“I am eager to learn more about Chief Barnes and his thoughts on addressing the increase in crime in Seattle; collaborating with the King County Executive and Sound Transit as they combat the public safety issues on our buses and light rail, and hearing about SPD’s continued plans for the hiring and retaining of officers,” said Councilmember Maritza Rivera in a statement.
In the release by Harrell’s office, staff pointed to decreasing crime trends in several areas in Madison in 2024:
-67% decrease in homicides
-40% decrease in car thefts
-37% decrease in burglaries
“It will continue to take an all-hands-on-deck effort to address the serious public safety challenges that we have before us,” Kettle’s statement read.
The process to nominate Barnes was behind closed doors for the second time, without any public forums or community input taken by Harrell’s office.
That’s similar to 2020 when Mayor Harrell didn’t name any finalists ahead of naming then-interim Chief Adrian Diaz to the position. Diaz was fired by Harrell this week after a months-long investigation into a relationship with a female coworker within the office.
Other police chief nominations have followed a process of public input and feedback that has changed the minds of city leaders. In 2018, Carmen Best was named Chief, even after not being selected to the list of three finalists. Community outcry for a lack of consideration of Best ensued, and eventually she was named to the position.
In response to KIRO’s questions about a lack of public input, Harrell’s staff says they followed the City Charter in the process and sought input from community leaders, like current interim chief Sue Rahr and former chief Kathleen O’Toole.