The search for a new police chief will begin in earnest next year, and the city council is proposing a rule change designed to attract stronger candidates. A bill from Council Member Bruce Harrell first heard in his public safety committee today would allow a new chief to hire some of his senior command staff from outside the Seattle Police Department.

Which makes sense, right? The federal police monitor overseeing SPD's compliance with a consent decree has said that at least some of the current command staff is actually contributing to the department's problems.

But the move doesn't come without controversy—among cops and council members.

Thanks to a rule passed by the council in the 1970s, anyone hired for a position above captain in the Seattle Police Department is currently required to be promoted from within. Which means that a new police chief hired from outside SPD can't bring any command staff with him or her, or hire any from another police force, and must instead promote people for roles like assistant chief from within SPD.

The restriction is doubly unappealing to potential chief candidates: First, it's attractive for chiefs considering a move to be allowed to bring along someone they know and trust to be part of a new command staff in a new city. Second, it seems odd to ask someone to come in to help reform a department—a department whose structural and cultural problems extend all the way up through the current command staff—and then say, oh, yeah, you have to hire your entire six-person command staff from our troubled department. According to Council Member Tim Burgess, this restriction has been "a big roadblock in the past" that has actually "stopped us form getting the kinds of candidates we want."

But this can't be taken well by the police unions, right? And indeed, in the public safety committee meeting today, chair Bruce Harrell mentioned that there's already been at least a preliminary objection by the police officers' union that they see this as a problem since it affects their hiring pipeline. No word yet from the police managers' union, which represents these higher-ranking officers.

That's where the claws came out:

Harrell and Burgess got into a bit of a pissing match in today's meeting, with Burgess saying he thinks this move will have the approval of the rank and file and should be voted on ASAP, and Harrell urging more caution and discussion—and noting that the union representing the rank and file doesn't seem happy.

When Harrell said he wants to have a broad discussion and isn't worried about putting the vote off until January, Burgess quipped, "I hope you're right." Burgess went on to say that the "frustration level inside the police department" is higher than he's ever seen, and he thinks the rank and file is begging city council to show some leadership. "I think the officers at the lowest level and the detectives at the lowest level are going to cheer when we do that," he said. "And they'll like this."

Harrell shot back immediately: "You say that, but their spokesperson doesn't like that. Their spokesperson filed a grievance against that. So there’s a difference of opinion in what the rank and file want." To which Burgess responded that "union representatives say a lot of things, and that’s their job."

We'll be reporting more on this as more information comes out, but it looks like it'll be a rowdy discussion all the way.