After Carmen Best (left) got the nod from the mayor (right), she talked with The Stranger about body cams, the police union, and her 26 years on the force. Lester Black
Carmen Best wasn’t supposed to be our next police chief. When the mayor announced the three finalists for the position in May, Best’s name was notably absent.
On the list was a police chief from Minneapolis, one from Austin, and one from Baltimore. But Best, a 26-year veteran of the Seattle Police Department and the current interim chief, had not made it to the final round.
That caused an uproar. The city’s Community Police Commission called for postponing the nomination process until the mayor’s office could explain why Best was excluded from the list of finalists. The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG), a union representing most of SPD’s cops, called Best’s absence “biased and discriminatory.”
Then it all changed.
