In an email sent to all Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers on Tuesday, SPD Deputy Chief Eric Barden celebrated the end of King County Jail’s misdemeanor booking restrictions and told officers to immediately begin increasing arrests. Barden called the decision “another great step forward for the City and, particularly, for Seattle PD.” Not so great for Seattle’s poorest and most vulnerable residents, who will comprise the “overwhelming majority of people” jailed under this change, said King County Department of Public Defense Interim Director Matt Sanders in a statement to The Stranger Thursday.

In September, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and King County Executive Dow Constantine announced an agreement to lift booking restrictions, which had previously prevented SPD officers from jailing people pre-trial for low-level and non-violent crimes such as low-value theft, criminal trespass, and public drug use. The restrictions went into place because of COVID-19 and remained active due to low staffing at the jail, which is a predicament still plaguing the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (DAJD). Department spokesperson Noah Haglund said that the jail has 60 staffing vacancies as compared to the start of 2024 when it was closer to 100. But with those 40 additional guards, Constantine believes the new agreement balances booking needs with the wellbeing of jail staff, Haglund said.  

The agreement, which took effect November 1, increased the number of jail beds the City could use for misdemeanors to 135. Barden explained in his email Tuesday that in the six months prior, SPD held on average about 90 people a day on misdemeanors at the jail, so the increase would mean an additional 45 beds available to officers per day. The jail held well over 200 people on misdemeanor charges per day in 2019, according to Barden.

“So, while we are moving in the right direction, we are nowhere near pre-pandemic capacity,” Barden said.

With booking restrictions lifted, Barden told officers to book people into jail “whenever there is a public safety interest.” The only time officers should not consider booking someone, Barden counseled, was when the City reached or neared its 135-bed capacity. “Otherwise, booking decisions consistent with pre-pandemic assessments should be utilized.” The email made no mention of considering diversion options.

In a call with the Stranger, Barden explained that "public safety interest" meant officers should arrest if they believe a person could continue to be a problem for a business, the community, or residents in the area, and said officers should not arrest if those factors aren't present. Barden argued that arresting people can both remove them from a cycle of crime, prevent further decompensation for people in a mental health crisis, and set them on a path toward recovery.

Sanders disagreed with that perspective and pointed to studies that show jailing people pre-trial undermines public safety in many cases, and increases the chances that someone commits another crime. Even one to two days in jail can disrupt a person’s life, making it difficult to maintain stable housing, secure medical care for behavioral health conditions, or hold down a job. Lifting the booking restrictions means people presumed innocent might spend time in jail for the lowest level of crimes that might not even end up charged, and still have their entire lives disrupted, Sanders said.

Barden said he understood that perspective, but as he drives around Seattle he sees more disorder than he did before the booking restrictions went into place. As a result, even while the restrictions remained in place in 2023, property and violent crime in Seattle fell compared to 2022, and homicides fell in 2024, which speaks to an empirical improvement in public safety, if not a subjective cosmetic change to downtown Seattle.

The City has made it clear in the past two years that it plans to use cops to address substance abuse, poverty, and people with mental illness, all issues many argue would be better addressed through social services and unarmed alternative response teams. The City has tried to establish new diversion paths, and when it created its drug law earlier this year it came with a policy requiring SPD to consider diversion before booking someone in jail for drug use. Barden said that lifting booking restrictions would not change that. 

Returning to a pre pandemic booking mindset means potentially returning to the days when officers threw people in jail for stealing $30 sleeping bags and souvenir pennies. We reached out to City Attorney Ann Davison to ask her perspective on whether she also planned to crack down on prosecuting low-level, misdemeanor crimes, as she’s advocated for in the past, but she declined to comment. 

Update: The Mayor's Office told the Stranger that it believes the City needs an adequate number of jail beds and the ability to book people into jail and people who cause harm in the City should be held accountable. But, "jail is not always the first or most appropriate option," and Harrell has strongly advocated "for diversion and treatment options to help nonviolent offenders get the services they need."