Confidence Problem

Next week, the Seattle Police Officers Guild will announce the
results of the guild’s vote on Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske. In early February,
ballots were sent out to the nearly 1,200 guild members, who can mark whether
or not they have confidence in the chief. Currently, ballots are filtering into
a post office box, and the guild’s election committee will collect and tally the
votes after the March 19 postmark deadline.

Results are expected around March 21: From the current buzz, it seems likely
the vote will go against the chief. While the vote is not legally binding (Mayor
Greg Nickels has already said he will keep Kerlikowske regardless of the results),
it still spells trouble for the chief. Depending on how wide the margin, a no-confidence
result could cause the guild to rally for a new chief.

The Stranger asked a few dozen Seattle police officers if they’d be willing
to discuss the guild vote. Only one officer was willing to go on record (though
he wished to remain anonymous). If his analysis is any gauge–he says Kerlikowske
is more politician than cop, and officers have been frustrated for much of his
tenure–Kerlikowske should take note.

Here are the officer’s thoughts:

This has been building awhile. Especially among patrol, [the no-confidence
vote] has widespread support. It was initiated at a general guild membership
meeting–it wasn’t the board, it wasn’t the president who called for it–a lot
of officers were outraged at what happened [with Officer Jess Pitts, who was
disciplined in January following a complaint over how he treated Asian American
students in the International District last summer]. It was at a general membership
meeting that it came up, and the officers there voted to put the ballots out.

Morale in the department has been declining. There’s a strong feeling among a lot of rank and file that there’s no leadership, that there’s no chief. We don’t need a politician, we need a police chief–someone who’s willing to put the facts out there as they are, and if an officer is right, defend that officer.

Kerlikowske is the head spokesperson for the department whether he likes it or not, and there’s some actions we take in law enforcement that have to be defended. You tell the citizens the truth–why it happened, and what law-enforcement principles it was based on–and you defend your officers’ actions. If the citizens of Seattle don’t like that accepted law-enforcement principle, they should voice their opinions, and we’ll change the way we do our job. But don’t change the rules to fit whatever population group or whatever situation comes up just to appease people.

Just don’t say you have a problem for the sake of saying you have a problem. I think too often the chief does that. He rolls over trying to appease the group that’s angry at the time.

You can play politics with a lot of things, but when you discipline someone,
when you take disciplinary actions against someone based on political purposes,
that’s where you draw the line. I want to be disciplined because the chief,
or whoever imposes that discipline, truly believes that I did something wrong.
It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth that you would do it just for political
purposes.

There’s a concern that the chief in a lot of ways has abdicated his overall responsibility in running the department, in disciplinary matters, to [Office of Police Accountability director Sam Pailca]. A lot of people–rank and file, and command staff personnel–thought the reprimand of Jess Pitts was unwarranted. And the chief, he can’t point to one specific act taken by Jess that was conduct unbecoming of an officer.

[Kerlikowske’s] not really engaged. He’s really distant. He tries to have coffee with cops every month or couple months. But it’s about seeing him at roll calls, trying to really listen to officers’ concerns, coming out and riding on the streets at night a couple of days.

Once [the vote] comes back, considering how strong it is, we have to really sit back and decide: We know we have no confidence in the chief at this point in time–are there corrections he can make to resolve this situation? Or is it to such an extent that we have to actively and aggressively campaign for a new chief? That’s something we can’t say just now; we have to wait for the votes to come back in and see how overwhelming it is. I’d be very surprised if it comes back any other way. I’d be very surprised.

amy@thestranger.com