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Carmen Best
Chief of the Seattle Police Department
In office
August 13, 2018 – September 2, 2020
MayorJenny Durkan
Preceded byKathleen O'Toole
Succeeded byAdrian Diaz
Personal details
Bornc. 1965 (age 58–59)[1]
Tacoma, Washington, U.S.
EducationNortheastern University (MS)

Carmen Best (born c. 1965) is an American law enforcement officer who served as the chief of police of the Seattle Police Department from 2018 to 2020. She was the first black woman to lead Seattle's police force. She was chief of police during the George Floyd protests. She announced her resignation in August 2020 following budget cuts, and officially left office on September 2, 2020.[2][3] Best currently serves as Director of Global Security Risk Operations at Microsoft.[4]

Early life and education

Best was born in Tacoma, Washington and attended Lincoln High School.[5] She earned a certificate in police management from the University of Washington and Master of Science degree in criminal justice from Northeastern University. She completed training programs at the FBI National Executive Institute, FBI National Academy, Criminal Justice Executive Leadership Academy, and Major Cities Chiefs Association Police Executive Leadership Institute.[6]

Career

She was hired by the Seattle Police Department in 1992 and, prior to being appointed chief, had held the ranks of officer, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and deputy chief. She took over as interim chief of police on January 1, 2018, replacing Kathleen O'Toole, and was later appointed permanent chief by Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan,[5] effective from August 13, 2018.[7] She became the first black woman to serve as Seattle's chief of police.[5][8]

Best was chief of police during the 2020 George Floyd Protests. During the June 1st protests in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, police in full riot gear barricaded the SPD's East precinct building from protesters,[9] using blast balls,[10] flash bang grenades, and pepper spray against the crowd "at times with little provocation", according to The Spokesman-Review.[11][12] After the first weekend of protests, there were 12,000 complaints against Seattle police for use of excessive force.[13] On June 5, Mayor Jenny Durkan and SPD Chief Carmen Best announced a 30-day ban on the use of tear gas,[14][15] but on June 7 used tear gas and flash bangs against a crowd outside the East precinct.[16] Best defended the use of tear gas, saying that the 30 day ban exempts SWAT officers and "life safety issues".[12] On June 8, a decision was made by Assistant Chief Tom Mahaffey to retreat from the East Precinct, which led to the establishment of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest.[17]

The role that Best played in the decision to retreat from the East Precinct, and to use tear gas on protestors during the protests, is unclear because she deleted more than 27,000 text messages by hand from her city-owned mobile device.[18] Best has acknowledged that she deleted the messages from the June 2020 protests, and has claimed that the messages were "transitory," in other words that they did not contain any significant information. By the time she deleted the text messages, the city was already facing multiple lawsuits and public records requests over the handling of the protests, which legally required her to keep the text messages, even if they were transitory. Deleting the texts violated state law,[19] however, in September of 2023 King County prosecutors declined to press state criminal charges against Best and others, stating that there was "no legal basis to file criminal charges." Instead, the office determined that the problem had been a "perfect storm" of failure in record-keeping safeguards and training.[20] Then-Mayor Jenny Durkan and Fire Chief Harold Scoggins also deleted their text messages from this period.[21] In February of 2023, the City of Seattle paid $600,000 in a lawsuit due to the deletion of texts by Best, Durkan, and Scoggins, after a federal judge deemed that they had intentionally destroyed evidence related to their handling of protests and the CHOP.[18]

On August 1, 2020, a group of less than 100 protestors marched towards Best's home in Snohomish County, but were blocked by neighbors who displayed guns. Best described the group of protestors as large and aggressive, and supported her neighbors' response to them.[22]

On August 10, 2020, after the Seattle City Council voted to downsize the department by about 100 officers, Best resigned, stating that she could not in good conscience shrink and thereby reduce diversity in the department which she had just grown by 110 officers in 2019, (with 40% of those new hires being persons of color)[23] noting that under police union rules, the last hired would be the first to be laid off, disproportionately affecting officers of color.[24][25][26] Best was replaced by Assistant Chief Adrian Z. Diaz in an interim capacity.[27][28]

On October 19, 2020, it was announced that Best would join KING-TV as law enforcement analyst.[29] In 2021, Best published Black in Blue: Lessons on Leadership, Breaking Barriers, and Racial Reconciliation.[30]

Following the 2021 election of Eric Adams, it was reported that Best was on the shortlist to become the first woman to lead the New York City Police Department;[31] however, she was not selected for the position.[32]

References

  1. ^ Brebner, Jack (6 June 2019). "Carmen Best (1965- )". Retrieved Jan 5, 2021.
  2. ^ Paul, Deanna; Frosch, Dan (Aug 11, 2020). "Seattle Police Chief Resigns After Budget Cuts". Retrieved Jan 5, 2021 – via www.wsj.com.
  3. ^ Aaro, David (2020-09-02). "Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best steps down, claims cuts left her 'destined to fail'". Fox News. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  4. ^ "Carmen Best named Director of Global Security Risk Operations at Microsoft". Security Magazine. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  5. ^ a b c "Who is Carmen Best? Meet Seattle's new police chief". KING-TV. July 17, 2018. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  6. ^ "Command Staff - Police | seattle.gov". www.seattle.gov. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  7. ^ "Command Staff". Seattle Police Department. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  8. ^ "Seattle mayor picks police veteran as new chief amid reforms". AP NEWS. 2018-07-17. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  9. ^ Pozo, Brandon del (2020-06-26). "Opinion | Watch This Protest Turn From Peaceful to Violent in 60 Seconds". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  10. ^ "This 26-year-old 'died three times' after police hit her with a blast ball". www.kuow.org. 2020-06-19. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  11. ^ "Police chief: Badge numbers will be 'prominently displayed'". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  12. ^ a b "Seattle council members vow 'inquest' into police budget; some say mayor should consider resigning". The Seattle Times. 2020-06-08. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  13. ^ Brazile, Liz (2020-06-01). "12,000 complaints filed against Seattle Police after weekend of protests". www.kuow.org. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  14. ^ "Seattle mayor, police chief agree to ban use of tear gas on protesters amid ongoing demonstrations". The Seattle Times. 2020-06-05. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  15. ^ Kroman, David. "Seattle issues 30-day ban on tear gas at protests | Crosscut". crosscut.com. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  16. ^ "Man shot near CHOP says protestors saved his life, blasts police response". king5.com. 2020-06-24. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  17. ^ "We know who made the call to leave Seattle Police's East Precinct last summer, finally". www.kuow.org. 2021-07-14. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  18. ^ a b "Seattle settles CHOP lawsuit for $3.6M, with $600K for deleted texts". The Seattle Times. 2023-02-17. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  19. ^ "Former Seattle police chief admits deleting texts in wake of 2020 Capitol Hill protest". www.kuow.org. 2022-06-09. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  20. ^ "Prosecutors: No charges for former Seattle Mayor Durkan's deleted texts during 2020 protests". FOX 13 Seattle. 2023-09-13. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  21. ^ "Not just the mayor: Text messages of Seattle police and fire chiefs from June 2020 also missing". The Seattle Times. 2021-05-07. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  22. ^ "Protesters say they were met with guns at Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best's home". king5.com. 2020-08-03. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  23. ^ Read, Richard (2020-08-11). "Seattle's first Black police chief quits, saying she's unwilling to sacrifice diversity". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-08-12. She quickly got to work recruiting. In 2019, the department hired 108 officers — the most in more than a decade — of whom a record 39% were people of color.
  24. ^ Read 2020, p. 1. "Best announced Tuesday that she was retiring because she could not in good conscience implement the City Council’s decision to downsize the 1,400-person force by as many as 100 officers. Under police labor contracts, the officers hired most recently are generally first in line to be laid off. The 55-year-old chief said at a news conference that it felt “very duplicitous” for the city to hire “the best and the brightest and the most diverse” only to quickly let them go. A 28-year veteran of the force, Best went on to describe an email she received Monday from one of those recent hires, a Black man who wrote that he was “ecstatic” to be joining the department under her command. “He is one of the people that will probably not keep a job here,” Best said. “And that, for me, I’m done. I can’t do it.”"
  25. ^ Betz, Bradford (2020-08-11). "Outgoing Seattle police chief says it's not about money, but 'lack of respect' for officers - The chief's decision comes amid the city's plan to reduce the department by as many as 100 officers". FoxNews. Retrieved 2020-08-12. She added: "The idea that we've worked so incredibly hard to make sure our department was diverse, that (it) reflects the community that we serve, to just turn that all on a dime and hack it off, without having a plan in place to move forward, is highly distressful for me." ...They said any layoffs would disproportionately target newer officers, often hired from Black and Brown communities, and would inevitably lead to lawsuits.
  26. ^ Beekman, Daniel (2020-08-11). "Seattle police Chief Carmen Best says City Council's budget cuts, lack of respect for SPD drove her retirement decision". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2020-08-12. The chief had opposed the move, warning that a rule mandating layoffs by reverse seniority would result in new officers, who are more likely to be officers of color, losing jobs. ...Best read a thank-you email she had received from a recently hired Black officer whom she described as a "great young man." "He is one of the people that will probably not keep a job here," the first Black woman to lead Seattle's police said. "And that, for me, I'm done. I can't do it."
  27. ^ "Sources: Seattle police Chief Carmen Best to resign". KIRO 7 News. 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
  28. ^ "Seattle's Police Chief Resigns After Council Votes To Cut Department Funds". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
  29. ^ "Former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best will serve as KING 5 law enforcement analyst". king5.com. October 19, 2020. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  30. ^ King, Angela (November 2, 2021). "Former Seattle PD Chief Carmen Best speaks plainly about being 'Black in Blue' in new book". KUOW. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  31. ^ McShane, Rocco Parascandola, Michael Gartland, Larry. "Meet the new boss: Incoming mayor Adams expected to name first woman NYPD commissioner in coming days". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2021-12-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  32. ^ "Keechant Sewell to Lead N.Y.P.D. as Its First Female Commissioner". The New York Times. December 15, 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
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