Police at the scene of a shooting in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. (SPD Blotter)
The Seattle Police Department has lost approximately 300 officers since last year’s disbursement push. He may lose 200 more officers for Mayor Jenny Durkan’s COVID vaccine warrant.
KTTH’s Jason Rantz program has learned that there are just over 200 agents who say they have not been vaccinated against COVID or refuse to hand over their private medical data. This represents approximately 20% of the SPD’s deployable staff.
Under the vaccine mandate, city workers who do not receive the shots will be fired. The SPD, already lying dangerously thin, cannot bear to lose more officers.
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Get shot or lose your job
The City of Seattle says full COVID vaccination is a working condition, regardless of age, risk factors, or previous infection. Religious and medical exemptions are offered, but it is unclear whether the city will adapt to the requests.
City staff must be fully vaccinated by October 18th.
But some officials with SPD do not believe the vaccine is necessary to do their job. Officers have been in the field for the past 17 months without a vaccine. Others do not believe the government is entitled to data on private medical decisions, even if they can be vaccinated. Some argue that it is simply not a government thing.
Durkan’s tenure was subject to impact negotiations with the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG). The union has been negotiating with city leaders and an agreement on conditions could come this week or early next week. But it is unclear how many of the 200 officers will be satisfied.
At least one union negotiating with the city is asking for compensation packages for staff who decide to give up vaccination.
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Staffing is already a crisis. That would be catastrophic
If even a small part of the officers resign due to the mandate, the effect would be catastrophic.
The SPD already has record lows that have not been seen since the 1980s. Consequently, proactive policing is non-existent for most Seattle.
Many times, there are only about 70 officers patrolling the city on a given night. This has helped provoke an increase in violent crime with the city on pace to break the 26-year high homicide rate set in 2020. With just over 1,000 deployable agents, the city has about 300-500 shy agents from where hope to be.
“We hope that layoffs are not necessary and that all unvaccinated employees choose to be vaccinated,” a Durkan spokesman told Crosscut.
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