Seattle police chief says 50% budget cut would be 'tragic decision' and is politically motivated

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best told “Fox & Friends” on Monday that a 50 percent budget cut to her department would “truly” be “a tragic decision.”

Best made the comment three days after she wrote in a letter addressed to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan that the proposed cuts by the city council “are political gestures” and “not realistic or rational solutions.”

In a video address to officers posted to YouTube on Friday, Best accused the City Council of recklessness and “political pandering” by advocating to slash her department’s budget by 50 percent, arguing that cutting funds to that extent would be asking citizens “to test out a theory that crime goes away if police go away.”

On Monday Best told “Fox & Friends” that Seattle will be “much less safe if they take 50 percent of the cops off the streets” and called the proposal “incredibly reckless.” She added that “these decisions need to be thought out.”

“They don’t have a plan that I’ve heard to do anything to maintain public safety,” Best also said.

So far, seven out of the nine members of Seattle City Council have voiced support for the goal to decrease the city’s police budget by 50 percent, according to the Seattle Times. It takes six votes to pass legislation related to the city budget and overrule a mayoral veto.

“If they decide to defund the police department by 50 percent, I think that will have negative consequences, particularly if there's no plan,” Best said on Monday.

She stressed that she is “committed” to the Seattle Police Department and the city.

“I've been here almost 30 years,” Best said, adding that she has “a long history of working with the people in this city and certainly the officers who are under my care.”

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“So I'm hoping that the council will reconsider this very rash and reckless decision and allow us to do the work that we're supposed to do for the city of Seattle,” she continued.

Best said the proposed police budget cuts would lead to either the transfer or termination of 50 percent of the department's total workforce. The agency would also lose more than 50 percent of its own officers who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC).

Host Brian Kilmeade noted that the proposal to defund the Seattle Police Department would include removing 911 dispatch from police control and scaling up community-based solutions to public safety.

Durkan, a Democrat, has not supported slashing the city’s police budget by 50 percent, but, last month, the mayor did propose a $20 million cut to the police budget for the remainder of 2020 to offset the costs of the coronavirus pandemic.

Best said she is hoping that people will call and write to the city council letting them know that this is “a reckless decision” and that “everything needs to be thought out, there needs to be a plan and we need public safety.”

Best made the comments on Monday nearly two weeks after the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP, was dismantled in Seattle. Hundreds camped out and held space in six city blocks for nearly three weeks in June until at least four shootings and two deaths drove city officials to break up the “no-cop co-op” and reclaim the East Precinct left abandoned following violent clashes between officers and protesters earlier in the month.

Black Lives Matter protesters have advocated for defunding police departments across the country following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May.

“We’re not opposed to change, but not a change at the risk of public safety for everyone,” Best said on Monday.

She added that the decisions “need to be practical so that we can maintain our public order and so I’m committed to that.”

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The Seattle City Council president did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.