Seattle leaders facing backlash over police cuts
Seattle Police Officers Guild president Mike Solan tells ‘Outnumbered Overtime’ the city council is putting ‘everybody’s public safety on the line’ with cuts to police funding.
Seattle's crime increase will only get worse if the city's leadership continues to hamstring its police force, Seattle Police Officers Guild president Mike Solan told Fox News Wednesday.
“Clearly this is the result of the city council conducting activism via their governance, listening to the loud socialist mob that is calling for more reform, taking away budgeted money from public safety, which to me is unfortunate because regardless of your politics, we know that Seattle is very progressive,” Solan told "Outnumbered Overtime."
SEATTLE POISED TO CUT POLICE BUDGET BY 20%, SECOND MOST IN NATION BUT SHORT OF 'DEFUND' DEMANDS
Seattle's City Council voted Monday to cut the police department's budget by roughly 18% – a far cry from the 50% reduction that activists had called for – and reallocate “millions” of dollars to “fund community alternatives."
Members voted to slash funds meant for SPD training and overtime, reassign certain roles -- including 911 dispatchers, parking enforcement officers and mental health workers -- to other city agencies and eliminate unfilled jobs, according to officials and local news station KING 5. MyNorthwest.com previously described it as one of the largest budget cuts at any big city police department this year.
The council did approve the hiring of 100 new police recruits in 2021, which Mayor Jenny Durkan and other officials argued was needed.
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According to the Seattle Times, the city's police budget will drop by more $30 million after growing steadily for years.
"The march to socialism is a very serious situation," said Solan, who predicted that such actions would "spread across the nation.”
“This is everybody’s public safety on the line," he added before warning that if the council continues to "quite visibly show disdain for law enforcement and take away money from us, people’s public safety is going to continue to devolve.”
Fox News' Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.
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