Derailing the Defund: How SPD Manipulated the Media Narrative Around the 2020 Protests

by Glen Stellmacher

(This article was originally published on Real Change and has been reprinted under an agreement.)

While thousands of Seattleites took to the streets to protest George Floyd's murder at the hands of Minneapolis police, calling for the Seattle Police Department (SPD) to be defunded by 50%, exclusive SPD documents obtained via public records requests reveal internal deliberations and backroom dealings designed to craft a counternarrative to those demands.

As pressure to cut the department's budget in half ramped up in June 2020, SPD's top brass attempted to influence public perception of how cuts to the department might impact operations, employing scare tactics and warning of a public safety crisis, even as leadership staff within the department internally recommended civilianizing or eliminating a number of SPD units.

Civilian Response

A major demand of the protests over police killings that stemmed from George Floyd's murder was simple: Cut cop funding. The Defund the Police movement, as it came to be known, argued that many of the things currently done by the police could be done as well or better by civilians, which would have the welcome side effect of reducing contact between armed officers and civilians.

In results from a June 19, 2020, internal survey, never released until now, SPD's top brass agreed with Defund. SPD leadership had already made recommendations that at least 12 functional "areas of service" within the department — such as harbor patrol, the Office of Police Accountability (OPA), crisis intervention, and homelessness outreach — would actually be better served by civilian staff than sworn police officers.

According to emails sent by Angela Socci, SPD's executive director for budget and finance, SPD command staff were asked to rank each area of service and "consider whether each sworn function is BEST responded to by a sworn law enforcement officer or whether a different professional expertise is better equipped," scoring their choices on a 0 to 100 scale.

In the survey, 12 other functional areas of service received mixed survey results and were scored "undetermined." In total, 11 out of 35 areas of service were voted as being best handled by sworn officers by SPD's top brass. The results indicate broad acceptance among SPD leadership of the idea that civilianizing major service areas was not only feasible but "BEST."

A second survey was completed June 25, 2020. Command staff were asked, in the hypothetical scenario of a 30% budget reduction, to recommend developing a civilian co-response, civilianizing, eliminating, expanding, maintaining, reducing, or transferring externally each area of service. The results show SPD leadership's priorities for sworn officer functions amid proposed funding cuts.

In the survey, command staff made recommendations to reduce operations for 16 separate units, civilianize or provide a new civilian co-response to nine other areas of service, and transfer externally four units from within the department, including OPA and mayoral security. In addition, command staff recommended the complete elimination of four units: the mounted patrol (horses), community outreach, false alarm response, and the SPD's gang unit.

The internal survey rankings deviate from the public-facing narrative, in which SPD claimed it would be forced to eliminate the Southwest Precinct, SWAT, or the traffic unit if budget cuts went too far, laid out in an open letter from Chief Carmen Best on July 10, 2020.

"These 2020 cut scenarios by the Council are political gestures, however, not realistic or rational solutions," she wrote. "SPD is absolutely committed to transforming the department and has already started the process. But if we are asked to cut 50% of our department overnight, we will be forced into decisions that do not serve our shared long-term goal of re-envisioning community safety."

By August 2020, SPD and Mayor Durkan's office were aware that "up to 45% of SPD patrol service hours do not require an officer," according to a Budget Change Decision Points memo. Yet instead of immediately integrating that knowledge, along with SPD's own command staff recommendations to civilianize multiple units, Durkan opted to study the issue further.

In Executive Order 2020-10, "Reimagining Policing and Community Safety in Seattle," a new interdepartmental team (IDT) was tasked to conduct "a systemic review of current functions and specialty units and recommendations of functions to be eliminated, reduced, civilianized, or expanded." At the time of her order, Sept. 30, 2020, a similar process had been completed just three months prior. The IDT that completed the first review had also included SPD and mayoral representatives.

The work product of the second IDT was completed in June 2021. With the release of that study, the public would later learn what SPD and the Mayor's Office already knew over a year prior: Nearly half of SPD calls for service could likely be managed with a civilian response.

In the August 2020 budget memo, the first IDT made targeted recommendations, such as the consolidation of SPD's "harbor patrol" under the umbrella of the Seattle Fire Department (SFD).

Within the memo, Durkan's staff wrote that "SFD Marine Emergency Response and Dive Teams and SPD's Harbor Unit have significant duplication in skills, duties and community response. Furthermore KCSO [King County Sheriff Office] and the Coast Guard have jurisdiction in the water."

SPD command staff had also voted that the harbor patrol was "best" to civilianize within their June 19, 2020, survey. Breaking with both SPD leadership and her own staff's recommendations, Durkan opted not to consolidate harbor patrol operations within the fire department.

At the time, SPD's harbor patrol budget was $6.4 million.

However, while members of SPD leadership twice indicated their openness to relinquishing programs like harbor patrol, executive-level staff weren't on board. In fact, email exchanges obtained by Real Change show top-level communications and strategy staff within the department privately ridiculing the idea of civilianizing certain police functions, all while working to clandestinely reshape the public conversation around police reform.

Departmental Diversity

When looking at proposals for budget reductions, SPD publicly equated them directly to staffing reductions.

The same day Best sent that letter, SPD released a graphic on Twitter showing that the department would lose 43% of its Black officers within a 50% budget cut scenario.

"As you well know, 82 percent of our budget is personnel, so with $20 million in savings already identified by your office, the only way we could achieve the added Council reductions in 2020 is through severe cuts to our sworn and civilian workforce," Best wrote in her July 2020 letter.

When preparing statistics for release to the public with the communications team, Socci wrote that in the event of a 50% budget reduction, there would not be "a huge percent decrease in diversity when you look at the total counts."

SPD's own data shows that staffing reductions for a 50% budget cut scenario would have reduced total self-reported BIPOC staff proportion within the department by only 2 percentage points.

However, the department would have seen the total proportion of Black officers increase from 7.7% to 8.5% if half of all personnel were let go, according to an internal analysis obtained by Real Change.

Instead of going with those numbers, Socci suggested, "I think we should call [out] the percent change within the POC [People of Color] category instead." SPD went that direction, tweeting that a 50% budget cut would reduce their overall BIPOC officer count by "more than 50%."

An Invisible Hand

While SPD's own communications around the Defund movement were based on a strategy of selectively presenting information, it didn't limit that approach to just the SPD Blotter blog. Behind the scenes, SPD Chief Strategy Officer Chris Fisher appears to have spearheaded SPD's media strategy during the protests, helping craft two opinion articles critical of the Defund movement for the news website Crosscut. Real Change obtained emails that show that Fisher was personally critical of the idea of civilianizing police and dismissive of groups central to the Defund movement.

In response to an email that suggested employing civilian response to calls related to homelessness, behavioral health, and substance abuse, he wrote, "this is hilarious."

Fisher was also integral to Durkan's SPD Budget Project Team, using his role there to shut down participation from members of the group Decriminalize Seattle within a new community safety task force. In an email discussing the task force, he described them as "activists," citing that as a disqualifying factor.

In another email, he described the former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva's threats to eliminate the sexual assault investigation unit in response to funding cuts as "playing hardball."

In July 2020, Fisher helped Deputy Mayor and previous Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess with research for an op-ed for Crosscut in which Burgess argued against cutting SPD's budget. (Burgess, a former SPD officer and press aide who served on City Council from 2008 to 2017, continued his pro-police work as Mayor Bruce Harrell's director of strategic initiatives before taking his current position.)

For another op-ed, Fisher was even more involved: He appeared to ghostwrite or produce an initial draft of the piece for Antonio Oftelie, a Harvard scholar and business consultant. Oftelie eventually published the piece under his byline on Crosscut.

Leading up to that publication, in late July, Fisher shared a word document titled "OftelieV1" with SPD Executive Director of Legal Affairs Rebecca Boatright and SPD communications team member Jennifer Sullivan. Fisher wrote, "Do you two want to play around with this a little and then I will send it to Antonio."

The next day, July 20, Fisher sent Oftelie an email from his personal Gmail account. In it, he wrote, "Antonio – let me know what you think of this. On the right path?"

Oftelie responded, "Wow! This is fantastic at first read through. I'd like to work for you when you run for Governor! I'll dig into this soon and get back to you. Stay strong…"

On July 28, Fisher emailed Best, Boatright, and Amy Clancy, who was then SPD's director of strategic communications. He forwarded the draft, writing, "I like this a lot – how do we help him [Oftelie] get it placed. Times would be ideal. We also can offer edits but I like it a lot."

By Aug. 3, 2020, Crosscut had published Oftelie's editorial. SPD's involvement was not disclosed.

David Lee, Crosscut's current executive editor, tracked down the former editor who was in charge of op-ed articles at the time, confirming that they had no idea SPD had a hand in the piece.

"It is difficult after the fact to say whether, given what we know now, we would still have published the op-ed," Lee said, "but I believe we would not have. Transparency and honesty are both important values in our newsroom. We would not publish this op-ed if we knew it was ghostwritten by someone in the Seattle Police Department."

After viewing emails relevant to the op-ed and checking in with the former editor, Crosscut decided to take the article down, Lee said.

Fisher has since moved on to a position at the U.S. Department of Justice, but did not respond to an emailed request for comment sent to his personal email account. Spokespeople for both the City of Seattle and the SPD did not return requests for comment by press time.

From Collaborator to Monitor

Two days after Oftelie's op-ed was published on Crosscut, Boatright internally pushed for him to be nominated to replace departing Federal Court Monitor Merrick Bobb, who had spent seven years overseeing Seattle's consent decree, the 2012 agreement between the City of Seattle and the U.S. Department of Justice that mandated police reform.

"I've never heard of any of those referenced below," she wrote, responding to an email thread that included Best, Durkan, and Durkan's legal counsel, Michelle Chen. "FWIW, just to put in another plug for Antonio Oftelie … Just my additional 2 cents."

Oftelie was officially appointed as the new monitor on Sept. 8, 2020.

His Crosscut article, it turns out, was not the only time he'd "co-authored" something with the cops. In April 2020, as SPD was preparing to file a joint motion to terminate portions of the consent decree, Boatright appeared to write a federal court declaration on Oftelie's behalf. In an April 30, 2020, email to Brian Maxey, SPD's current chief operating officer, Boatright sent a word document titled "Decl-Oftelie.docx," writing, "Here is the one I did for Antonio…"

Oftelie's federal court declaration starts, "I make the following declaration" and continues on to praise SPD. Boatright appears to write for Oftelie:

"SPD's accomplishments under its consent decree and its leadership are not only recognized by national and international leaders as a benchmark for organization reform, but serve as well as a foundation for continued study and learning in the area of organizational transformation. Of note, the SPD's path to full and effective compliance with its consent decree, and the leadership strategies underlying its transformation, have been documented in a case study now pending publication for use by several professors in Harvard Business School advanced classes and seminars."

On May 1, 2020, Oftelie would sign the declaration "under penalty of perjury" and send it back to Boatright. The same day, Boatright texted Assistant Chief Lesley Cordner, "I'll have your dec[laration] ready to review in just a few. [Kathleen] O'toole, Antonio [Oftelie], and [Chuck] Wexler all on board."

Almost a month later, SPD would blanket the city with chemical weapons. The "transformation" touted by Oftelie in his declaration was certainly not felt by the thousands of people on the receiving end of SPD's protest response.

A review of the court docket appears to show that Oftelie's declaration was ultimately never submitted. However, the process demonstrates that Oftelie was willing and even eager to be a mouthpiece for SPD's public messaging. That coziness seems to have carried over into his work as monitor.

Once confirmed as monitor, Oftelie sent an "advisement" to City Councilmembers, warning them not to cut SPD's budget. In it, he echoed a number of talking points prepared by Boatright. Oftelie's monitoring team also appeared to allow SPD to stop internally investigating use-of-force cases related to the 2020 protests, on the basis that it was redundant to ongoing OPA and Office of Inspector General investigations.

This represented a shift in position for the monitor's office, from previous Monitor Bobb's characterization of SPD as being "at its nadir" in 2020 to Oftelie recommending the federal court end oversight in 2023.

In his appointment, Oftelie beat out a number of well-qualified candidates, including Natashia Tidwell, the current federal monitor for the city of Ferguson, Missouri; Daniel Gianquinto, who successfully implemented New Jersey's consent decree dealing with racially biased policing; Tracey Meares, a Yale law professor and expert in relationships between urban communities and legal authorities; and Kelli Evans, a former ACLU director and federal monitor for the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, among others.

SPD and the City appeared to be quite pleased that they ended up with Oftelie.

In one text message exchange on Oct. 15, 2020, between Boatright and Michelle Chen, Boatright wrote, "Can you imagine if [former Monitor] Merrick [Bobb] were still here?"

Chen responded, "Omg I would have boycotted this meeting if that was the case."

The next year, on June 3, 2021, Boatright wrote in an email to Oftelie, "this is really the first phase of the Consent Decree during which SPD has felt truly listened to."

Oftelie issued the following response to inquiries from Real Change regarding his collaborations with SPD staff:

"As Monitor of the federal Consent Decree with the City of Seattle, my role is to inform the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington on all facets of Seattle Police Department (SPD) operations and compliance with the Consent Decree. No member of SPD or other Seattle officials have ever written for me, including any articles in the media or policy briefs for the U.S. District Court. It is expected that I am in constant contact with executives across the city government, and any assertion that collaboration between the Monitor and SPD or Seattle officials is counterproductive is simply incorrect.

"During 2021, citywide discussions on investment in public safety were of particular interest to the Court and the community. The discussions and debate on various levels of investment in public safety had implications for the ability of SPD to not only meet the requirements in the Consent Decree, but also respond to critical incidents in a timely manner. As such, intensive communication was normal and required among the parties in the Consent Decree to understand, contextualize, and work together to accurately convey the range of implications. As Monitor I facilitate those discussions, and this level of collaboration is intentional, efficient, and effective.

"I continuously collaborate with all the parties in the Consent Decree, as any effective monitor would, to ensure the status of the Seattle Police Department is accurately and ethically communicated to the Court and the public."

'Create an Understanding'

In the leadup to the city's annual budget process, members of Durkan's press team considered promoting more stories that supported keeping SPD fully staffed. In a Sept. 26, 2020, email, Durkan's spokesperson Kelsey Nyland wrote in one email, "My instinct is that some of our reporters – like an SCC Insight – could do a really good story on how SPD determines staffing. I feel like this is a crucial piece to roll out and then protect the 1,400 sworn FTE count in the budget."

In October 2020, SPD created a media blitz around "record breaking attrition," feeding stories to KING5, KOMO4, KIRO7, Q13, KUOW, The Seattle Times, Crosscut, PubliCola, MyNorthwest, the Puget Sound Business Journal, the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, and the West Seattle Blog.

"In terms of messaging, we will brief stakeholders and pitch media on the separation numbers and create an understanding of the impact this will have on SPD services," Nyland wrote in an email titled "FOR REVIEW + APPROVAL | SPD Comms + Outreach Plan, Slide Deck" and addressed to a number of city staffers, including Fisher, Socci, and then-interim Police Chief Adrian Diaz.

As part of that communication plan, SPD and the Mayor's Office pre-briefed a number of prominent individuals, preparing them to make statements to the media, including former Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole; Jacqueline Helfgott, director of the Crime & Research Center at Seattle University; Erin Goodman, executive director of the SODO BIA; Victoria Beach, chair of the SPD African American Community Advisory Council; Stephanie Tschida, chair of the East Precinct Advisory Council; Kenny Stuart, president of the Seattle Fire Fighters Union; Angie Gerrald, chair of the North Precinct Advisory Council; and Federal Court Monitor Antonio Oftelie.

In a subsequent email, Nyland wrote, "Community leaders were crucial in helping shape the message on this one."

Facing intense scrutiny themselves, SPD and the mayor's office had, in essence, deployed a team of surrogates across the media landscape to discredit the ideas behind the Defund movement, with Oftelie himself often helping advance SPD messaging.

And it worked.

After over 11 years under federal monitoring, SPD continues to be embroiled in scandal after scandal. Most recently, officers were found to have kept a mock tombstone of a Black man killed by SPD in a break room. While federal monitors, including Oftelie, have cost the people of Seattle millions of dollars in monitoring fees, their work does not seem to have changed the culture that earned SPD the consent decree in the first place.

Even as SPD leadership agreed with civilianizing large portions of the department, significant public resources were expended to retain the status quo, fomenting a media campaign based on deception, all while advocating for a federal monitor who would parrot the department's own agenda.

As SPD and the City advocate to end the consent decree, Oftelie has more recently moved his sights to Minneapolis, promising at a news conference with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey that Minneapolis will be seen as "leading the country as we implement this plan, to guide the rest of the nation and really the world, in transforming public safety for safe and thriving communities."

As Seattleites can tell you, we've heard that line before.

View the full internal SPD results via Real Change: June 19, 2020, Survey and June 25, 2020, Survey

Additional reporting done by Tobias Coughlin-Bogue.

All screenshots by Henry Behrens; documents obtained by Glen Stellmacher through a public records request.

Featured Image: Illustration by Robin Hunt.