City seeks input on Seattle's next police chief

Mayor Jenny Durkan has announced a series of 10 community workshops to take place around Seattle as a search committee continues work to identify the best candidate for the city’s new police chief.

Chief Kathleen O’Toole left the department at the end of 2017, after spending three years navigating police reforms required under a 2012 Department of Justice consent decree.

Carmen Best, who has worked for the SPD since 1992 and oversaw the Patrol Operations, Criminal Investigations, Special Operations Bureau, and the Community Outreach section, has been leading the department as interim chief since the beginning of 2018.

There is now an online community input survey available for residents to weigh in on what they want to see in Seattle’s next police chief.

A workshop in the East Precinct will take place 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 15, at the Garfield Community Center, 2323 E. Cherry St.