Carmen Best will retire as Chief of the Seattle, Wash. Police Department (SPD) on September 2, 2020. As Police Chief, Best managed 1,400 police officers and was in charge of maintaining court-ordered reform to limit excessive police use-of-force and improve relationships with the local community.
How did we get here? Long, unstable fault lines in the bedrock that undergirds U.S. society have become active, sending seismic waves that have shaken the social contract. Citizens can’t agree on basic facts. People question whether COVID-19 is real amid shifting medical advice and conflicting data on case and death rates. The footing keeps getting less stable. Economic freefall. Surging unemployment. White supremacists, fascists and anarchists boldly emerging from the shadows. Loss of faith in law enforcement by swaths of the populace after black citizens perished in police custody. Rampant misinformation campaigns by anonymous groups and nations. The result is a bitterly split populace that has retreated to their respective echo chambers.
The use of facial recognition technology by British police force was ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal in a case brought by a civil rights campaigner.
Chicago, Ill. Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and Chicago Police Department (CPD) Superintendent David O. Brown announced the expansion of the Neighborhood Policing Initiative to the 9th (Deering), 10th (Ogden) and 11th (Harrison) District. As part of the expanded initiative, each district will rollout new District Coordination Officers (DCOs) this fall, who will work directly with community members to resolve public safety issues through collaboration and remedy neighborhood issues with the help of beat officers, detectives, aldermen, area businesses and sister agencies. To ensure DCOs are fully integrated in the neighborhoods they serve, the Department is also launching a new community-immersion training program, completing one of Mayor Lightfoot’s 90-day reforms announced in early June.
The Regional Transportation District would cancel its contact with Allied Universal Security and hire outreach workers under a proposed resolution that cites concern about security officers' run-ins with several disadvantaged groups.
Seattle's City Council voted to cut nearly $4 million from the police department's budget, instead directing $17 million in community investments. Shortly after the council's vote, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best announced her retirement, CNN reports.
Verizon announced that it will make its First Responder Advisory Council, a coalition of the nation’s most respected public safety leaders, available to current and prospective Verizon public safety agency customers through a series of upcoming events and meetings
