Former Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr is sharply criticizing the city’s response following the shooting at the Bite of Seattle, saying the five-hour delay before a public briefing damaged trust with the public.
Former Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr is sharply criticizing the city’s response following the shooting at the Bite of Seattle, saying the five-hour delay before a public briefing damaged trust and left people unnecessarily fearful.
“I just can’t imagine not doing a public safety briefing in that first hour,” Rahr said in an interview with KOMO News about the response and the fallout from the incident. "That was a big communications failure. Who holds the blame for that? I don't know. I suspect multiple people dropped the ball."
She also said it will now be hard to find a qualified candidate from outside the city to take the role of SPD’s top cop.
Rahr previously served as King County Sheriff between 2005 and 2012 before leaving to run the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission and Academy for nearly a decade.
She then served as Seattle’s Interim Police Chief for close to eight months following the departure of Chief Adrian Diaz.
Rahr said authorities did not need a complete suspect description or a final account of what happened before addressing the public. She said officials could have told people early on that the shooting appeared targeted rather than random.
“The public doesn’t expect” every detail to be confirmed immediately, Rahr said. “The public just wants to know: Am I safe?”
She said the consequences went beyond public frustration.
“The public’s sense of security and safety was damaged. People were scared for five hours,” Rahr said. “Secondly, it damaged the trust that people have in the police department.”
Rahr stressed that, in her view, Seattle police officers responding to the shooting performed well and prevented additional harm but said that work, and the victims of the gun violence, was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the city’s communications response.
The veteran leader also questioned why an immediate briefing did not happen even if key officials were out of town. Rahr said an experienced chief should be willing to push decision-makers when public safety communication is necessary.
“An experienced chief, in my opinion, would have been able to appeal to the decision maker and said, ‘That’s okay. We can do the big press conference later, but we need to do a public safety briefing,’” she said.
She also said she does not believe the focus of the city’s review should be simply assigning blame.
Rahr described the debate as having devolved into “political theater” and said the Office of Inspector General’s investigation should instead determine what failed and how to prevent a similar breakdown in the future. She also raised questions about staffing during one of Seattle’s busiest summer event periods, saying she was surprised that much of the police command staff was reportedly out of town or on vacation.
Rahr noted that events such as the Bite of Seattle, Seafair and the Torchlight Parade happen every year and traditionally require significant preparation and staffing.
“That is typically an all-hands-on-deck event,” Rahr said.
She believes Seattle has spent too much time emphasizing résumés and image instead of leadership.
“I’ve heard the cliché: we need a workhorse, not a show pony,” Rahr said. “I think it’s time for us to really focus on leadership and culture.”
Rahr said one of the most important challenges facing the next chief will be rebuilding trust inside the department. She said rank-and-file officers have felt betrayed by leadership for years and that SPD still has organizational healing to do following the upheaval of 2020.
“What I saw was the rank and file perform so well when they had that leadership and they knew that they could trust the leader,” Rahr said. “That’s what we need to look for.”
Rahr said she would give serious consideration to candidates already working inside the SPD.
“If I were in charge of making the decision, I would focus internally,” she said. “I know that there are some very talented, capable people in the Seattle Police Department right now that could do the job.”
She also questioned whether Seattle will be able to attract a strong outside candidate given the city’s current political environment. “I think it’s going to be very challenging to find a person from outside the city of Seattle that is willing to step into this political drama that is happening right now,” Rahr said.
Still, Rahr rejected the idea that serving as Seattle police chief has become politically impossible.
She said the job requires someone with confidence and the willingness to disagree with elected leaders when necessary.
“It’s going to take somebody who has experience, who has confidence, and who is willing to take a little bit of a chance to push back if they disagree with the mayor or the City Council,” Rahr said.
Rahr said she has not spoken with Mayor Katie Wilson about returning to the job and described her previous stint as interim chief as a unique opportunity.
She ended her assessment of SPD on a supportive note, saying the department has strong personnel but struggles with how it is perceived publicly.
“We have a very capable and talented police department with a terrible PR problem,” Rahr said.
