Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best announced her resignation on Monday, effective September 2.- Best, who is the city's first Black female police chief, decided to quit hours after the City Council passed cuts to her department's budget.
- The Seattle Police Department's $409 million budget was reduced by $3.5 million for the rest of the year, which will likely result in about 100 officers being laid off.
- The cuts amount to far less than the 50% sought by
Black Lives Matter protesters.
The police chief of Seattle announced her resignation on Monday, hours after the City Council $4 by nearly 1%.
In a department-wide email, Chief Carmen Best — who was the first Black woman to lead the Seattle police — said her resignation would be effective September 2.
"This was a difficult decision for me, but when it's time, it's time," Best wrote in the email, according to $4
Best went on to say that she is "confident the department will make it through these difficult times."
"You truly are the best police department in the country and please trust me when I say the vast majority of people in Seattle support you and appreciate you," she said, according to KOMO.
Earlier Monday, the Seattle City Council approved amendments to the current city budget, reducing the police departments $409 million budget by $3.5 million, according to $4.
The cuts were made to top officers' salaries and eliminated the Navigation Team and SWAT Unit, according to KOMO.
"Why on Earth – for the people who've worked so very hard – would we ever consider not having the best of the best and compensating them fairly?" Best $4 about the cuts last week.
"I find that absolutely shocking and quite frankly – I think it's punitive and not well thought out. And that's exactly how I feel about it."
These cuts amounted to less than 1% of the police budget, which is far less than the 50% Black Lives Matter protesters have been calling for. However, City Council members have suggested that bigger cuts are on the way for 2021.
The latest cuts could result in about 100 officers being eliminated through layoffs or attrition, according to $4.
Best's resignation comes after months of turmoil in Seattle, which became a focal point of Black Lives Matter
For weeks in June, protesters took control of the area around the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct building and designated it a police-free zone, which they named the $4.
In late July, President Donald Trump sent federal agents to the city to quell the unrest, $4 within days.
On August 1, protesters also tried to stage demonstrations outside of Best's home, where they were $4 The demonstrators $4 they did not want to cause trouble, but wanted to ask Best about the police's method of crowd control.
While Best did not explicitly explain her reasons for leaving the department after 28 years, she is expected to speak about it more at an 11 a.m. local time press conference with Mayor Jenny Durkan of Seattle on Tuesday.
Chris Daniels, chief political reporter at $4 attributed Best's resignation to "council actions, including a proposed massive pay cut, plus the council's refusal to denounce marches to her house."
Expanded Coverage Module: black-lives-matter-module