July 30, 2021 • 8 mins
Seattle is suffering through a particularly violent period while the ranks of the Seattle Police force dwindles. The President of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, Mike Solan, joins Jack Armstrong to talk about why 250 officers have left the force.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime is a growing issue in America political issue. More
and more people catching on with the fact that crime
is up, all different kinds of categories of crime. And
you know what you need to bring down crime, you
need cops. Well, that's a problem lots of different places,
including in Seattle. Right now, we're gonna talk to Mike Solan,
who's the president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. Mike,
(00:22):
Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Hey, happy to
be here. Appreciate you having me yet, Yeah, I want
to talk about this and you know we're talking specifically
about Seattle, but similar problems all across America. I'm reading
right here. Over the last year and a half, the
Seattle Police Department has lost two hundred and fifty police officers,
which is the equivalent of over three hundred thousand service
(00:45):
officers on path to losing three hundred police officers. That's
a lot of calls that are gonna go unheeded. That's
a lot of criminals that aren't gonna get arrested. That's
a lot of deterrence that's not gonna happen. Um, So
tell me what's going on. Well, your statistics are spot
on and as you and I both know, statistics and
(01:05):
data do not lie. But the activist Twitter mob that
is in control of Seattle's public safety political discourse dictates
how things are done in Seattle, and our politicians acquiesced
to the mob. And the problem is is we're now
left with the reasonable citizens in the city who still
(01:28):
support public safety and the cops. Um, they're the ones
left hold in the bag. And here we are, we've
lost a third of the officers and they continue to
leave because a year ago when the mayor and a
current mayoral candidate who's the current president of the city
(01:48):
Council publicly applauded this agency is the modeled, reformed agency
and just that happened days before George Floyd. And obviously
when George Floyd happened, they completely pivoted their political talking
points and the political betrayal from that experience as what's
(02:10):
left to this vacuum and as public safety crisis that
we are experiencing in Seattle. Um. But to your point,
anybody that supported the defund nonsense, This type of crime
and low staffing numbers is now a rampant throughout major
(02:30):
urban cities. Yeah, all across America and I've got a
friend who was a police officer, and I won't mention where,
but in a big city. And um, and he actually
retired a little earlier than he was planning. And when
he retired, he said he didn't realize how much pressure
he was feeling until he retired, just that every time
he was on a call, he was worried. You know, here,
(02:51):
I'm gonna end up being a viral video. I'm gonna
end up a household name for just doing my job.
And maybe I make a mistake, maybe I don't, doesn't
make any difference. And uh and and just the pressure
of that is that, what's is that what's causing cops
to quit? And the other question I want to answer
to both of these is that why cops are quitting?
And are you having trouble getting people to apply? You know, well,
(03:15):
to your last point, it's very difficult now to get
people to apply to be a police officer, not just
in Seattle, but I believe nationwide. Uh. As you know,
the riots post George Floyd, the activists, the antiphon mob,
the Twitter mobs are referred to them as they specifically
targeted officers. They've docked them, they've harassed them, they've marched
(03:39):
on private homes, they've done they've done everything they can
to try to break the system and break the spirit
of police officers. And I believe it's that people that
are culpable are obviously are effectless politicians that don't have
the courage or the backbone to stand up to the
Twitter mob. But there's a continued political narrative to target
(04:03):
specific parts of the criminal justice system, meaning the police
officers for just being there to do the job. And
there is this fear that if you make one mistake
as a human during the doing the job of a
police officer, that that mistake will be amplified by the
activist mob, then obviously amplified even more with the media,
(04:25):
particular people that don't really want to put the real
message out to the American citizens. And then it's literally
that police officer, that individual police officer that has left
holding the bag, and they're the ones whose career and
more often than not, their livelihood, their personal lives are
ruined because of just the job they chose to do
(04:47):
to serve our communities. So these are just kind of
general themes we're talking about, and it's all true and
it's all a problem. But let's just talk about like
the reality nuts and bolts. If you're down officers in
a city like Seattle, what what actually happens? Do you
just are there? Are the police just spread further apart?
Are there just less people on shift at any given time?
(05:09):
So the so if you have dialline one one, that
takes that much longer to get somebody. I mean, what
what happens in reality? Yeah? The reality is is that
crimes don't go excuse me, crimes do not get investigated
to the degree that they used to be investigated. You're
going to have longer wait times to get a police
officer to you. And currently right now we're experiencing a
(05:32):
spike and obviously the overtime because they have to spend
money for officers just to fill the uniform to meet
that patrol staffing level, which would be somewhat of a
reasonable approach or response time to meet somebody's priority one
need and the priority one call us basically a straight
up the emergency. And right now we're feeling the effects
(05:54):
of our people are are burnt out. The people that
are still left, they're doing double shifts. The money allotted
for overtime is through the roof, and this is a
staffing crisis that will take decades to recover, all because
of the political betrayal by our elected officials in the
City of Seattle. When I mentioned a year ago, they
(06:15):
were applauding us as being a modeled, reformed agency who
were at hearing to the Department of Justice reform guidelines.
And obviously days later when Floyd unfortunately happened in Minneapolis,
these politicians couldn't walk away from as fast enough and
that's what's led to this what I call an erosion
(06:35):
in public safety in the city of Seattle. Mike Soullan,
President Seattle Police Officers Guild, where we appreciate you coming
on today and we'll check back in with you um
over the coming months to see you know, I feel
like the pendulum is going to swing back the other
direction because to fund the police is one of the
stupidest political um phrases and and things to run on
(06:56):
in the history of politics, and it's not popular at all,
even for Democrats. But thanks for coming on today, appreciate it,
are you bet? And the just recall to action for people,
do you gotta get involved and start getting involved in
elections at your local school boards. And if you want
further follow up, please visit my podcast Hold the Line
with Mike Soland, available on all podcasts and Seattle Police
Officers dot Com really appreciate you having me on you
(07:18):
bet you, thank you. And Joe's coming up in a
little bit Joe Getty and um, you know it's something
Joe always says? Is that? Uh? Um, what does Joey say?
It popped out of my head. What does Jolie say? Hey, Joe,
what do you always say? I'll ask him when he
comes on. Um, the it's amazing. How oh about the
idea of these things catching on the and and people
(07:40):
get like a fever for these weird ideas, um like
the defund the police, and a bunch of politicians say, yeah, yeah,
I'm for defunding the police. It sounds like a good idea,
and a tiny percentage of people got all worked all
whipped up about this stupid, stupid idea. When the majority
of Americans, including Democrats and particularly people who live in
crime written neighborhoods, they want more. It's not fewer in
(08:00):
it it, but but it caught on. Corporate media latched
onto it and it became a thing, and here we are.
You got towns like Seattle where they're down three hundred
cops soon and you just can't function as a city.
It's really weird, strong,
Crime is a growing issue in America political issue. More
and more people catching on with the fact that crime
is up, all different kinds of categories of crime. And
you know what you need to bring down crime, you
need cops. Well, that's a problem lots of different places,
including in Seattle. Right now, we're gonna talk to Mike Solan,
who's the president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. Mike,
(00:22):
Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Hey, happy to
be here. Appreciate you having me yet, Yeah, I want
to talk about this and you know we're talking specifically
about Seattle, but similar problems all across America. I'm reading
right here. Over the last year and a half, the
Seattle Police Department has lost two hundred and fifty police officers,
which is the equivalent of over three hundred thousand service
(00:45):
officers on path to losing three hundred police officers. That's
a lot of calls that are gonna go unheeded. That's
a lot of criminals that aren't gonna get arrested. That's
a lot of deterrence that's not gonna happen. Um, So
tell me what's going on. Well, your statistics are spot
on and as you and I both know, statistics and
(01:05):
data do not lie. But the activist Twitter mob that
is in control of Seattle's public safety political discourse dictates
how things are done in Seattle, and our politicians acquiesced
to the mob. And the problem is is we're now
left with the reasonable citizens in the city who still
(01:28):
support public safety and the cops. Um, they're the ones
left hold in the bag. And here we are, we've
lost a third of the officers and they continue to
leave because a year ago when the mayor and a
current mayoral candidate who's the current president of the city
(01:48):
Council publicly applauded this agency is the modeled, reformed agency
and just that happened days before George Floyd. And obviously
when George Floyd happened, they completely pivoted their political talking
points and the political betrayal from that experience as what's
(02:10):
left to this vacuum and as public safety crisis that
we are experiencing in Seattle. Um. But to your point,
anybody that supported the defund nonsense, This type of crime
and low staffing numbers is now a rampant throughout major
(02:30):
urban cities. Yeah, all across America and I've got a
friend who was a police officer, and I won't mention where,
but in a big city. And um, and he actually
retired a little earlier than he was planning. And when
he retired, he said he didn't realize how much pressure
he was feeling until he retired, just that every time
he was on a call, he was worried. You know, here,
(02:51):
I'm gonna end up being a viral video. I'm gonna
end up a household name for just doing my job.
And maybe I make a mistake, maybe I don't, doesn't
make any difference. And uh and and just the pressure
of that is that, what's is that what's causing cops
to quit? And the other question I want to answer
to both of these is that why cops are quitting?
And are you having trouble getting people to apply? You know, well,
(03:15):
to your last point, it's very difficult now to get
people to apply to be a police officer, not just
in Seattle, but I believe nationwide. Uh. As you know,
the riots post George Floyd, the activists, the antiphon mob,
the Twitter mobs are referred to them as they specifically
targeted officers. They've docked them, they've harassed them, they've marched
(03:39):
on private homes, they've done they've done everything they can
to try to break the system and break the spirit
of police officers. And I believe it's that people that
are culpable are obviously are effectless politicians that don't have
the courage or the backbone to stand up to the
Twitter mob. But there's a continued political narrative to target
(04:03):
specific parts of the criminal justice system, meaning the police
officers for just being there to do the job. And
there is this fear that if you make one mistake
as a human during the doing the job of a
police officer, that that mistake will be amplified by the
activist mob, then obviously amplified even more with the media,
(04:25):
particular people that don't really want to put the real
message out to the American citizens. And then it's literally
that police officer, that individual police officer that has left
holding the bag, and they're the ones whose career and
more often than not, their livelihood, their personal lives are
ruined because of just the job they chose to do
(04:47):
to serve our communities. So these are just kind of
general themes we're talking about, and it's all true and
it's all a problem. But let's just talk about like
the reality nuts and bolts. If you're down officers in
a city like Seattle, what what actually happens? Do you
just are there? Are the police just spread further apart?
Are there just less people on shift at any given time?
(05:09):
So the so if you have dialline one one, that
takes that much longer to get somebody. I mean, what
what happens in reality? Yeah? The reality is is that
crimes don't go excuse me, crimes do not get investigated
to the degree that they used to be investigated. You're
going to have longer wait times to get a police
officer to you. And currently right now we're experiencing a
(05:32):
spike and obviously the overtime because they have to spend
money for officers just to fill the uniform to meet
that patrol staffing level, which would be somewhat of a
reasonable approach or response time to meet somebody's priority one
need and the priority one call us basically a straight
up the emergency. And right now we're feeling the effects
(05:54):
of our people are are burnt out. The people that
are still left, they're doing double shifts. The money allotted
for overtime is through the roof, and this is a
staffing crisis that will take decades to recover, all because
of the political betrayal by our elected officials in the
City of Seattle. When I mentioned a year ago, they
(06:15):
were applauding us as being a modeled, reformed agency who
were at hearing to the Department of Justice reform guidelines.
And obviously days later when Floyd unfortunately happened in Minneapolis,
these politicians couldn't walk away from as fast enough and
that's what's led to this what I call an erosion
(06:35):
in public safety in the city of Seattle. Mike Soullan,
President Seattle Police Officers Guild, where we appreciate you coming
on today and we'll check back in with you um
over the coming months to see you know, I feel
like the pendulum is going to swing back the other
direction because to fund the police is one of the
stupidest political um phrases and and things to run on
(06:56):
in the history of politics, and it's not popular at all,
even for Democrats. But thanks for coming on today, appreciate it,
are you bet? And the just recall to action for people,
do you gotta get involved and start getting involved in
elections at your local school boards. And if you want
further follow up, please visit my podcast Hold the Line
with Mike Soland, available on all podcasts and Seattle Police
Officers dot Com really appreciate you having me on you
(07:18):
bet you, thank you. And Joe's coming up in a
little bit Joe Getty and um, you know it's something
Joe always says? Is that? Uh? Um, what does Joey say?
It popped out of my head. What does Jolie say? Hey, Joe,
what do you always say? I'll ask him when he
comes on. Um, the it's amazing. How oh about the
idea of these things catching on the and and people
(07:40):
get like a fever for these weird ideas, um like
the defund the police, and a bunch of politicians say, yeah, yeah,
I'm for defunding the police. It sounds like a good idea,
and a tiny percentage of people got all worked all
whipped up about this stupid, stupid idea. When the majority
of Americans, including Democrats and particularly people who live in
crime written neighborhoods, they want more. It's not fewer in
(08:00):
it it, but but it caught on. Corporate media latched
onto it and it became a thing, and here we are.
You got towns like Seattle where they're down three hundred
cops soon and you just can't function as a city.
It's really weird, strong,
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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