Should SPD Officers Be Required to Live in Seattle?

It's a debate that's played out nationally over the last decade, and one receiving renewed attention in Seattle, where only 18 percent of officers live inside city limits. That means the vast majority--82 percent, according to the city's personnel department--live in outlying towns and commute to work.

Mayor Mike McGinn broached the idea in February during his State of the City speech, and as the SPD copes with a federal civil-rights investigation, the possibility of a residency requirement has again entered the public arena.

Supporters say officers who live in Seattle better understand the people they're policing.

Cops who live in outlying areas, says Nicole Gaines, president of the local chapter of the Loren Miller Bar Association, "drive to their home in Tulalip or get on the ferry to Bainbridge, so there's no real connection to the city, because it's not their kids going to city schools or being gunned down on the streets."

Miller's association, a statewide civil-rights organization that's assisting the U.S. Department of Justice with its investigation, hasn't taken an official position on a residency requirement yet, she says, but it might soon.

Prodded by several incidents, including last year's fatal shooting of woodcarver John Williams and a cop threatening to stomp "the fucking Mexican piss" out of a Latino suspect, the DOJ began to investigate the SPD in March.

Opponents of a residency requirement say officers should have the freedom to live where they want, and that instituting such a requirement means departments might have trouble recruiting the most promising job candidates.

"There would be a huge problem with trying to implement it," says Sgt. Rich O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers' Guild, which represents 1,250 members of the department. "What do you do with those outside? And how do you justly compensate them if they had to sell their home and move in?" There's zero chance of such a requirement being implemented "in our lifetime," O'Neill adds. "This hasn't come up in a long time, and isn't really on anybody's radar right now."

Asked about McGinn's views on such a requirement, spokesman Aaron Pickus referenced the mayor's February speech:

It's hard to have a good local police force if the police aren't local. State law prevents us from requiring officers to live in this city. As we hire new officers, that gives us an opportunity to recruit officers from the community and who understand our community and its values. But we have over 300 officers who are eligible for retirement."