SEATTLE – Despite a requirement by Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan to submit vaccination records, the Seattle Police Department announced Tuesday that hundreds of Seattle police personnel have yet to yield to the medical mandate.
According to SPD, 354 police personnel have not submitted their records. Out of those who haven’t complied with the demand, 237 of them are patrol officers or work in operations. The mayor’s mandate came with the threat of termination, Post Millennial reported.
Interim Seattle police chief, Adrian Diaz, gave the department a deadline of October 5 to submit vaccination records. That timeline has now come and gone. The final date to submit records to the city is October 18; however, these stats provide a close estimate as to how many officers the Seattle Police Department is predicted to lose.
This comes on the heels of a record-breaking number of officers – about 300 — leaving the agency last year in response to the Democratic “defund the police” movement, which destroyed morale and facilitated horrific treatment from the Seattle City Council. Moreover, they’ve lost another 100 so far in 2021, according to the Post Millennial.
“Although the deadline for submission of vaccine verification forms is October 18th, the department has no choice but to make operational contingency plans based on the information it currently has. Please help the department maintain its operational readiness and minimize disruption to employees by submitting vaccine verifications now,” SPD Human Resources said in an email.
According to SPD’s tweet, the 354 “Not Submitted” category accounts for 33% of sworn personnel. The “Submitted” category is 720, or 67%. The total number of sworn personnel comes to 1,074. However, the department lists “1,325 deployable” officers with “1,433 total,” according to Seattle.gov website. Therefore, this seems to demonstrate how many officers the agency has lost and not replaced.
An officer who is resisting the mandate told the Post Millennial that on top of potentially losing hundreds of officers due to the mayor’s order, dozens of officers are seeking early retirement to flee the department.
“We have no plans of surrendering our rights or going away quietly,” the officer said.
“This mandate serves two purposes. It accomplishes their (Seattle City Council’s) goal from last summer of defunding the police by half. Because at the end of this there will be half the officers that we had last year. It also weeds out the police officers and medical workers that will not enforce unconstitutional laws, mandates, and orders. Almost all that will be left are officers, that years from now, will say ‘I was just following orders,'” the officer concluded.
