Police association flags mayor on hiring
The Seattle Police Management Association, which represents captains and lieutenants, is pushing back against city legislation enacted earlier this year that allows assistant chiefs to be hired from outside the department’s ranks. SPMA filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the city with the state’s Public Employment Relations Commission on May 7. Mayor Ed Murray signed the legislation in January. The measure changed a 1978 city ordinance that had said the chief of police could only appoint assistant chiefs from the ranks of captains and lieutenants within the department. In the complaint, SPMA asks the commission to issue an order requiring the city to restore the original ordinance.