(The Center Square) – The contract agreement between Seattle and the Seattle Police Officers Guild has been approved 6-3 by the city council, providing pay increases for officers and accountability provisions that sparked disagreement.
The contract permanently expands the city’s behavioral health response teams by doubling the size of the Community Assisted Response and Engagement, or CARE, Department and permit its unarmed crisis responders to be dispatched directly to more types of 911 calls, including many that previously required a police presence.
“This agreement is crucial to make progress in our public safety reform and specifically with alternative response,” Seattle City Councilmember Bob Kettle said on Tuesday.
Seattle police officers will receive a retroactive pay increase of 6% for 2024 and 4.1% for 2025. Officers will get an additional 2.7% increase in 2026, and the 2027 increase will range from 3% to 4%, depending on the Consumer Price Index. Starting salaries for new police recruits will be set at $118,000.
According to a central staff memo, the contract adds $22.9 million more to the 2025 baseline and $42.6 million in 2026.
SPOG voted to approve the agreement in October that updates the one previously reached in 2024. SPOG President Mike Solan celebrated the council’s approval, saying the contract was the result of a six-year “battle” after discussions began in 2019.
“It’s a great day for Seattle’s public safety; moderates won, socialists lost,” Solan told The Center Square in a phone call. “I’m happy for the police and look forward to future bargaining sessions.”
Over 30 people spoke during the public comment period on Tuesday, with the majority voicing opposition to the contract. Many expressed frustrations with accountability provisions in the contract, which was a sentiment shared by three city council members who voted against the contract: Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Rob Saka, and Eddie Lin.
Rinck said that the contract does not deliver on accountability by not strengthening civilian oversight and transparency measures.
“This contract asks Seattle taxpayers to invest more in policing without requiring accountability in return and that’s not a deal I can support,” Rinck said.
Saka said that the accountability provisions contained within “are too lightweight.”
Kettle, on the other hand, defended the agreement’s accountability requirements, saying the agreement gives the Seattle Office of Police Accountability subpoena power and authority to order officers to cooperate.
Saka countered that subpoena power must be broad enough to include third parties, like bank records, social media, and friends of people subject to investigation.
The contract agreement comes amid a successful year in regards to crime in Seattle. According to data presented to the Seattle Public Safety Committee earlier Tuesday, Seattle saw 3,863 fewer crime victims across seven crime categories in the first 11 months of 2025. This includes 37 homicides, down from 53 in 2024 and 58 in 2019, which SPD identified as the last comparable year for the category. There were also nine fewer non-fatal injury shootings – from 137 to 98 – a 28% reduction.
“It’s not just about reporting improved, or lower numbers, it’s recognizing that more people are alive, it’s also recognizing that without our Level 1 trauma centers here in Seattle, these numbers might be very different,” said SPD Crime and Community Harm Reduction Executive Director Lee Hunt in the committee meeting.
