Editor’s note: Former Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes conducted a media tour last week, speaking with KOMO-TV, KIRO-FM and the Times editorial board. It was the first time he discussed the circumstances surrounding his final meeting with Mayor Katie Wilson when she asked him to resign on July 30.
The transcript has been edited for length. Read The Times editorial.
Times: You were hired by the previous mayor. What was the understanding about your physical presence here?
Barnes: Just to clear the air, I live in Seattle. I live in Pioneer Square. I’ve always lived in Pioneer Square. When I met with Mayor Bruce Harrell, he knew everything about me. He knew that my wife was very successful in her own right. She’s a dual PhD. She’s an administrator at a big college in Chicago. She’s a cancer researcher. Everyone understood that we were what I call the new modern family, where it’s OK for people to be at different locations as long as you’re taking care of your family. We were doing that when I was in Madison (Barnes was police chief in Madison, Wisconsin, from 2021-2025). I thought that in a city that says you’re progressive, the idea that if a man gets a job, a woman has to quit her job and follow him would not be welcome here. And what would be welcome is the idea that sometimes people who are both professional and both have worked extremely hard in their career, that sometimes you don’t have the privilege of turning down great opportunities. Any narrative that I wasn’t living here or that I wasn’t committed to the city is false. (Barnes has three children, two of high-school age.)
Times: When you met Mayor Wilson early on, did she elevate any concerns about your out of office or anything else?
Barnes: When I met with her for the first time I felt as if it was an interview. I knew that I would have to gain her trust, and I understand that. Most mayors want to hire their own police chief, and we talked about that. She told me that no decision had been made yet. And the number one question from the media was, ‘Are you going to retain Chief Barnes?’ I thought that was an odd question, considering we were coming off a year where we hired more police officers than any other time in recorded memory. We had an 80% clearance rate on homicides. Before I got here, we had a 45% clearance rate on homicides. Let me tell you, as a police officer, you do not solve homicides without the public’s help, which means that in the category of public trust, we were winning. At no time did we ever talk about my travel or me going home or my family. That was my personal business. And that business never interfered with what I had to do here in Seattle.
Times: During the Bite of Seattle, you were at an out of town conference. Did you feel that you were staffed up appropriately for that event in terms of the top command staff and the people who were in charge of media?
Barnes: I was aware that my deputy chief was celebrating his anniversary, and that my other deputy chief was about to get married. So she was planning some things, and I did not want to interrupt that. I was at the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives annual conference. When I received a text about the shooting, I immediately began doing exactly what I would have done if I was here. I called the mayor’s office. My second call was to the FBI special agent in charge. My third call was to the acting chief of police. Then I called my COO and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to need you to set up some Teams meetings.’ One of those meetings is with the people who are the badge and gun. The other meeting is with the policymakers and decision-makers. While I was doing that, they had already booked me a flight the next morning at 6 a.m. to come back to Seattle. But it was never my understanding that the media was not going to be briefed. I only found out about this later on.
Times: What conversations are you aware of between the mayor’s office and SPD to say what kind of information was going to come out from the mayor’s office versus what kind of information was going to come out from SPD?
Barnes: I wasn’t privy to that conversation. Anything that I would say here would just be speculative.
Times: There’s a certain sort of rhythm and predictability when SPD gets information out during any kind of mass shooting. That didn’t seem to happen in this case. Do you have any idea why not?
Barnes: It did not happen because I was not present to make sure it happens. If I was here, I would have informed the public sooner, and my expectation not being here was that the PIOs (public information officers) would have done their jobs and would have informed the public. If mistakes were made, that should all come out. Part of being a leader is understanding that things don’t always go well. There’s accountability, and then what the public wants to know is how you’re going to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Times: The days following the Bite of Seattle, you had multiple press conferences with the mayor. Did you have conversations that would indicate that she was very unhappy with your performance?
Barnes: My conversations throughout my tenure with Mayor Wilson have always been very brief and matter of fact conversations. I can imagine that as a candidate, she had people internally, externally, who advised her on what the philosophy of the police department should be. I can only assume, or surmise that my philosophy of neighborhood-oriented policing, of partnerships, of working with police officers, of police officers taking the lead to sometimes take people to jail and hold people accountable for victimizing their community, and the Real Time Crime Center (which includes surveillance cameras) may have not been things that the mayor believed was part of her philosophy. But I think now is a great opportunity for her to demonstrate her philosophy around public safety. Because certainly, it doesn’t appear that it was the same as mine.
Times: Did you ever have specific conversations about the Real Time Crime Center with the mayor?
Barnes: We had robust conversations about it, probably one of the topics that we talked about the most, especially approaching FIFA. She did her due diligence, and I certainly appreciate her for that. But I wasn’t advocating for the Real Time Crime Center. I was just answering questions.
Times: Did you believe at that time you were going to lose your job?
Barnes: I was surprised because I thought that people rallied together in times of uncertainty. And I would hope that we would have done that, and we could have gotten through it.
Times: There’s talk that Seattle will not be able to recruit an A-list candidate for chief of police. Have you heard that?
Barnes: I think it’s a great opportunity for the right person. I felt like I was the right person. We did some great work. There are other people who could step in my shoes and continue that work, but it has to be the same vision that aligns with the mayor. And if it doesn’t, then it’s really not going to work. I was hoping to be here for the long haul. I wanted to end my career here as chief of police. But God had other plans for me. And that’s OK.
The editorial board reached out to the mayor’s office for comment but did not receive a response.
