Seattle union says police agreement on crisis response should be tossed

Seattle's civilian crisis responders are being illegally squeezed by a contract with the city's largest police union, a complaint filed with the state on Thursday argues.

The agreement was improperly bargained, says an unfair labor practice complaint from PROTEC17, which represents crisis responders housed in the city's new Community Assisted Response & Engagement department. The two parties who signed it, the city and police union, made unilateral decisions about the scope of the responders' authority without engaging the union representing CARE's workers.

Therefore, the section regulating crisis response should be tossed out, it says.

The complaint gets at the heart of an ongoing frustration in Seattle City Hall: That the city's primary solution to police violence coming out of 2020 has been exceedingly slow out of the gate and kneecapped in backroom deals with a protectionist officers' union.

Imagined as a 911 alternative to police that could respond to mental health, drug use, homelessness and general wellness calls that are uncomfortable, but not necessarily criminal, the CARE department has struggled to find its footing, even with near-unanimous political support and an ample budget. The department, which includes the 911 dispatch center, has a budget this year of $45 million, up nearly 40% from the year before thanks to a new sales tax for public safety.

Head of the new department, Chief Amy Barden, has been unusually blunt in faulting the city's agreement with the Seattle Police Officers Guild for that failure to launch. Though the contract allows for more responders to be hired and for them to dispatch without officer assistance, it restricts them from entering private property, homeless encampments or locations where there's evidence of drug use.

In turn, even as the CARE department has added new staff, its call volume hasn't increased, Barden said – with just 10 of every 2,000 calls qualifying for civilian response.

"It is unacceptable to not fully maximize this important team, and it is also unacceptable to waste even a dollar in such a challenging budget environment," she said during a February council hearing.

In PROTEC17's complaint to the state Public Employment Relations Commission, representative Steven Pray argues the restrictions placed on CARE workers should have triggered mandatory bargaining with their representing union.

By not notifying PROTEC17 of the changes to working conditions for crisis responders, the city was helping one union to the detriment of another.

Pray asked the commission to nullify the section relating to crisis response.

The CARE department got its beginnings two mayors ago, under Jenny Durkan, in the aftermath of the police protests of 2020. It was formally established and funded under then-Mayor Bruce Harrell.

Though there are various forms of non-police response in Seattle, CARE is intended to plug directly into 911, meaning residents don't have to think about whom to call when they see someone in crisis or in need of help.

Because the work encroached on jobs historically done by police officers, the officers' union demanded the city bargain over the effects of the new department. During those negotiations, CARE operated under a temporary agreement that capped its size and banned crisis responders from answering calls without an officer.

Harrell and the police guild announced a new contract late last year, right before the election, that gave officers significant raises, while lifting the cap on the number of crisis responders and allowing them to dispatch alone.

But it left in place limits on the types of calls crisis responders could answer.

In one example, laid out in an email obtained through a public records request from CARE staff to Mayor Katie Wilson's public safety adviser, officers waved off responders from a call concerning a person looking into windows in a parking lot outside a Barnes and Noble because the property was private. In another, responders weren't allowed to answer a welfare check for a man panhandling in a QFC parking lot. In a third, responders were redirected from a call to pick up the belongings of a man in a shelter from the front porch of a home where he'd previously slept.

At least some within the Seattle Police Department are tightly holding the line on when crisis responders can and can't be used. A North Precinct sergeant recently wrote and distributed an informational flyer, also obtained through a public records request, with a clear list of what it called the "restrictive criteria" for crisis responders. CARE staff wrote the flyer "appears to have a heavy, redundant focus on exclusionary criteria."

A spokesperson for the Seattle Police Officers Guild did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The limitations have caused frustration among CARE staff as well as lawmakers in City Hall. Councilmember Rob Saka said the QFC story "seems to be a glaring example of mission-critical interventions needed. That one just doesn't pass the straight-face test."

In a statement, a spokesperson for Wilson said, We are aware of ongoing issues that resulted from the contracts negotiated and signed by the previous administration, and we are working with our labor partners to find short-term and long-term solutions that ensure CARE crisis responders are able to appropriately respond to emergency calls.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published April 17, 2026 at 4:53 PM.