Former Seattle police chief admits deleting texts in wake of 2020 Capitol Hill protest

Two years in the past, in June 2020, protestors responding to the homicide of George Floyd took to the streets throughout the US — pushing for an finish to police brutality and violence in opposition to Black folks.

That included right here in Seattle, the place demonstrators marched on freeways and gathered on Capitol Hill.

On June 8, 2020, Seattle Police made a pivotal transfer: They deserted the division’s East Precinct on Capitol Hill, creating house for the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, or CHOP, to coalesce. In a taped message meant for law enforcement officials, then-Police Chief Carmen Finest distanced herself from that call.

Within the weeks following, two folks had been shot and killed contained in the CHOP and several other extra had been injured. Mayor Durkan finally ordered the realm cleared on the finish of June.

Former Chief Finest maintains that she didn’t approve leaving the East Precinct.

But it surely’s laborious to know for certain, as a result of textual content messages despatched by the previous police chief in the course of the 2020 protests are lacking. In a brand new deposition obtained by Axios Seattle Reporter Lewis Kamb, Finest mentioned she deleted these lacking texts herself.

“She acknowledged that she was deleting her textual content messages in bulk from the summer season of 2020 mainly — over a interval of late Might to when she left the division in early September,” Kamb mentioned.

Finest mentioned she had decided the messages had been “transitory” — in different phrases, they did not include any important data that will require her below state legislation to save lots of the messages.

However Kamb notes that, when she was deleting messages, the town was already going through a number of lawsuits and public information requests in regards to the protests.

“And each of these would have triggered, mainly, necessities to maintain no matter current textual content messages she had, even when they had been transitory,” Kamb mentioned.

Finest is not the one metropolis official accused of deleting textual content messages — former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan additionally had lacking texts, which had been routinely deleted from her cellphone as a result of its settings.

1000’s of textual content messages are lacking and Kamb tells Soundside that we could by no means have a full view of what occurred throughout Seattle’s Black Lives Matter protests in consequence.

“That form of data, behind-the-scenes communications of what was occurring between two very key people, the mayor and the police chief, are gone to historical past. We do not know the place they’re. Now we do not know what really occurred behind the scenes. These information had been purported to be saved. They had been purported to be archived and obtainable for the general public in perpetuity.”

Finest may face repercussions for the deleted texts — it’s unlawful below state legislation. However as of now, nobody is urgent for an investigation. As an alternative, Kamb notes there’s loads of finger pointing amongst Seattle’s new administration about who’s accountable for conducting that investigation.

To date, nobody has stepped ahead to take action.

Correction: Within the interview Lewis Kamb refers to Summer time Taylor utilizing she/her pronouns. Summer time used they/them pronouns.