The Failed Promise of Seattle’s Police
A critical editorial reflects on the incompetence of the local force during times of unrest and the corrupting influence of political patronage.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The unit of the past week in Seattle should show the community the necessity of instituting an efficient and reliable police force. The utter worthlessness of the present force—or, to speak more properly, the recent force, for radical changes have been made in it within the past few days—has been a matter of comment among the citizens for many months. The Post-Intelligencer pointed out the fact that Seattle was depending for protection upon a worthless and inefficient body, and that its police force could not be relied upon in time of absolute quiet, much less in time of trouble. The event, however, has demonstrated the truth of all the Post-Intelligencer has said on this subject. When the time of trial came, the police force was found wanting, and the result of its inefficiency is too well known to need recounting. Hereafter, men should receive appointments to the police force because of fitness to perform the peculiar duties of a police officer, and not because they are the personal friends or political tools of any member of the Council or any other official of the city government. The police force should be divorced absolutely from local politics. In short, let the police affairs of Seattle be regulated on common sense principles, and if in the future any trouble shall arise in our city, let it not be said that it was due in part or in whole to the worthlessness of the men upon whom our people depended for protection.
“The police force should be divorced absolutely from local politics.”
This 1886 editorial laments a police department mired in political patronage and incompetence during moments of civil unrest. It captures a timeless Seattle anxiety: the tension between a growing city’s need for professional public safety and the recurring, systemic failure of its institutions to provide it.
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