After the Seattle city council voted to reduce funding for the city’s police department by $3 million and eliminate 100 police positions in favor of funding social services, the chief of the city’s police force announced her retirement, the Washington Post reports.
The cuts to police funding also included a cut in the salary collected by Carmen Best, the city’s first African-American police chief.
“I am confident the department will make it through these difficult times,” she wrote in the letter, which the Seattle Times republished. “I look forward to seeing how this department moves forward through the process of re-envisioning public safety.”
The Seattle police department’s budget of $409 million was cut by $3 million, and 100 positions in the 1,400 officer force would be eliminated through retirements and attrition, so no firings would take place. The chief’s $285,000 salary was also cut by an unspecified figure.