WEBVTT - Burnout & Betrayal.  Mike Solan Talks to A&G.

0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:05.080
<v Speaker 1>Crime is a growing issue in America political issue. More

0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:07.280
<v Speaker 1>and more people catching on with the fact that crime

0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:10.200
<v Speaker 1>is up, all different kinds of categories of crime. And

0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:12.680
<v Speaker 1>you know what you need to bring down crime, you

0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.560
<v Speaker 1>need cops. Well, that's a problem lots of different places,

0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.639
<v Speaker 1>including in Seattle. Right now, we're gonna talk to Mike Solan,

0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.520
<v Speaker 1>who's the president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. Mike,

0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:26.599
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show. Hey, happy to

0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:28.880
<v Speaker 1>be here. Appreciate you having me yet, Yeah, I want

0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.480
<v Speaker 1>to talk about this and you know we're talking specifically

0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:34.680
<v Speaker 1>about Seattle, but similar problems all across America. I'm reading

0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:37.280
<v Speaker 1>right here. Over the last year and a half, the

0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:41.840
<v Speaker 1>Seattle Police Department has lost two hundred and fifty police officers,

0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:44.920
<v Speaker 1>which is the equivalent of over three hundred thousand service

0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.520
<v Speaker 1>officers on path to losing three hundred police officers. That's

0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:52.200
<v Speaker 1>a lot of calls that are gonna go unheeded. That's

0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:54.720
<v Speaker 1>a lot of criminals that aren't gonna get arrested. That's

0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:58.160
<v Speaker 1>a lot of deterrence that's not gonna happen. Um, So

0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.000
<v Speaker 1>tell me what's going on. Well, your statistics are spot

0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:04.959
<v Speaker 1>on and as you and I both know, statistics and

0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:09.679
<v Speaker 1>data do not lie. But the activist Twitter mob that

0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:14.640
<v Speaker 1>is in control of Seattle's public safety political discourse dictates

0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:19.640
<v Speaker 1>how things are done in Seattle, and our politicians acquiesced

0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:24.600
<v Speaker 1>to the mob. And the problem is is we're now

0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:28.600
<v Speaker 1>left with the reasonable citizens in the city who still

0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:32.320
<v Speaker 1>support public safety and the cops. Um, they're the ones

0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.640
<v Speaker 1>left hold in the bag. And here we are, we've

0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.280
<v Speaker 1>lost a third of the officers and they continue to

0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:44.560
<v Speaker 1>leave because a year ago when the mayor and a

0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:48.840
<v Speaker 1>current mayoral candidate who's the current president of the city

0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:55.279
<v Speaker 1>Council publicly applauded this agency is the modeled, reformed agency

0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:59.280
<v Speaker 1>and just that happened days before George Floyd. And obviously

0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:03.000
<v Speaker 1>when George Floyd happened, they completely pivoted their political talking

0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:09.960
<v Speaker 1>points and the political betrayal from that experience as what's

0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:14.480
<v Speaker 1>left to this vacuum and as public safety crisis that

0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.560
<v Speaker 1>we are experiencing in Seattle. Um. But to your point,

0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:25.960
<v Speaker 1>anybody that supported the defund nonsense, This type of crime

0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.480
<v Speaker 1>and low staffing numbers is now a rampant throughout major

0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.720
<v Speaker 1>urban cities. Yeah, all across America and I've got a

0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:36.679
<v Speaker 1>friend who was a police officer, and I won't mention where,

0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.960
<v Speaker 1>but in a big city. And um, and he actually

0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.280
<v Speaker 1>retired a little earlier than he was planning. And when

0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:45.960
<v Speaker 1>he retired, he said he didn't realize how much pressure

0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.919
<v Speaker 1>he was feeling until he retired, just that every time

0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.679
<v Speaker 1>he was on a call, he was worried. You know, here,

0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:54.040
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna end up being a viral video. I'm gonna

0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.640
<v Speaker 1>end up a household name for just doing my job.

0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.120
<v Speaker 1>And maybe I make a mistake, maybe I don't, doesn't

0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.919
<v Speaker 1>make any difference. And uh and and just the pressure

0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.400
<v Speaker 1>of that is that, what's is that what's causing cops

0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.519
<v Speaker 1>to quit? And the other question I want to answer

0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:10.239
<v Speaker 1>to both of these is that why cops are quitting?

0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:15.320
<v Speaker 1>And are you having trouble getting people to apply? You know, well,

0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:18.280
<v Speaker 1>to your last point, it's very difficult now to get

0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:20.720
<v Speaker 1>people to apply to be a police officer, not just

0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:24.200
<v Speaker 1>in Seattle, but I believe nationwide. Uh. As you know,

0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:29.359
<v Speaker 1>the riots post George Floyd, the activists, the antiphon mob,

0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:34.320
<v Speaker 1>the Twitter mobs are referred to them as they specifically

0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:39.560
<v Speaker 1>targeted officers. They've docked them, they've harassed them, they've marched

0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:43.120
<v Speaker 1>on private homes, they've done they've done everything they can

0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.880
<v Speaker 1>to try to break the system and break the spirit

0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.720
<v Speaker 1>of police officers. And I believe it's that people that

0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:53.400
<v Speaker 1>are culpable are obviously are effectless politicians that don't have

0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.520
<v Speaker 1>the courage or the backbone to stand up to the

0:03:55.520 --> 0:04:02.960
<v Speaker 1>Twitter mob. But there's a continued political narrative to target

0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:08.000
<v Speaker 1>specific parts of the criminal justice system, meaning the police

0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.880
<v Speaker 1>officers for just being there to do the job. And

0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.000
<v Speaker 1>there is this fear that if you make one mistake

0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:16.960
<v Speaker 1>as a human during the doing the job of a

0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.240
<v Speaker 1>police officer, that that mistake will be amplified by the

0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.960
<v Speaker 1>activist mob, then obviously amplified even more with the media,

0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.320
<v Speaker 1>particular people that don't really want to put the real

0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.800
<v Speaker 1>message out to the American citizens. And then it's literally

0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:36.279
<v Speaker 1>that police officer, that individual police officer that has left

0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.880
<v Speaker 1>holding the bag, and they're the ones whose career and

0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.880
<v Speaker 1>more often than not, their livelihood, their personal lives are

0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.960
<v Speaker 1>ruined because of just the job they chose to do

0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.840
<v Speaker 1>to serve our communities. So these are just kind of

0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:52.960
<v Speaker 1>general themes we're talking about, and it's all true and

0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:54.560
<v Speaker 1>it's all a problem. But let's just talk about like

0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:59.240
<v Speaker 1>the reality nuts and bolts. If you're down officers in

0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:03.120
<v Speaker 1>a city like Seattle, what what actually happens? Do you

0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:06.359
<v Speaker 1>just are there? Are the police just spread further apart?

0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.280
<v Speaker 1>Are there just less people on shift at any given time?

0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:11.800
<v Speaker 1>So the so if you have dialline one one, that

0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:13.840
<v Speaker 1>takes that much longer to get somebody. I mean, what

0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.440
<v Speaker 1>what happens in reality? Yeah? The reality is is that

0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:21.480
<v Speaker 1>crimes don't go excuse me, crimes do not get investigated

0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.320
<v Speaker 1>to the degree that they used to be investigated. You're

0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.920
<v Speaker 1>going to have longer wait times to get a police

0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:32.599
<v Speaker 1>officer to you. And currently right now we're experiencing a

0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:36.240
<v Speaker 1>spike and obviously the overtime because they have to spend

0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.960
<v Speaker 1>money for officers just to fill the uniform to meet

0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:43.159
<v Speaker 1>that patrol staffing level, which would be somewhat of a

0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.760
<v Speaker 1>reasonable approach or response time to meet somebody's priority one

0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.760
<v Speaker 1>need and the priority one call us basically a straight

0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.400
<v Speaker 1>up the emergency. And right now we're feeling the effects

0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.000
<v Speaker 1>of our people are are burnt out. The people that

0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:02.040
<v Speaker 1>are still left, they're doing double shifts. The money allotted

0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.800
<v Speaker 1>for overtime is through the roof, and this is a

0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:09.400
<v Speaker 1>staffing crisis that will take decades to recover, all because

0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.320
<v Speaker 1>of the political betrayal by our elected officials in the

0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.040
<v Speaker 1>City of Seattle. When I mentioned a year ago, they

0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:19.000
<v Speaker 1>were applauding us as being a modeled, reformed agency who

0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:23.599
<v Speaker 1>were at hearing to the Department of Justice reform guidelines.

0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.839
<v Speaker 1>And obviously days later when Floyd unfortunately happened in Minneapolis,

0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:33.159
<v Speaker 1>these politicians couldn't walk away from as fast enough and

0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:35.880
<v Speaker 1>that's what's led to this what I call an erosion

0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.640
<v Speaker 1>in public safety in the city of Seattle. Mike Soullan,

0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.440
<v Speaker 1>President Seattle Police Officers Guild, where we appreciate you coming

0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.839
<v Speaker 1>on today and we'll check back in with you um

0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.240
<v Speaker 1>over the coming months to see you know, I feel

0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.080
<v Speaker 1>like the pendulum is going to swing back the other

0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:51.839
<v Speaker 1>direction because to fund the police is one of the

0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:56.560
<v Speaker 1>stupidest political um phrases and and things to run on

0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.760
<v Speaker 1>in the history of politics, and it's not popular at all,

0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.440
<v Speaker 1>even for Democrats. But thanks for coming on today, appreciate it,

0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.119
<v Speaker 1>are you bet? And the just recall to action for people,

0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.160
<v Speaker 1>do you gotta get involved and start getting involved in

0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:10.000
<v Speaker 1>elections at your local school boards. And if you want

0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.360
<v Speaker 1>further follow up, please visit my podcast Hold the Line

0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.520
<v Speaker 1>with Mike Soland, available on all podcasts and Seattle Police

0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:18.840
<v Speaker 1>Officers dot Com really appreciate you having me on you

0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:20.520
<v Speaker 1>bet you, thank you. And Joe's coming up in a

0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:22.920
<v Speaker 1>little bit Joe Getty and um, you know it's something

0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.880
<v Speaker 1>Joe always says? Is that? Uh? Um, what does Joey say?

0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.200
<v Speaker 1>It popped out of my head. What does Jolie say? Hey, Joe,

0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:30.960
<v Speaker 1>what do you always say? I'll ask him when he

0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:36.800
<v Speaker 1>comes on. Um, the it's amazing. How oh about the

0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:40.040
<v Speaker 1>idea of these things catching on the and and people

0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.560
<v Speaker 1>get like a fever for these weird ideas, um like

0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.200
<v Speaker 1>the defund the police, and a bunch of politicians say, yeah, yeah,

0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.520
<v Speaker 1>I'm for defunding the police. It sounds like a good idea,

0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:50.760
<v Speaker 1>and a tiny percentage of people got all worked all

0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.840
<v Speaker 1>whipped up about this stupid, stupid idea. When the majority

0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:57.640
<v Speaker 1>of Americans, including Democrats and particularly people who live in

0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.840
<v Speaker 1>crime written neighborhoods, they want more. It's not fewer in

0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:05.080
<v Speaker 1>it it, but but it caught on. Corporate media latched

0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.320
<v Speaker 1>onto it and it became a thing, and here we are.

0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.280
<v Speaker 1>You got towns like Seattle where they're down three hundred

0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:12.920
<v Speaker 1>cops soon and you just can't function as a city.

0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:15.720
<v Speaker 1>It's really weird, strong,