Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz addressed the alleged ‘sick out’ from officers last weekend, arguably one of the busiest weekends in the city in recent memory.
The Seattle Police Officers Guild says at least half of patrol operations were a no-show last Saturday during the Taylor Swift concert.
“And special events from my understanding, was 30% of the people didn’t show up for special events either,” President Mike Solan said.
Chief Diaz told KIRO7 that based on what they have gathered so far, he doesn’t believe there was any planned call-out from officers.
“You know right now….we really don’t….haven’t been able to identify a specific sickout or anything,” Chief Diaz said.
He also told KIRO7′s Jake Chapman besides this past weekend, they have been sort of used to being short-staffed.
“And that’s really the hard part of it. When we are now so thin on our staffing, everybody counts. And when you have a variety of different events, it spreads us out completely thin,” Chief Diaz said.
The Emerald City is expecting another busy weekend of events.
On Saturday, the Torchlight Parade will bring in thousands as they flood the streets, and APEC, or the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, will bring in representation from nations across the globe next month.
“And so we are going to make sure that we are staffed appropriately. But we also have Seafair next weekend. So, everything is always trying to make sure that we are staffed appropriately,” Chief Diaz said.
While Chief Diaz is confident in his plans, KIRO7 asked him if he worries about another potential massive shortage of officers during a busy weekend.
“You know, I think we are always prepared for when we can see people if they are sick,” Chief Diaz said.
“But I think our officers know what their focus is,” Chief Diaz said.
The Seattle Police Officers Guild believes what happened over the weekend speaks to a much bigger issue the department faces.
“It’s going to be busy for the foreseeable future because we don’t have enough cops,” Solan said.
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