John Diaz was a soft-spoken police chief during some of the most turbulent times in the Seattle Police Department’s history.
To his supporters, his steady hand and quiet approach were a comfort. He was a rock to his troops and the community following the traumatic fatal shooting of Officer Timothy Brenton in 2009.
But his style turned on him after the department came under federal scrutiny and widespread community criticism over several video-recorded confrontations involving his officers, including the 2010 fatal shooting of First Nations woodcarver John T. Williams.
After that, the community and its leaders wanted more than quiet leadership.
Diaz, 55, didn’t dwell on any of that Monday when he announced he would retire after 33 years on the force.
“I won’t stand here and say that every decision was right, but what I will say is that I tried to make every decision based on what I believed was right,” Diaz said at a news conference where he was flanked by Mayor Mike McGinn and Assistant Chief Jim Pugel, who will replace him as interim chief.
“I leave here pretty proud of my career,” he said. “Is there ever a perfect time? No. But it was time for me to go.”
Diaz, a Latino, was named interim chief in 2009, after the departure of Gil Kerlikowske, and sworn in as the department’s first minority police chief in August 2010. He said Monday that he had accomplished what was asked of him.
He noted that he had steered the department through a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation, implemented new community policing goals, reduced crime and overseen innovative ways to address it.
The last piece, he said, was the adoption in March of a first-year plan to carry out reforms addressing the DOJ’s finding that Seattle officers routinely have used excessive force. “We’ve gone through some challenges,” Diaz said. “I feel incredibly lucky.”
McGinn said he did not ask Diaz to step down.
“This was the chief’s decision,” the mayor said, without elaborating on when the decision was reached. Diaz also declined to say when he decided to leave, but acknowledged it had been a topic of discussion for several weeks.
But the announcement came less than a week after the latest in a series of department embarrassments.
Last Tuesday, nearly a year after the May Day protests, the department released a highly critical independent review — commissioned by Diaz — faulting command staff for being unprepared to handle the widespread vandalism and violence that erupted.
A day later, a police officer was charged with assaulting a handcuffed suspect who had assaulted the officer’s wife, also a Seattle police officer.
At the same time, another officer escaped a possible assault charge in a separate case. A former Los Angeles police lieutenant hired by the City Attorney’s Office found the investigation had been tainted by an apparent culture of tolerance and failures within the department.
Critics have claimed Diaz is part of that culture, having come up through the ranks and been in the command staff for a dozen years, during which the department has repeatedly been criticized by two blue-ribbon panels and community leaders over failures to address officer misconduct.
Four years ago, when Diaz was named interim chief by then-Mayor Greg Nickels, the city’s major issue was the Alaskan Way tunnel, with public safety barely a blip on the political radar.
Nickels lost in his re-election bid and, after a time, McGinn warmed to Diaz and appointed him permanent chief — but only after a national search.
Since then, police conduct and public confidence in the department have become key issues and the city is spending millions on reforms ordered under a settlement agreement reached with the Justice Department in July.
Diaz has been a lightning rod for McGinn’s opponents, whose criticisms have included questions about the chief’s leadership, and rumors about his departure have swirled within the department for months.
In an interview in his office at police headquarters on Monday afternoon, Diaz said he and McGinn have been talking about his retirement for the past couple months.
While Diaz acknowledged criticism of his quiet leadership style, he said he was raised to listen more than talk.
“Maybe the next chief will be a fire-and-brimstone chief,” he said.
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