Rank-and-file Seattle police officers voted in favor of a new, partial three-year contract that, if approved by the Seattle City Council, will give them immediate retroactive raises totaling 23%.

The agreement, announced by Mayor Bruce Harrell on Monday, will make Seattle officers the highest paid in the state, leapfrogging them from 29th. A starting officer will make $103,000 a year, up from $83,000.

Negotiations are not finished, however. The agreement covers 2021, when the previous contract expired, through 2023. City negotiators and the Seattle Police Officers Guild left 2024 unresolved and called in a mediator with the Public Employment Relations Commission to help.

But I thought the police were defunded!! /s