Through the Static

By Hannah Saunders

In the Seattle Police Officer Guild (SPOG) President’s newest podcast episode, Mike Solan talked about the new contract with the City of Seattle that provides large pay increases without increasing police accountability. Solan piped up numerous times to take jabs at socialists in the city, naming Mayor Katie Wilson, activists, and others. 

TtS previously reported that Seattle police officers will receive a retroactive pay increase of 6% for 2024, and another 4.1% for this year. Cops will also receive a 2.7% pay raise in 2026, and about a 3-4% in 2027. Despite a roomful of public commenters, and plenty of city residents who attended the city council meeting virtually, pleading with their district representatives to vote no, the council approved the contract by a vote of 6-3. 

“Of course the activist groups were trying to sway the councilmembers to do their bidding, which would be a vote no. Well sadly, you lost,” Solan said in his “Hold the Line” podcast. 

He said that activists constantly scrutinize police and call for more accountability, but activists weren’t the only public commenters that day. 

“This contract puts the police, not the trained crisis response staff, in charge of determining the nature of the response in such a wide variety of spaces and other socially complex situations that it destroys their usefulness almost entirely,” Physician Henry Keen said. 

When the vote passed, the SPOG Twitter account posted a picture of Solan in a form-fitting outfit with a caption that said, “Seattle City Council ratifies SPOG contract. Moderates 1- Socialists 0. Public Safety for the win!” 

Solan posted this because socialists are overtaking the city, and that moderates need to wake-up and “fight.” He said those who hold socialist ideals consistently vote anti-SPOG, and added that every conversation surrounding SPOG contracts are regarding what the CARES team or alternative forms of policing can do. The contract will improve recruitment after losing over 700 officers since 2019, Solan claimed. 

“What the socialists are doing, what they want to do, is create their utopia of raiding, allocating the money for their ideological aspirations, and a lot of it has to do with the police budget,” he said. “Socialism has never worked.” 

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