1. Carmen Best was born on c 1965 and is an American former law enforcement officer who served as the chief of police of the Seattle Police Department from 2018 to 2020.
17 Facts About Carmen Best
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Carmen Best was the first black woman to lead Seattle's police force.
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Carmen Best was chief of police during the George Floyd protests.
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Carmen Best announced her resignation in August 2020 following budget cuts, and officially left office on September 2,2020.
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Carmen Best was born in Tacoma, Washington and attended Lincoln High School.
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Carmen Best earned a certificate in police management from the University of Washington and Master of Science degree in criminal justice from Northeastern University.
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Carmen Best completed training programs at the FBI National Executive Institute, FBI National Academy, Criminal Justice Executive Leadership Academy, and Major Cities Chiefs Association Police Executive Leadership Institute.
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Carmen Best was hired by the Seattle Police Department in 1992 and, prior to being appointed chief, had held the ranks of officer, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and deputy chief.
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Carmen Best took over as interim chief of police on January 1,2018, replacing Kathleen O'Toole, and was later appointed permanent chief by Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, effective from August 13,2018.
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Carmen Best became the first black woman to serve as Seattle's chief of police.
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Carmen Best was chief of police during the 2020 George Floyd Protests.
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Carmen Best defended the use of tear gas, saying that the 30 day ban exempts SWAT officers and "life safety issues".
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The role that Carmen Best played in the decision to retreat from the East Precinct, and to use tear gas on protestors during the protests, is unclear because she deleted more than 27,000 text messages by hand from her city-owned mobile device.
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Carmen Best has acknowledged that she deleted the messages from the June 2020 protests, and has claimed that the messages were "transitory," in other words that they did not contain any significant information.
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Carmen Best described the group of protestors as large and aggressive, and supported her neighbors' response to them.
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On October 19,2020, it was announced that Carmen Best would join KING-TV as law enforcement analyst.
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In 2021, Carmen Best published Black in Blue: Lessons on Leadership, Breaking Barriers, and Racial Reconciliation.