On Wednesday, May 29, Mayor Bruce Harrell announced his appointment of Sue Rahr as the interim chief of the Seattle Police Department. 

Chief Rahr comes with over 40 years of experience as a law enforcement professional and is a familiar face and name for many of us. She has served as the King County Sheriff, Executive Director of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, and as a member of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 

“It is an honor to help the Seattle Police Department enter its next chapter, building on my decades of experience in law enforcement leadership,” said Interim Chief Rahr in a statement released by Mayor Harrell’s office. “I am committed to strengthening public safety in Seattle, recruiting the next generation of SPD officers and leadership, and creating a renewed sense of optimism in this department. I will listen carefully to our officers and the people of Seattle as I work hard to strengthen relationships with partners and the community. I will build trust with officers and the community through dialogue and action.”

We are excited to partner with Chief Rahr as she works to set the department up for success! Please join us in welcoming her to this interim role. 

Learn more about her in this statement from Mayor Harrell. 

Celebrity Waiters Luncheon rings in its 40th year of philanthropy by exemplifying its founding mantra: “let’s have fun and let’s do good!” 

The 2024 Celebrity Waiters Luncheon took place Friday, May 10, 2024, in the heart of downtown Seattle at Fairmont Olympic Hotel. The air was positively electric, as this year’s Celebrity Waiters and their bodacious guests gathered to celebrate 40 years of philanthropy. Everywhere you looked, you were dazzled by spectacular 80s-themed regalia, all meant to commemorate the decade in which the one-of-a-kind Celebrity Waiters Luncheon was thrust onto Seattle’s social scene. 

This was the Seattle Police Foundation’s third year as the CWL beneficiary.

Thanks to a very generous community, Celebrity Waiters Luncheon 2024 raised over $500,000, including $288,000 to support the important community-building work of the Seattle Police Department’s Relational Policing Unit. Please stay tuned for additional details about this year’s Celebrity Waiters Luncheon!

Learn more at the Celebrity Waiters Luncheon website. 

We are excited to invite you to support this year's Blue Tie Ball, which takes place Friday, October 4, 2024, at the King Street Ballroom and Perch in downtown Seattle. 

Blue Tie Ball is our largest, most important fundraiser of the year and one of the most powerful, inspirational events that we host. Please help us make the 2024 event our best, most successful gala ever!

Blue Tie Ball

Friday, October 4th, 2024

King Street Ballroom and Perch

255 South King Street, Seattle 98104

For sponsorship and ticket information email: info@seattlepolicefoundation.org

The Seattle Police Department Community Service Officer (CSO) Unit’s Basketball Combine was nothing short of a slam dunk, as Seattle athletes aged 17 – 19 took to the courts to show off their skills in front of local basketball leaders, coaches, and recruiters.

The event took place 1 to 4 p.m., Friday, April 12, and was held at the Bitter Lake Community Center in north Seattle. The Combine welcomed 50 male and female student athletes from all over Seattle, who played in front of coaches/representatives from five local colleges, including Green River College Head Coach Godfrey Drake and others.

The athletes completed a dynamic warmup, followed by basketball agility drills, and finally, a high-energy scrimmage to finish out the program.

A total of 15 volunteers stepped up to help ensure that the event ran smoothly.

This event was funded by the Seattle Police Foundation, thanks to a generous donation from former University of Washington superstar and NBA great Spencer Hawes, who serves on the SPF Board of Directors and is a huge advocate for youth in sports.

Thanks to Hawes’ generosity, participants received a custom CSO Combine jersey and an accompanying medal, plus enjoyed free pizza, cookies, and fruit. Volunteers from the U.S. Army and the Seattle Police Department helped run the drills, and Lt. Brandon James and Randy Wo-Eng refereed the scrimmage.

At the Seattle Police Foundation, we are passionate about supporting events that bring the community and the police together in ways that spark meaningful connections. Sports are such a fantastic way to do exactly that. We are so grateful to our donors, who make events like the basketball combine possible!

Thanks to generous Seattle Police Foundation donors, in April, SPD’s Arson Bomb Squad (ABS) welcomed two new Explosive Detection K9s to its team – K9 Maia and K9 Nitro!

As Explosive Detection K9s with SPD’s Arson Bomb Squad, K9s Maia and Nitro work on the front lines of public safety in Seattle. 

They are tasked with a large body of work that includes evidence recovery at crime scenes, evidence searches, and proactive safety sweeps at major athletic events, community gatherings, concerts, and during dignitary visits.

Importantly, these two talented K9s help ensure that Seattle’s largescale event venues are safe for residents, visitors, and guests. Nitro is a happy dog who likes finding explosives and birds. He is friendly, energetic, and strikingly handsome! Nitro was purchased in 2023 by Seattle Police Foundation donors.

K9 Maia was also purchased in 2023 by a Seattle Police Foundation donor (see story linked below) and is paired with Officer Eric Dupleich. She has had the extraordinary opportunity to work paw-in-paw with Explosive Detection K9 Jazzy-Juno, who served the city of Seattle for over eight years, and retired in June of 2024.

K9s Maia and Nitro earned their certifications within a few days of each other, and we are so proud of them both! Now that they’re both certified on the foundational odors of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission’s standard for Explosive Detection K9s, they will continue training to keep their noses sharp and to master the additional odor recognition skills traditionally practiced by SPD’s ABS K9s.

We are so grateful for our generous K9 Unit donors! These dogs are Seattle’s best defense against explosive threats and are such an important part of public safety in Seattle.

And a very special thank you to Seattle Police Foundation donor, supporter, and friend NancyLee Davidson for funding K9 Maia. If you would like to learn more about NancyLee and what inspired her to fund K9 Maia, please visit the newsroom on our website! We are so grateful to NancyLee for her commitment to the Seattle Police Department K9 Unit.  

Get the story at: NancyLee funds new K9 for SPD

We are happy to share that Seattle Human Services has launched a brand-new tool to support survivors of sexual assault in the Seattle community.

This new website - www.seekthenspeakseattle.com - was donated by the Seattle Police Foundation and produced pro bono by the web development team at Seattle-based Strategies 360.  

Seek Then Speak was crafted with survivor care at its very core. The idea is to empower survivors with a confidential way to not only report their assault, but to access vital resources. Seek Then Speak respects boundaries, meets survivors where they are at, and works with them to get them whatever assistance they need to move forward.

It’s mobile friendly, available in multiple languages, and can be used anonymously.

At SPF, we are honored to stand with survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other violent crimes. We use donations from our supporters to provide emergency resources such as Uber rides, grocery store gift certificates, personal care items, access to locksmiths, temporary housing, overnight stay vouchers, cell phones, and relocation assistance.

Thank you Strategies 360 for joining us in our efforts to support survivors of sexual assault and abuse, and thank you to our donors for making this work possible!

We want to extend a very gracious thank you to our Harbor Patrol Unit donors. 

At the end of May, Seattle first responders were dispatched to a houseboat on fire in Lake Union. The fire extended to an adjacent houseboat and a nearby commercial building.



Protective gear purchased by Seattle Police Foundation donors was used to keep Seattle police officers safer as they attacked the blaze. We are happy to share this note of gratitude from Seattle Police Department Harbor Patrol Unit Lt. Marc Garth-Green:

“The fire protective equipment the Foundation purchased for Harbor was put into action yesterday at a boat/building fire on Lake Union,” Lt. Garth-Green said. “SPD Harbor responded and applied water to the fire immediately. The bow monitor officer was protected due to your generosity. Thanks again for all you do.”

Thank you, donors, for your amazing support of SPD’s Harbor Patrol Unit. We appreciate you!

Learn more about Harbor on our Harbor Patrol Unit webpage!

Did you know that SPF has a reoccurring giving program?

For as little as $10 per month, you can sign up for our recurring pledge program, which automatically deducts your monthly donation so that you don’t have to think about it. When you sign up as a monthly donor, you're essentially signing up for a monthly subscription to improved public safety in the Seattle community.

It's one of the safest and most efficient ways to support our work!

The Seattle Police Foundation is a 501(C)3 nonprofit organization, so if your donations meet a certain threshold, they may be tax deductible (pursuant to IRS rules).

In April we received our quarterly donation from Fred Meyer, on behalf of the 27 households who have opted in to the Fred Meyer Community Rewards program and selected the Seattle Police Foundation as their charity of choice!

The Fred Meyer Community Rewards program is a simple way to support our work without even thinking about it, and without it impacting your wallet. All you have to do to set it up is log into your online Fred Meyer account and select “My Account.” From there, click on “Community Rewards” and selected the Seattle Police Foundation as your nonprofit of choice.

Moving forward, any transactions you complete using the Shopper’s Card number (or phone number) associated with your account will be applied to the program, at no added cost to you. Fred Meyer donates throughout the year to participating Community Rewards organizations.

We would really like to grow the number of contributing households so please consider enrolling today! It only takes a few seconds to link your account. Visit: Fred Meyer Community Rewards