The 2024 Seattle Police Awards Ceremony took place Thursday, March 21, at the King Street Ballroom and Perch, in downtown Seattle. 

A total of 61 commissioned and civilian Seattle Police Department staff were recognized and celebrated for their extraordinary work ethic, selfless courage, and their profound willingness to put the safety of Seattle community members ahead of their own. It is one of our favorite nights of the year, and we would like to express our deepest gratitude to the incredible SPF supporters who make this evening possible.

We could not do this without you. 

The evening began with a performance by Seattle Police Pipes and Drums and the National Anthem, which was sung by SPD Captain Krista Blair and Acting Lieutenant Will Cravens. The Seattle Police Honor Guard presented and retired the colors. The invocation was given by SPD Chaplain Charlie Scoma, who was followed by Seattle Chief of Police Adrian Z. Diaz and then Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess.

This year we were honored to welcome Seattle Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke to the stage for a keynote address, and were thrilled to have Emmy Award-winning journalist Brandi Kruse and iconic KOMO TV broadcast journalist Connie Thompson as emcees.  

A total of 11 officers were recognized in the “of the year” category, while 13 officers of varying ranks earned merit awards for outstanding leadership. A total of 37 meritorious awards were given, including 11 Medals of Courage (the department’s third highest honor), 25 Medals of Valor (the department’s second highest honor), and 1 Medal of Honor, which is the department’s highest honor. 

A couple highlights…

Medal of Valor: DESC Building Hostage Call

In July of 2023, members of SPD’s SWAT and Hostage Negotiation teams performed a joint mission at a Downtown Emergency Services Center supportive housing facility in Queen Anne. A man armed with a knife had barricaded himself inside the office with two female employees. He refused to let them to leave and was threatening them both with grave bodily harm. As the man’s behavior began to escalate, the SWAT sergeant ordered a SWAT hostage rescue. Within seconds, SWAT officers breached the facility, rescued the two women, and safely arrested the suspect. 

Nine members of SWAT and HNT earned Medals of Valor for the heroism demonstrated throughout this successful mission. 

Medal of Valor: Columbia Center Shots Fired

In November of 2023 in the wee hours of the morning, West Precinct officers responded to the Columbia Center building after security employees called 911 to report that a male had fired a gun in the lobby before exiting the building. Once they located the suspect, West Precinct officers attempted less lethal means to stop him from proceeding to a more populated area of the city.  

These five officers exemplified courage and incredible teamwork as they safely stopped the erratic suspect and took him into custody. All five earned Medals of Valor for their coordinated use of team tactics and their willingness to expose themselves to danger in order to keep the Seattle community safe from an unpredictable, possibly armed suspect. 

Thank you to our sponsors! 

Thank you to sponsors AWS, Dunn Lumber, the Ellison Foundation, Climate Pledge Arena, Fremont Dock Company, Frey Buck PLLC, and SODO BIA for your generosity. In addition to our 3- and 4-star level sponsorships, this year we added a new, $250 Sponsor-an-Awardee level, which received phenomenal support from 30 local businesses and community members, including a few whose gifts sponsored multiple officers.  

It was a wonderful evening for this proud momma, who got to see her daughter, Nohemi, honored as the Parking Enforcement Officer of the Year! Additionally, her son, Lt. Oscar Gardea, was honored with a Merit Award for Outstanding Leadership.

On Monday, March 25, 2024, we were honored to join members of Seattle Police Department command staff and the Harbor Patrol Unit at the re-dedication ceremony of the Officer Jackson Lone Playground at St. John School in north Seattle. 

The ceremony included a few words from Assistant Principal Paul Kelley and Principal Bernadette O’Leary, who shared details about the playground’s importance and its history. Next, Seattle Chief of Police Adrian Diaz thanked the school for its commitment to Officer Lone’s memory and invited the Seattle Police Honor Guard to place a ceremonial wreath.  

 “His serial number was 5119,” Diaz said. “And that’s something we always want to remember.” 

Seattle Police Department Harbor Patrol Unit Officer Jackson “Jack” V. Lone died in the line of duty on March 16, 2005, when he fell, hit his head on a rock, and drowned, while working to secure a drifting tugboat in the Lake Washington Ship Canal.

He had served as a Seattle police officer for 18 years at the time of his death.  

A true Seattle native, Officer Lone was a 1980 graduate of St. John Parish School. After that, he attended Bishop Blanchet High School and the University of Washington. Officer Lone was known as a charismatic, joy-filled man with an infectious sense of humor. 

The Officer Jackson Lone Playground came together on the heels of Officer Lone’s death in 2005, when a group of alumni students, parents, and community members came together to revitalize the St. John playground in Officer Lone’s memory. This group fundraised, designed, and provided the labor needed to bring their vision to life. The nautical-themed playground was completed in the fall of 2006, and a grand opening event – much like the one held last Monday – took place to celebrate the newly renovated space.  

Now, nearly 20 years later, and after a two-year fundraising cycle and two months of construction, the Officer Jackson Lone Playground is again refreshed and renewed, and re-dedicated to Officer Jackson Lone in honor of his priceless legacy of public service.  

At the Seattle Police Foundation, we are passionate about preserving the memory of the Seattle Police Department’s fallen officers and ensuring that their selfless service is never forgotten. We are grateful to St. John School for honoring Officer Lone’s memory through this charming space for meant for community, laughter, and fun. 

Thanks to St. John School choir for its awesome performance of the National Anthem, and thanks to student Emerson Houserman for gracious welcome and opening remarks. 

The Seattle Police Foundation is working to support the important work of the Seattle Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit as the number of child exploitation cases continues to skyrocket in the state of Washington, throughout the country, and around the world. 

The numbers reflect the need:

• Compared to 2022, the number of child enticement cases increased 76% in 2023
• Cyber Tips are up on average from 200 a month in 2020, to 900 a month in 2022, to 1,156 in 2023
• Case referrals from National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) have more than doubled since 2019

We are happy to share that we’ve reached the halfway point in our initial round of fundraising, which raises roughly $1,000,000 for expanded software licensing that would increase statewide access to Griffeye Analyze, a cutting-edge technology used to investigate these crimes. 

The Griffeye suite not only offers ways to process evidence quicker, but also an intuitive, multifaceted science-based mental health safety net for investigators. Videos default to sound off, and media can be masked to hide the illicit portions of the images. Additional features include a grayscale option, which allows investigators to view media in grayscale, as colored images have been shown to last longer in memory. Investigators can also minimize their exposure to toxic, illegal content through the pixelate feature, which pixelates content already categorized as illegal.  

Importantly, Griffeye works directly with National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and provides software that is compatible with what NCMEC is currently using, which will help streamline victim identification.

Please consider helping our efforts to obtain this crucial software by making a gift today. For more information about SPD’s ICAC Unit and its important role as the lead agency of the Washington Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, visit our ICAC Unit webpage. 

We want to take a moment to say thank you to all the amazing donors who supported February’s We Heart Horses fundraiser, which raised money for a new police horse for the Seattle Police Department Mounted Patrol Unit.

Thanks to your generosity, we came incredibly close to our $15,000 goal, raising a total of $14,146.40. This means that, thanks to all of you…

The search is on for a new police horse!

As you can imagine, selecting a new horse for the unit is an involved process. Great care goes into finding a promising candidate, and once a candidate is identified, further work takes place to determine if the horse is both medically sound and a good fit for police work. We promise to keep you all updated as to how things are going, and plan to share a plethora of pictures once the new police horse is added to the string.

Thanks to every single person who donated! Whether you donated $20 or $200 or $2,000, your donation made a difference. Every single one of you contributed greatly to the success of this fundraiser and we appreciate you all. The Seattle Police Foundation and the Mounted Patrol Unit are so grateful for your support! 

If you'd like to read more about the Mounted Patrol Unit, please visit our website.

At the Seattle Police Foundation, there is nothing we love more than spending time in the community with our partners at the Seattle Police Department. 

Last Saturday, we were lucky enough to be invited to join Chief Adrian Z. Diaz for a delicious pancake brunch, courtesy of the Kings and Queens Teams of Roxhill at EC Hughes Elementary School in West Seattle. This event was the result of connections made during the third iteration of the Cooking with the Chief series, which took place in January. 

Funded through the Seattle Police Foundation grants process, Cooking with the Chief was five-part opportunity for Seattle youth, police officers, and notable guests, to come together for a few hours of conversation, learning, cooking, and eating. 

It was a great fit for students from Roxhill’s Kings and Queens Team, a mentorship program founded by Roxhill custodian Mr. Hakeem Trotter. The Kings and Queens Team program meets students where they’re at to help them develop life skills, become good students, learn practical tools for conflict resolution, and much more.

Roxhill’s Kings and Queens Teams program was connected to Officer Aaron Lucas and the opportunity for Cooking with the Chief through the coordinated efforts of Monica Jackson, Executive Assistant to Chief Diaz, and Ella McRae, Seattle Housing Authority Community Builder for High Point, extraordinary mentor, and powerful advocate for Seattle children.

Roxhill students maximized their time with the Chief in January, taking turns interviewing both him and former major league baseball player and Seattle Housing Authority Vice Chair Gerald Smiley, who attended the event as a guest. 

Saturday’s pancake brunch was a wonderful example of how, once a seed is planted, community connections have incredible potential to grow and flourish. Hakeem witnessed the transformational way Cooking with the Chief broke down barriers between Seattle youth and the police, so he seized this fun opportunity to build on what was started. As a result, Chief Diaz found himself in front of a camera once again, as several students took turns asking him questions about his job, life, career path, and more. Nothing was off the table! 

We are committed to programs and initiatives that foster meaningful connections between the Seattle community and the Seattle Police Department. We want to extend a very gracious thank you to Hakeem and everyone at Roxhill at E.C. Hughes Elementary School for letting us join in the fun. 

We’d also like to thank our donors, who make programs like Cooking with the Chief possible. We couldn’t have asked for a more rewarding outcome! 

Do you have a passion for law enforcement and a heart for community service? If so, you may be a great fit for our volunteer program.

The Seattle Police Foundation (SPF) is actively recruiting volunteers to help us ensure that our events are successful and fun for everyone involved. As a 501C3 nonprofit organization, SPF hosts multiple fundraising events throughout the year, several of which include an auction. As such, we are looking for enthusiastic, detail-oriented folks with excellent communication skills to assist with a variety of event-related tasks.

Tasks may include things like guest check-in and check-out, data entry, venue set-up and take-down, clerical support (filing, organizing paperwork), live auction support, bid tracking, bid spotting, staffing donation tables, decorating tabletops, and much more.

Event support is fast-paced and dynamic! You might start your day hauling boxes of stuffed SPD K9s, and end it making sure that our guests leave with the correct auction items.

If this sounds like you, please fill out our volunteer application today.

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).