About Carmen BestEvery rank, then the top job, then the decision that defined her.
Carmen Best is the former Chief of Police of Seattle, the author of Black in Blue, and a speaker on leadership when everyone is watching. The record is below. The part people book her for is the decision.
1992
She applied without knowing if she would stay a year.
Tacoma, a two-parent house with strict rules about homework and ironing the night before. The Army. An insurance job in downtown Seattle. Then a police recruitment ad, and almost nobody around her thought it was a good idea. Women were about 12% of policing at the time; on a shift there might be two.
“At that time around 12% maybe of all police organizations were female. And then certainly, the higher up in rank you go, the less women you see, and less women of color in particular that you see.”
2018
The job everyone said would never happen.
Officer, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, deputy chief. Interim Chief on January 1, 2018, and confirmed on August 13, the first Black woman to lead the Seattle Police Department. She had spent years preparing for the job in the open, and heard the whole time that it was not going to happen.
“You would be surprised how many people said it’s not going to happen. And at some point it felt like it wasn’t, and then it did materialize.”
2020
The summer the whole world was watching Seattle.
A pandemic that hit Washington first. The murder of George Floyd. The Capitol Hill autonomous zone, then the organized protest zone, then a defund movement. Then a Council vote to cut about 100 officers, which under union rules meant the 2019 class she had recruited. She resigned on August 10. Her last day was September 2.
“We had record-breaking diversity hiring, 39.9%. So I usually say just about 40% women and minorities hired that year, only to turn around. And when you know the last in and the first out, that’s really how it works for most organizations, and that’s union rules.”
Now
What she is for.
Independent law enforcement analyst and consultant. Board and advisory work in education, workforce and public safety. Keynotes on the decision, for rooms that have their own coming. Behind her: Black in Blue (HarperCollins Leadership, 2021), the KING 5 analyst chair from October 2020, a contributor role on MSNBC and appearances on NBC News and CNBC, and Microsoft, where she went in 2022 as Director of Global Security Risk Operations, a role she has since left.
“I always feel like there’s more.”
Boards and advisory
Where she has served.
Education, workforce, and public safety. Open to board seats, advisory work, and senior operating roles in the same lanes.
Consulting, board and executive inquiriesEducation
- M.S., Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, 2018
- Bachelor's degree, Western Illinois University, 2014
UNCF
Leadership Council. Past Chair, Seattle Leadership Council
United Way of King County
Board
YWCA King County
Board
St. Jude Advisory Council, Seattle
Member
Seattle University
Criminal Justice Advisory Committee
IACP
Human and Civil Rights Committee
Recognition · April 25, 2026
Washington State African American Achievement Award.
Presented by Surviving Change, Shining Super Stars.