FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 17, 2024

MEDIA CONTACT

Maria Lee, Media and Communications, maria.lee@cityoftacoma.org, (253) 591-2054

Statement by Council Member Jamika Scott Regarding Police Chief’s Announcement

“The Police Chief announced on January 16 that, while it has cleared Officers Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins, and Timothy Rankine based on 2020 policies, these officers have voluntarily agreed to separate and will no longer be serving on our streets.

I think it is critical that we reflect on what it means that, in 2020, our policies provided for no accountability. We need to ask ourselves why, and why it took such a tragic incident to spark more police accountability. I believe that we need to take a hard look at the ways marginalized communities have been disproportionally impacted by harm for generations in our city. We need to have hard conversations about the roots of these issues so that we can address them appropriately and come together around shared goals.

As we move forward, I aim to help our city engage in conversations about the impact that the death of Manuel Ellis has had on our community with the hopes that those conversations can help lead to tangible actions to start broader healing. I know people in our community want to heal and that they need space where they can share their authentic perspectives. I also believe that we must understand not just what happened to Manuel Ellis that night, but what happened in our community to lead to this outcome.

We need to understand how our policies and culture contributed to the death of Manuel Ellis. We will honor Manuel Ellis only when we change the systems that shaped the course of his life and death.

Tacoma has already updated and begun implementing important new policies and practices to bolster community safety. We have launched ground-breaking alternative emergency response programs, and we are working on various new efforts for accountability and transparency.

I am proud to be born and raised in Tacoma. We need to give the issue of community safety our full attention now. If there is one thing I know about our city, it is that we will come together when we face challenges. We are a creative and collaborative city, and we are not afraid of change or hard work.”

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