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This month we wished Police Dog Nala a very happy birthday!

Nala belongs to an exclusive, emerging genre of working dogs known as Electronic Search Detection (ESD) K9s, trained to sniff out chemical compounds in electronic devices. Nala works with the Seattle Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit, and can detect USB drives, memory cards, cell phones, and more. Not even the tiniest microSDs can escape her keen nose!

To date, Nala and her handler have been deployed on approximately 20 operations statewide and in Oregon, where they have assisted in locating devices that were not initially discovered on the primary searches.

Originally from Michigan, Nala was born on October 21, 2019, and began her service with SPD on November 15, 2021. She is an English Labrador Retriever and lives with her handler and her handler’s family. Nala’s favorite things to do include playing fetch, snuggling with her favorite stuffed animals, and of course, finding electronic devices. Nala is motivated by food, which means she is rewarded with food whenever she finds electronic devices.

Nala is well-suited for her work with ICAC, due to her friendly, sweet-natured temperament. She loves people and can double as a comfort dog for child survivors and their family members during tense investigations. She is a hard worker and trains on a daily basis to keep her skills sharp.

As an ESD, Nala is rare. She is one of roughly 80 ESDs in the nation, and is currently the only working ESD in the state of Washington. Nala was purchased for the Seattle Police Department ICAC Unit by Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.), a nonprofit that exists to “rescue children from sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.” We at SPF are so grateful for O.U.R.’s generosity and devotion to this cause.

This fall has been filled with landmark events and fun things to do! On Saturday, September 24, 2022, it was our distinct pleasure to attend the grand opening of the Detective Cookie Chess Park, named in honor of Seattle Police Department’s Detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin.

The Seattle Police Foundation has been a proud supporter of Detective Cookie’s Chess Club since it began in 2006. This fun, engaging program welcomes youth age 7 and up, and gives them the opportunity to experience the game of chess. Chess is a methodical game of strategy, challenging players to develop their problem-solving skills while practicing critical thinking. Many of Detective Cookie’s young chess enthusiasts have developed quite a knack for the game, discovering important parallels between what happens on the chess board and what happens in real life.

Chess is a great unifier, allowing youth of all ages and abilities the opportunity to play, build community, interact with their peers, establish lasting friendships, and most of all, have fun!

“I call chess a sport,” Bouldin said. “This is a sport where you don't have to be the fastest, the strongest, the biggest, the tallest, you don't even have to speak the same language, and you can sit down and play chess.”

Your support of the Seattle Police Foundation helped bring Detective Cookie’s Chess Club to life and sustain it over the years! Thank you to our loyal donors, for your important contribution to this long-standing Rainier Beach legacy. We appreciate you and so does Detective Cookie and her community of chess players. Your generosity does not go unnoticed.

Thanks to our friends at the Seattle Parks Foundation, the Friends of Detective Cookie Chess Park, and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) for their creativity, vision, hard work, and perseverance in bringing this awesome park to fruition. This new community gathering space is the culmination of over eight years of continual effort on their part, including the park’s planning, design, funding, and construction.

For more information about the Detective Cookie Chess Park, visit the Chess Park website.

Thanks to your support, Seattle Police Foundation is able to provide meaningful grants to the men and women of SPD. These grant-funded programs and initiatives are helping create department-wide positive change and having profound impact on the Seattle community. Thank you for supporting this crucial work and standing by SPD's commitment to continual improvement.

Here are a few recent grant highlights:

Seattle Police Officer Aaron Lucas had a whole other career prior to becoming a Seattle police officer. From 1995 – 2010, the U.S. Navy veteran owned and operated a barber shop in the Central District, where he connected with customers from all walks of life… Including the police department.

In fact, it was a Seattle police officer who inspired him to trade in his clippers for a badge.

Today, Lucas uses his skills as a barber to complement his work in the Community Outreach Unit, and earlier this year, came to SPF for a little help. Lucas requested a $2,000 grant for his 4 Cs program – Cops, Community, Cutz, and Convos – and we were more than happy to oblige. Lucas used the funding for program materials and the barbering supplies needed to provide free haircuts to youth in the Seattle community in various different settings, including at SeaPAL camps and at a community outreach event in Rainier Beach called “Barbershop Cut, Chat.” Additionally, he visited a juvenile detention center several times to give free cuts to our community’s youth-at-promise.

The 4 Cs program is meant to forge positive connections with Seattle’s youth-at-promise, increase positive interactions between Seattle police officers and youth, build community, facilitate trust, and improve outcomes for youth in detention.

We are excited to see what Officer Lucas has in mind for 2023!

We were thrilled to partner with Motorola Solutions Foundation, the charitable arm of Motorola Solutions, to bring the “Policing with an Outward Mindset” training program to the men and women of the Seattle Police Department.

The Outward Mindset is a revolutionary training curriculum that helps transform the way people who work in law enforcement approach public safety. The training helps officers and staff recognize and discard an inward mindset, which views other people as objects that need to be manipulated, and replace it with an outward mindset, in which others are viewed as people who matter. The Outward Mindset model interrupts status quo thinking and paves the way for a more inclusive approach that compliments SPD’s ongoing efforts to reinvent community engagement and prioritize humanization.

The Policing with an Outward Mindset curriculum is captivating, exceptionally responsive to the priorities of the Seattle Police Department, and is earning rave reviews from SPD staff at all levels. Chief Adrian Diaz was so impressed with the training he asked that it be integrated into SPD’s newly developed Before-the-Badge (BTB) program, a 45-day pre-academy program for SPD recruits waiting to attend the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission’s Basic Law Enforcement Academy (BLEA).

The Motorola Solutions Foundation awarded a $20,000 grant in 2022 to help fund this training. The Seattle Police Foundation added a supplementary grant of $15,000 to support the initial rollout. The training is being implemented in waves, rolling out over a five-year timespan, with the goal of engaging the majority of SPD sworn and civilian employees by the end of 2025.

The Motorola Solutions Foundation, which has donated $100 million over the past 10 years, focuses its giving on three key areas: first responder programming, technology and engineering education, and programs that blend the two. The Foundation has a long-standing commitment to supporting programs that benefit underrepresented populations and aims to partner with organizations that align to its values of accountability, innovation, impact, diversity, and inclusion.

As the charitable and philanthropic arm of Motorola Solutions, the Motorola Solutions Foundation partners with organizations around the globe to create safer cities and equitable, thriving communities. The Foundation focuses on giving back through strategic grants, employee volunteerism, and other community investment initiatives.

The strategic grants program supports organizations that offer first responder programming and technology and engineering education, and align to our values of accountability, innovation, impact, diversity, and inclusion. The Foundation is one of the many ways in which the company lives out its purpose of helping people be their best in the moments that matter. For more information on the Foundation, visit the Motorola Solutions Foundation website.

Blue Hero Project is a local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization born out of a simple desire to show Seattle-area law enforcement officers and their families that they are seen, valued, and supported. It was founded in 2021 by Diane Hwang and her husband Davin, after a one-time plan to deliver tasty treats to local law enforcement agencies quickly grew into something much bigger. Now 16 months later, Blue Hero has completed 75 drop-offs at various departments, agencies, and specialty units all over the state of Washington and in Oregon too. It’s a labor of love for Diane, who fundraises and does the shopping herself, often with her two small kids in tow. 

The month of October brought us several fun K9 birthdays, including Police Dog Nala (October 21 see above), Comfort Dog Ryan (October 17 on the left), and Police Dog Loki (October 3 on the right). Happy birthday to these amazing working dogs! Do not miss our November newsletter for the chance to meet the Seattle Police Department's newest K9... Police Dog Frodo!

Because of donors like you, SPF has provided more than $13 million in grants and program support to the Seattle Police Department since 2002. Please donate today to help make Seattle a safer community.