Seeing and hearing the Seattle community reaction to the recent news of an investigation into Seattle PD's off-duty practices – which appears to be a building story – highlights many of the issues that have developed due to a closed marketplace that lacks both transparency and accountability.

Blucadia is 100% behind law enforcement. It was founded by a cop, for cops, with the goal of rebuilding the mutual trust and respect between cops and the communities they serve. We believe we can do that one off-duty job at a time. Towards that end, Blucadia remains fully committed to our police, sheriff and state patrol personnel. In response to an increasing demand for off-duty work - and the difficulties in managing it - we created an open marketplace that benefits all members.

Cops receive market rate wages (most often higher than what is offered in the market today) and an opportunity to expand their potential for off-duty work – leveraging skills well beyond security and traffic control. The demand for security consulting, accident reconstruction, expert witnesses, photo analysis, person defense training, neighborhood watch patrols and even K-9 training is high in every major community.

We allow individuals and small businesses – too small to ever warrant the ability to hire off-duty cops through departments or staffing agencies – to directly post jobs and get access to the most highly trained law enforcement. At the same time, large businesses hire from an open, transparent marketplace and can be confident that policies are properly followed, insurances are in place and cops have been fully authorized to work.

Departments gain the assurance that their policies and procedures are implemented and followed – with a digital record of permissions - and with full knowledge of where and how their cops are working off duty. This is critical in any event response where they need to know how to allocate limited resources and best ensure both the public’s and cop’s safety. Finally, they can also be confident that job-specific insurance policies are in place covering cops, not just an agency they may be working for.

Staffing agencies can grow their business beyond local work areas as they gain the ability to scale their jobs geographically and broaden their department relationships. We also bring them into compliance with off-duty policies that call for visibility and oversight over off-duty practices.

It is important to remember that most all cops are high integrity, fully committed professionals working day and night to serve and protect our communities and their families - and we are committed to serving them.

It is also useful to reiterate a few points that directly address several miscommunications in the press and in the initial community responses.

1. We are not a staffing company - we do not compete with existing staffing companies (in fact, we were asked to partner by one of Seattle's largest staffing companies and are helping their business grow). We do, however, change the way staffing companies do business - bringing off-duty into full transparency and accountability for the departments, the cops and the companies that hire them. This is an important but difficult and controversial role to play.
2. We are not anti-union (certainly not anti-SPOG) in any way. We aim to work closely with guilds and unions at every department we work with. We bring their membership tremendous value - higher off-duty wages, broader insurance coverages, more work opportunities and the ability to better monetize their unique skills in an open marketplace.

Lack of transparency and accountability in off-duty management is a national problem – not specific to SPOG, Seattle PD or our city. We are sad that a few bad actors in Seattle cast more public distrust on our local law enforcement – as well as SPOG - when we all need to be moving forward together.

- The Blucadia Team

Related media:

• Seattle Times, 9/19/2017 - FBI investigating off-duty work by Seattle police at construction sites, parking garages
• AP News, 9/20/2017 - FBI Investigates Off-Duty Work by Seattle Police Officers
• King 5, 9/21/2017 - FBI investigates off-duty work by Seattle police officers