Black SPD detective of 43 years sues over years of alleged racism, ‘culture of retaliation’

SEATTLE — Seattle Police Detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin is suing the city over allegations of racial and gender discrimination within the department spanning years.

Bouldin initially filed a tort claim in March but has now escalated to a lawsuit, asserting that the city has “failed to respond meaningfully” in the months since.

Bouldin has been an active advocate in the Black community over her 43 years with SPD. Since 2006, she’s used chess to engage with Rainier Beach children, and even had a chess park in the neighborhood named in her honor in 2022.

In her lawsuit filed last Friday, she details how she has gotten “regular and continuous complaints about her relationship with the Black community.”

“The Seattle Police Department has used Detective Bouldin’s strong relationship with the Black community to portray such relationship as one the Department itself has with the Black community,” it reads. “Behind closed doors, however, other officers and supervisors have belittled Detective Bouldin, challenging her loyalty to the Department and marginalizing her for her active role in the community.”

It also lays out an alleged incident where Bouldin had placed African American Advisory Council pamphlets on the desks of SPD sergeants to promote an event. According to her, “one white sergeant saw the flier and responded ‘Who put this [expletive] [expletive] on my desk?!’ and threw it down on the floor.”

“Latest, the sergeant made it clear that she did not want to work with any black people,” the lawsuit continued.

Bouldin further claims that she’s worked in “a culture of retaliation” within SPD, and that officers have refused to provide her back-up, “deliberately putting her life and safety in jeopardy.”

Her initial tort claim in March was for $10 million, and now a trial date is set for November of 2024.

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