The Seattle City Council grilled the three remaining candidates for Seattle Police Chief this morning, asking about issues ranging from gang violence to racial profiling to whether foot patrols are superior to bike patrols.

Of the three, Sacramento police chief Rick Braziel came across as the most polished and prepared for his interview, although he did rely heavily on corporate jargon and catch phrases ("we talk with people, not at people"; "outcomes, not outputs") and acronyms (BIG, short for "Bring down major crimes, Invest in employees, and Great customer service). Interim police chief John Diaz, meanwhile, was characteristically low-key and soft-spoken, cracking occasional jokes ("I went into the military to see the world, and they sent me to Alabama") and playing down his accomplishments as chief. And from the Norm Stamper lefty brand of police chiefs, East Palo Alto chief Ron Davis focused primarily on racial profiling and racial disparities, and generally came across as the least prepared of the three.

Braziel, who was up first, said he would focus first on listening to what community members, cops, and elected officials think the police department is doing well and what they could do better. Then, he said, he would focus on reducing so-called Part 1 crimes—violent crimes, assaults, robberies, and rapes—prompting council member Tom Rasmussen to ask Braziel if he planned to focus on the kind of lower-level crimes that are common downtown—"civility" crimes like open-air drug dealing, vandalism, and graffiti.

"The people who are committing crimes don't just commit  Part 1 crimes. ... People think they're separate, but they're not," Braziel said. Additionally, "you've got to involve the business community, whether it's nightclubs, bars, restaurants or shopping areas—if they aren't actively engaged, you aren't getting anywhere."

Braziel also referred to a Sacramento rape-prevention program called KeepYourWits.org. Braziel credited the program, started last year as a collaboration between the Sacramento police department and a women's advocacy group called WEAVE, with reversing a troubling "uptick" in rapes in the city. (Putting on my "C is for Crank" hat for a second, I'm annoyed that the initiative seems to focus primarily on what women can do to prevent rape—don't drink too much, be ever vigilant, trust no one—but glad to see that they also at least acknowledge that men have the responsibility not to rape.)

Finally, Braziel spoke about the importance of bike and foot patrols in preventing and intervening in nuisance crimes. "A foot patrol gets you closer contact but slower response" than bike patrols, Braziel said. Mayor Mike McGinn frequently touts his decision to reassign some downtown bike cops to foot patrols as an improvement to public safety downtown.

Davis of East Palo Alto, who wrote a series of articles on racial profiling and serves on the Harvard University Executive Sessions on Policing, focused on his work addressing racial profiling by officers and improving race relations in the community. "It would be an understatement to say I have a passion for issues of social justice," Davis said.

He said his immediate, short-term goal as chief would be to "deal with some of the crisis-based tension that exists as a result of the video that recently came out" showing officers pummeling an unarmed man and threatening to "beat the fucking Mexican piss out of" him. Davis said he would then focus on reducing both crime and the perception of crime, "because if crime is down but you're still afraid to go out of your house," that's still a problem.

Asked what he would do to address street disorder downtown, Davis said he would offer offenders—like low-level drug dealers—the option of taking advantage of city services like job training or going to jail, and promote programs that help people on parole reenter the community. "That way, the community knows that they have been given options and have chosen to continue to threaten the community." However, Davis seemed cool to the idea of cracking down on things like aggressive panhandling—as council member Tim Burgess has proposed—because it could have the effect of "criminalizing the homeless" or disproportionately hurting people of color.

Finally, the council heard from interim Seattle police chief John Diaz. Diaz may be in the most difficult position of all three candidates—coming off what he called an "incredibly difficult year" that has included the killing of an officer and the recently disclosed "Mexican piss" videotape. Speaking slowly and haltingly, Diaz acknowledged that efforts to reduce drug dealing downtown have led to "mixed results," that racial profiling was still a problem in the police department, and that "we're going to make mistakes, and sometimes they're going to be incredibly horrible, fatal mistakes, and that's up to the police chief to deal with."

Council member Sally Bagshaw asked Diaz how he planned to deal with youth violence. Noting that the city has not seen any youth homicides in about two years, Diaz credited the police department's new approach of "focus[ing] on those worst offenders. There's a group at the very top that are going to be shooters; those are the ones that need to be off the street," Diaz said. As for lower-level offenders, "we're really trying to get them into services where we can actually change this idea of hopelessness" that many young, minority men experience.

To hazard a bit of prognostication: It seems to me that the mayor, who will ultimately pick the new chief, can go one of two routes. He could go the bold route and hire Brazier, a popular chief whose supporters in Sacramento gush about his record, which includes reducing serious crimes more than seven percent a year for the past three years. Or he could take the safe road and stick with Diaz, a 30-year  Seattle Police Department veteran who got his start as an Army detective at Fort Lewis. (Davis, whose department has just 40 officers, seems like he has the longest shot of the three candidates).

McGinn has said he plans to make his decision sometime this month. As noted in today's PubliCalendar, the three chief candidates will speak at a public forum at Seattle Center—also viewable at the Seattle Channel—at 6:00 tonight.