The city of Seattle has settled a race and gender discrimination lawsuit filed by a veteran detective who has spent 45 years working to keep young people out of trouble and bridge the gap between police and communities of color.
The city agreed to pay Detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin $750,000 to settle her lawsuit. When she first filed her claim, in 2023, Bouldin had asked for $10 million. The settlement requires Bouldin to pay her own attorney’s fees and costs as well, and split the cost of mediation with the city.
Bouldin, who is Black, alleged she had faced daily discrimination during her many years with the Seattle Police Department, including instances where her loyalty has been questioned because of her close relationships in the city’s communities of color.
She claimed the city had rejected her efforts to resolve the issue before going to court, and she said the city had responded by opening an equal employment opportunity claim but then “continued to degrade her” when she expressed reluctance to participate in the claim process.
In a statement Monday, City Attorney Erika Evans said that Bouldin has been a “pioneer at the Seattle Police Department who has been a beloved and deeply trusted presence in our community for decades. The City is thankful this case was able to resolve.”
The lawsuit described Bouldin, 70, as a “trailblazer” within the Police Department, being only the second Black woman in the department when she was hired in 1980. She has been a prominent and bridge-building presence in Seattle’s diverse South Precinct, where for nearly two decades she taught children to play chess and build relationships.
She remains on the job and continues to teach weekly chess classes for youth in the Rainier Beach neighborhood, where a park bearing her name opened in 2022.
Throughout her career, Bouldin claimed she had to operate within a hostile work environment where she had weathered overtly racist remarks from white supervisors and been ordered to perform menial tasks she finds “degrading, humiliating and (with) racist overtones.”
“Detective Bouldin received regular and continuous internal complaints about her relationship with the Black community,” the lawsuit claimed. “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.”
However, the lawsuit alleges that “behind closed doors, other officers have belittled Detective Bouldin, challenging her loyalty to the department and marginalizing her for her active role in the community.” According to the lawsuit, the level of discrimination “had a significant impact on her emotional and physical wellbeing.”
Bouldin’s work with children in South Seattle — teaching them what to do and how to act when stopped by officers — has earned her a reputation as an advocate among communities of color, and as a turncoat among some of her fellow officers, the lawsuit claimed.
“Unfortunately, some officers have overtly held that against her and have treated her differently as a result,” the lawsuit alleges.
