Seattle Justice The Rise and Fall of the Police Payoff System in Seattle

This is the story of one of the youngest county prosecutors in the country whose mission was to finally end the system of vice and corruption that had infiltrated Seattle's police department, municipal departments, and even the mayor's office. In the late 1960s, Christopher T. Bayley was a young lawyer with a fire in his belly to break the back of Seattle’s police payoff system, which was built on licensing of acknowledged illegal activity known as the "tolerance policy." Against the odds, he defeated an entrenched incumbent to become King County Prosecutor (which includes Seattle). Six months into his first term, he indicted a number of prominent city and police officials. Bayley shows how vice and payoffs became rules of the game in Seattle, and what it took to finally clean up the city.

Christopher T. Bayley served as King County prosecuting attorney from 1971 to 1979. He graduated from Harvard College and received a JD from Harvard Law School. He is currently chairman of Stewardship Partners, a land conservation and restoration organization in Washington State.