Stripped of his gun by court order, Seattle cop is finally let go after nearly five years

After his wife won a domestic violence protective order, the King County Court took away Officer Benjamin Stanford's weapon in 2021, but he remained on the desk duty for years.

Seattle Police Officer Benjamin Stanford, stripped of his gun by a court order in 2021, has finally been terminated, according to a notice of separation filed with the Washington Criminal Justice Training Commission. Stanford’s wife won a protective order in January of that year, alleging that he pushed her down while she was carrying their infant son.

A court-appointed psychologist evaluated Stanford and classified him as “Level 3,” signifying that he was at the highest risk to reoffend. The court ordered Stanford to surrender his weapons, and he did so on Jan. 25.

After the surrender, the Office of Police Accountability opened an investigation into his wife’s domestic violence claims. Investigators made a perfunctory attempt to contact his ex-wife. The OPA detective called once and wrote a letter that went unanswered.

Relying solely on Stanford’s version of events and police reports, the OPA issued “inconclusive” findings, even though Stanford admitted to threatening his wife at least once. He told the OPA that he said to his wife, “If I could hit you, I would, but I can't.”

The OPA found this statement “concerning,” but did not believe sustaining a professionalism allegation would be “appropriate,” citing Stanford’s explanation that she “provoked” him. The OPA wrote that the comments were made “off-duty and in reactive anger,” concluding that issuing sustained findings “would stretch its jurisdiction too far and wade too deeply into the personal lives of SPD personnel.”

Following the OPA investigation, Stanford returned to duty, but he was limited to performing administrative tasks in the Southwest Precinct.

In the years since, the courts have repeatedly renewed the protective order and denied Stanford’s motions to modify the requirement to surrender his weapons. Although his wife moved back to Georgia, the court recognized that there are still “opportunities for conflict,” as Stanford travels to Georgia often, and a judge ruled that she has a “credible fear.”

In each of its denial orders, the court explained that Stanford had refused to take responsibility for his actions and would not take the court-ordered class parenting class called “DV Dads.” Stanford took another class from a different provider, “Parenting After DV,” in 2023 and attempted to unilaterally substitute it for the class the court required.

When the protective order was issued, Stanford denied committing domestic violence against his wife and child, calling the order “invalid” and a “miscarriage of justice.” Denying his final motion to terminate in 2025, the court argued that he never retracted those statements or admitted harm.

In other words, if Stanford had taken a class and acknowledged that he had done wrong, he would probably still be employed.