Tag Archives: consent decree

Saying reforms have worked, officials call for end of federal oversight of the Seattle Police Department

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(Image: City of Seattle)

The U.S. Justice Department and city officials say Seattle’s police reforms have worked and it is time to lift the consent decree put in place in 2011 after a civil rights investigation found evidence of excessive force and biased policing.

Officials asked a federal judge Tuesday to end most of the federal oversight of the Seattle Police Department saying the department has made “far-reaching reforms” over the past 12 years and is now a “transformed organization.”

The filing says SPD has made reforms in key areas including use of force policy and increased community participation and civilian oversight from the city’s community policing commission.

“We know there remains work to be done to reduce disparities in policing, and we are committed to doing so as a learning, growing organization, with a department culture where accountability, continuous improvement, and innovation are always at the center,” Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement on the filing.

But the fallout of the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations, CHOP protests, and subsequent anti-police marches and property damage still shadows the department. The filing recommends continued federal oversight of SPD’s crowd control measures including “improving the use, reporting, and review of force in crowd settings” and improved accountability for its chain of command. Continue reading →

Seattle vigil follows police shootings as city attempts at SPD reform continue — UPDATE

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UPDATE 9:53 PM: Around 2,000 people rallied and marched through downtown Seattle Thursday night with a handful of skirmishes with police reported.

Meanwhile, Chief O’Toole has “directed officers to work in pairs as much as possible,” according to the Seattle Times, after Dallas officers were killed and injured in an ambush style attack during an anti-police violence march in that city.

UPDATE 7/8/2016 1:55 PM: Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole has issued a statement on the Dallas shootings and confirmed that SPD officers will work in pairs. The chief also touched on the department’s use of force reform efforts in her statement. “The Seattle Police Department will continue to work with all of our city’s communities to ensure that police officers do not use unnecessary force, that children are safe on their streets and in their schools, and the brave men and women of the SPD all go home to their loved ones at the end of the day,” O’Toole said.

Original report: Black Lives Matter activists have called for a vigil and rally in Seattle’s Westlake Park Thursday night to mark the latest in a continuing string of police killings of black men across the nation:

#BlackLivesMatter Stand with Andre Taylor and Not This Time against the rash of police shootings against Americans who are detained or in custody; the most recent death: Alton Sterling. Demonstrate to Seattle and WA State Government that the citizens of this city and State, will no longer tolerate country-wide the continued homicides by police officers without independent investigation and with indeterminate accountability. The Community speaks!

Seattle Police officials and Seattle City Hall have so far been silent on the two latest deadly shootings that have sparked a wave of protest after being caught on video and widely shared around the world. UPDATE: The mayor’s office has scheduled a 3:30 PM media conference to “deliver remarks on the recent officer involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota.”

UPDATE 3:50 PM: Flanked by members of his cabinet, Mayor Ed Murray spoke on the pain and sadness of the deadly police shootings and defended his office’s dedication to reforming the Seattle Police Department and deploying body cameras across the entire force.

“I know that the black community is walking with a heavy heart, and with a sense of outrage, a sense of injustice, and fear. Had (Philando) Castillo and Sterling been white, I believe that they would be alive today,” Murray said. Coming days are “not going to be easy as a result of these shootings,” Murray said before turning his attention to the problems of race and policing in his own city.

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