The Office of the Inspector General for Pubic Safety commissioned a study by two UK researchers on the “crowd psychology” aspects of the interactions between SPD officers and protesters in the summer of 2020. Their final report was published today. Their recommendations: The current study concludes that, while the SPD …
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Court-appointed monitor’s comprehensive assessment of the Seattle Police Department
This afternoon Dr. Antonio Oftelie, the court-appointed police monitor, submitted his Comprehensive Assessment of the Seattle Police Department, as required under the 2012 Consent Decree. From the executive summary, here is the monitor’s summary assessment: In sum, based upon its reviews conducted over the course of 2021 and 2022 to …
Continue readingLeaked Seattle City Attorney’s Office memos to Human Rights Commission
As first reported by the South Seattle Emerald, last month the Seattle City Attorney’s Office sent a memo to the Seattle Human Rights Commission advising that it does not have legal standing or authority to petition the U.S. District Court to seek amicus curiae standing with regard to the 2012 …
Continue reading2021 Seattle Public Safety Survey
Every year Seattle University conducts a survey on behalf of the City of Seattle (and more specifically SPD) looking at how Seattle residents perceive the police department and other aspects of pubic safety. The report on the 2021 survey was recently released. I wrote about last year’s report at length …
Continue readingOrder denying class certification for property and business owners impacted by CHOP
This afternoon U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly issued an order denying class certification for a lawsuit related to the potentially thousands of property and business owners who were impacted by the CHOP in June 2020. A group of business and property owners had filed a lawsuit against the City …
Continue readingCrosscut-Elway poll on public safety
This week Crosscut and Elway released a new poll on Seattle voters’ viewpoints on public safety. The poll is of 400 Seattle voters, with a margin of error of 5%. Survey respondents are divided nearly equally across the seven City Council districts. However, according to the data collected it over-sampled …
Continue readingReimagining Public Safety for Unincorporated King County
King County has released a report by its “Re-imagining Public Safety” interdepartmental task force with recommendations on structural racism and other issues can be addressed in unincorporated King County. The report notes that many residents support establishing alternatives to armed police response to individuals in the midst of a behavioral …
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