This morning the City of Seattle and the U.S. Department of Justice submitted to the court a proposed new Agreement on Sustained Compliance to replace the 2012 Consent Decree on biased policing by SPD.
The agreement would essentially acknowledge that SPD is in compliance with most of the original consent decree, with the exception of two areas: use of force (particularly related to crowd control), and accountability. It would remove almost all ongoing activities related to the areas in compliance, and narrow the scope to just the two remaining areas.
It commits SPD to specific actions to address each of those areas this year, and to the Office of the Inspector General and the court-appointed police monitor to assess those actions later this year.
The new agreement anticipates complete compliance, and an end to the new agreement, in about a year. Unlike the original Consent Decree, the new agreement does not include a two-year sustainment period before the agreement can be terminated.
Some supporting documents also filed this morning:
- a memo from the city;
- a memo from the Department of Justice;
- the joint motion to approve the new agreement;
- the declaration of OPA Director Gino Betts;
- the declaration of SPD Chief Adrian Diaz.
