This morning, the Office of Police Accountability released its first set of “closed case” summaries for five cases lodged against SPD officers related to misconduct during this past summer’s protests — including two incidents from May 30 that went viral on social media. Also: here is my in-depth Q&A with OPA Director Andrew Myerberg, where we touch on the issues raised by these cases, the status of OPA investigations into police misconduct at the protests, and many other topics related to police accountabilty.
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Q&A with OPA Director Andrew Myerberg
In anticipation of today’s release by the OPA of its first batch of findings from complaints arising from this summer’s protests, OPA Director Andrew Myerberg graciously sat down with me yesterday for an interview. Here is the full interview, lightly edited for clarity. Kevin Schofield: How do you feel that the investigations are going so far? Andrew Myerberg: I think they’re going well. As you can imagine the cases, they kind of range in complexity. Using the pepper spray case for an example, it was an easier case in some respects to start to isolate the video, because there …
Continue readingCouncil discusses crowd-control weapons with CPC, OPA, OIG
Friday morning the City Council’s public safety committee met with leaders of the city’s three police-accountability organizations to discuss their recommendations on SPD’s use of crowd-control weapons, in a follow-up to their written reports from three weeks ago.
Continue readingJudge narrows Che Taylor wrongful death suit, sends it on to trial
This afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly issued an order in the wrongful death lawsuit filed over the killing of Che Taylor by Seattle Police Department officers. His order dismisses some of the claims — as well as some of the plaintiffs and defendants — and clears the path for what remains to proceeds to a jury trial.
Continue readingMayor vetoes Council’s 2020 budget changes, but cuts a deal on COVID relief
Today Mayor Durkan vetoed the heart of the City Council’s changes to the 2020 budget rebalancing package, while also announcing that she had reached a compromise deal with several Council members on a revised COVID-19 relief package that would deliver $45 million this year and next without fully draining the city’s reserve funds.
Continue readingRecommendations on ‘less lethal” weapons highlight difficult policy tradeoffs for SPD in use of force and crowd control
On Friday, the three accountability bodies that watchdog the Seattle Police Department — the Office of Police Accountability (OPA), the Office of the Inspector General for Public Safety (OIG), and the Community Police Commission (CPC) — released their written recommendations on SPD’s use of so-called “less lethal” weapons such as tear gas and blast balls. Taken together, the reports make it clear why it’s so difficult to make policy around the use of these weapons for crowd control and other purposes.
Continue readingBreaking: OPA, OIG and CPC issue recommendations on SPD crowd-control weapons
As expected, this afternoon the Office of Police Accountability, the Office of the Inspector General for Public Safety, and the Community Police Commission issued their reports and recommendations on SPD’s use of “less lethal” weapons for crowd control such as tear gas, blast balls and pepper spray. Here are links to the reports: OPA report OIG report CPC report The reports are lengthy, as is approporiate for the topic, and their recommendations are complex and nuanced. I will have a full report after I’ve read them all through and analyzed their recommendations. In the meantime, I caution against believing …
Continue readingChief Best resigns
This evening, following the City Council’s vote to start making cuts to SPD as well as to the salaries of the department’s command staff, Chief Carmen Best announced her resignation, effective September 2.
Continue readingCouncil gives final approval to 2020 rebalanced budget
It happened in a blink of an eye: the bill was brought to the floor and immediately passed, and the budget was done. Just kidding. It was six hours of tedium. But there’s a rebalanced budget now — sort of. And more problems down the road.
Continue readingJudge denies “protest tax” plaintiffs a temporary restraining order
This afternoon, Judge Richard Jones weighed in for the first time on the “protest tax” lawsuit filed against the City of Seattle, denying the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order.
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