Council sends revised crowd-control weapons ordinance to DOJ and police monitor for review

Today the City Council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee polished off a draft of a revised ordinance placing restrictions on SPD’s use of so-called “less lethal” weapons for crowd control, and sent it off to the Department of Justice and the court-appointed police monitor for comments. In so doing, the Council is signaling that it still feels the need to legislate in this domain while it also recognizes that the terms of the 2012 Consent Decree constrain its ability to do so.

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Robart grants DOJ request to enjoin Council’s crowd-control ordinance (UPDATED)

Earlier this evening, the Department of Justice filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent the Seattle Police Department from implementing the City Council’s ban on crowd-control weapons.  This follows Judge James Robart’s refusal earlier this week to prevent the ordinance from taking effect this weekend. UPDATE: in a hearing this evening, Judge Robart indicated that he will be granting the DOJ’s request, enjoining implementation of the Council’s ordinance, and rolling the status quo back to the order that Judge Richard Jones made on June 12. UPDATE 2: here is the temporary restraining order. UPDATE 3: added Mayor …

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Judge Robart leaves Council’s ban on crowd-control weapons in place, for now

In a nine-page ruling this afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge James Robart declined to stop the City Council’s ban on crowd-control weapons from going into effect later this week — at least for the moment. Robart did acknowledge that the ordinance will need to be reconciled with SPD’s court-approved policies on crowd control and use of force, but at the urging of the Office of Police Accountability and Office of the Inspector General he will wait until they provide their recommendations next month before wading into that issue.

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DOJ, SPD, Court-appointed monitor assess Year 1 of consent decree sustainment period

In January 2018, Judge James Robart declared the City of Seattle to be in “full and effective compliance” with the Consent Decree the city and the DOJ signed with regard to biased policing. That declaration kicked off a two-year “sustainment period” in which the city is required to remain in compliance, and show it is doing so through a scheduled series of audits and other reports. This afternoon, the city, the DOJ, and the court-appointed police monitor each submitted to the court a report on how the first year went.

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DOJ says SPOG contract is fine, Adley Shepherd reinstatement not a systemic issue for SPD

This afternoon, the Department of Justice submitted its brief to U.S. District Court Judge James Robart in response to his order to show cause why the terms of the city’s contract with SPOG and the recent reinstatement of Officer Adley Shepherd don’t mean that the city has fallen out of compliance with the Consent Decree. In its brief, the DOJ argued that the overturning by an arbitrator of Shepherd’s termination isn’t a sign of a systemic pattern or practice of excessive use of force. It also found that the SPOG collective bargaining agreement neither conflicts with the Consent Decree nor …

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DOJ asks Robart to amend briefing schedule

In the aftermath of Judge James Robart’s bombshell order earlier this week asking the City of Seattle and the DOJ to explain why he shouldn’t find that the city has fallen out of compliance with the Consent Decree, today both parties jointly asked Robart to amend his order and allow more time for briefings to be filed. the DOJ asked Robart, with the city’s assent, to allow more time for it to file its briefing.

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