Court-appointed police monitor files status report

This morning Dr. Antonio Oftelie, the court-appointed police monitor for the 2012 Consent Decree, filed a status report informing Judge James Robart of what has been happening in 2021 and previewing actions expected next year. Oftelie provided an update on contract negotiations with the two unions representing SPD officers and supervisors, and provided some details on how he is assembling his much-anticipated assessment of SPD’s compliance with the consent decree.

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SPD Chief Diaz demotes assistant chief for role in protests, “pink umbrella” incident (updated)

Two weeks ago, SPD Interim Chief Adrian Diaz announced that he was overruling a disciplinary recommendation by the Office of Police Accountability for a supervisor who had a central role in the “pink umbrella” incident during last summer’s protests. Diaz came under fire for asserting that he would not punish the supervisor for decisions that were made above him, while not providing any more details as to what those higher-up decisions were nor holding anyone else accountable. At the time, a spokesperson for SPD said that further actions would be forthcoming. Today, Diaz announced that he has demoted one of …

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Mayor, SPD Chief, SFD Chief meet with protesters, hold press conference on protests

This afternoon Mayor Durkan, SPD Chief Best, and SFD Chief Skoggins were scheduled to hold a press conference at 4:15 to discuss the ongoing demonstrations in response to last week’s police killing of George Floyd. However, that play went awry when thousands of protesters showed up at the location at 4pm and demanded to speak with the Mayor. After consulting in private with the organizers of the march, Durkan, Best and Skoggins went outside and addressed the crowd. Q13 has video of the event.  Durkan promised the demonstrators that she would meet with their representatives, as well as with the …

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City submits assessment of police accountability system

Friday afternoon, the City of Seattle submitted to the court its consultant assessment of the police department’s accountability system. The consultant found “not the need for wholesale change but for additional fine-tuning and refinement.” The issues it raises echo those voiced by the city’s Community Police Commission, with disagreement on only a few of the major points.

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