Seattle Police Department (SPD) Chief John Diaz and Mayor Michael McGinn met with minority groups at the El Centro De La Raza community center on January 9, 2012 to discuss ways of involving them in the implementation of the recommendations of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in their report investigating specific charges against the SPD. CAIR-WA was represented at the meeting by Executive Director Arsalan Bukhari, accompanied by Journalism Volunteer Shijith Kunhitty.

A report was issued by the DOJ after an eight-month investigation prompted by public protests over various actions of the SPD over the past few years. Read the full report here.

In its investigation, the DOJ concluded that there was a pattern of SPD officers using excessive force but did not find sufficient evidence for discriminatory policing, though it did express its concerns on that count. The report also laid out various recommendations the SPD could implement to correct its practices. (These can viewed on pg. 37 – 40 of the report)

Diaz expressed his determination to fulfill these recommendations. In fulfilling the recommendations, Diaz wished to get wider community involvement and proposed formalizing that process through the formation of an advisory committee comprised of members from different communities.

One participant though felt that having a single committee going through all of the recommendations – estimated to be 59 in total – would be asking too much and proposed that the recommendations be grouped and be tackled by different subcommittees.

Taking advantage of the presence of various community representatives, Diaz made a plea to them to get more community members to join the SPD though a participant responded to this by stating that in order to truly improve the Department, officers known to have committed egregious acts that are in violation of Department policies must also be removed.