Officials from the US Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Washington met with various community groups on January 25, 2012 to consider ways of correcting various ‘structural deficiencies’ identified by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in its report on the Seattle Police Department (SPD). CAIR-WA was represented at the meeting by Executive Director Arsalan Bukhari. (Names have not been used in this article to ensure that views expressed by participants are not individually identifiable.)
While the US Attorney’s office was in touch with community groups throughout its investigation of the SPD, especially to find victims of excessive force, the office is now entering a new phase of its relationship with community groups by inviting input from them on how to structurally reform the SPD.
These community inputs would have a part to play in shaping the consent decree that directs the reform of the SPD. The consent decree, an order from a federal district court that would, in part, stipulate how concerned parties would act in the future, is currently in the process of being drafted. Addressing specific concerns about the decree, officials said that it was a ‘living document’ that could be revised during its lifetime and that there would be a court-appointed monitor who would see to it that everyone is fulfilling the provisions.
One suggestion that various participants had for incorporation into the consent decree was for SPD officers to mandatorily attend racial and cultural sensitivity training programs organized by the city administration. Other participants though were doubtful about the effectiveness of such training.
Another proposal was the formation of an independent citizen’s review board to look at complaints of abuse against the SPD. When it was pointed out that the Office of Professional accountability (OPA) already exists to serve this function, another participant was distrustful of the OPA saying that it reports to the SPD chief and so doesn’t expect it to function independently. Someone else said that while the director of the OPA may be civilian, the rest of the office consisted of law enforcement officers, and so could not be expected to operate in an unbiased way. The discussion continued with concerns being voiced on how having a separate citizens review board with full investigative and subpoena power would need even more resources from a financially struggling city administration. To this, one participant emotionally responded that given there were human lives at stake, it would be petty to look at costs.
US Attorney for the Western District of Washington, Jenny Durkan, who came to meet attendees briefly towards the end, felt that there was great promise shown in the consent decree being drafted.
