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SPD loses, Citizens Win As Cop Self-Inspection System Is Reformed

by Mark Worth
The Free Press

Over the objections of outgoing Police Chief Patrick Fitzsimons and some opposition from Mayor Norm Rice, the Seattle City Council has approved significant reforms intended to bring more fairness and efficiency to the way the city's Police Department investigates officers accused of misconduct.

For years, private and government-affiliated civil-rights agencies have been calling for changes in SPD's in-house internal investigations section (IIS). Sealed off from public scrutiny and citizen oversight, IIS has been frequently criticized by police watchdogs - particularly minorities - who say the current setup has fueled mistrust and suspicion of the department. Preserving cops' careers, not citizens' rights, has been viewed by observers as being the department's prime directive.

Advocates finally got some results Sept. 7, when the City Council voted 9-0 in favor of a package of reforms based largely on recommendations made by a landmark 1987 outside study, the city's Human Rights Commission and an independent auditor hired by the city last year to study the department's self-inspection system.

In many respects, the improvements will help to update a department, though not known as a home for abusive cops, that has operated under rules that criminal justice experts equate with the pre-Rodney King era. Most of the reforms are to be carried out by the end of the year, a tight governmental timeline that may reflect the urgency of the situation.

The most significant changes called for by council will:

Allow the internal investigations section, which does the actual inquiries into allegations of officer misbehavior, to tell the chief whether it thinks an officer is guilty and what the punishment should be. Leaving IIS out of the disciplinary process has been seen as a major impediment to unbiased decisions.
Prevent an officer's supervisor, who may allow personalities and friendships creep into disciplinary decisions, to investigate less-serious allegations. (Mayor Rice objected to this change.)
Allow the independent auditor, former King County Superior Court judge Terrence Carroll, to give the chief his opinion on an officer's guilt or innocence and the level of punishment.
Cross-reference allegations of unnecessary force by officers with resisting arrest charges filed in Seattle Municipal Court. This is intended to stop the practice of officers who arrest people for hitting them when in actuality it is the cops who are doing the abusing.
Give the public more information about what the internal investigations section does and how citizen complaints are resolved.

Other improvements would have more experienced officers assigned to IIS and give them proper training, tell complainants about delays in their cases, give the chief the power to suspend an officer for more than the current limit of 30 days, make IIS' brochure (which is now cloaked in bureaucratese) more citizen-friendly, and study whether a college education should be required to be a Seattle cop. The council also reiterated an existing though frequently ignored policy that requires officers to wear their name tags.

As expected by some observers, not all of the changes to IIS that have been pitched over the years were included in the council's plan. Among them: creating an independent citizens review board to oversee police conduct and practices, and releasing to the public files generated when an officer is found guilty of wrongdoing and punished.

(The council voted on the reforms on The Free Press' deadline; interested activists and organizations could not be reached for immediate comment.)

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Contents on this page were published in the September , 1993 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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FOLLOW FILE

UPDATES OF PAST WFP STORIES

by Mark Worth The Free Press

UPDATES OF
PAST WFP STORIES

by Mark Worth
The Free Press