Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, joined by Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, announced new measures that address public safety and crowd management at demonstrations, following meetings with leaders from the Black community and leaders of demonstrations.
For the past week, Durkan and Best have cleared their schedules to meet with leaders of the Black community, other communities of color, demonstrators, and the City’s accountability partners at the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Office of Police Accountability (OPA), and the Community Police Commission (CPC), to help identify community needs and policy changes that could be quickly enacted in addition to steps that Seattle Police Department (SPD) can do to de-escalate demonstrations.
Durkan has committed to build on these efforts including reviewing the SPD budget with special focus on listening community voices throughout the process. On Saturday, Durkan and City officials met with leadership of Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County and the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle to discuss the long-standing oppression of Black Americans, and their community-focused ideas to force systemic change – Durkan concurred with many of their requests and is working to quickly implement changes, including establishing and ongoing resourcing of a Seattle Black Commission and investing $100 million in community-driven programs for Black youths and adults.
In the coming weeks we’ll have more to share about how we are going to do budgeting in this year’s SPD budget,” said Durkan. “But we will start by holding off planned expenditures in technology, weapons, vehicles, and facilities.”
“During the pandemic, I know we have to rethink all of our priorities in the budget, so I will be working with my cabinet, including Chief Best, to determine what we will do for the 2021 budget, which I propose in just three months,” Durkan continued. “As part of recent conversations, I’ve committed to identifying at least $100 million to invest communities we have neglected for far too long, including new community-based and community-driven programs that invest in Black youth and adults, employment programs, black owned businesses and providing alternatives to arrest and incarceration.”
In recent days, the City has implemented a series of steps as it relates to police reform:
- An Emergency Order tomorrow that requires that officers have their body cams turned on to record during the demonstrations. To create a policy that truly lasts and won’t be dismantled by a lawsuit, Mayor Durkan is asking CPC, City Council, OPA and experts like the ACLU and Public Defenders Association to submit a revised policy recommendation on use of body cameras during lawful events like a peaceful protest.
- Chief Best issued a directive to all her officers calling on them to ensure their badge number was visible to the public.
- City Attorney Pete Holmes has withdrawn the City’s filing to end the sustainment period under the Consent Decree, so that we can go back to the Court after evaluating the SPD’s response to the demonstrations.
- Durkan has asked our civilian independent police accountability partners – OPA, OIG, and CPC – as well as the DOJ and federal monitor to examine all of the current Seattle Police policies for crowd management. Over the next 30 days, they are reviewing whether to permanently ban tear gas and make any other recommendations to de-escalate or use less lethal crowd management tools.
- The Seattle Police Department will be updating their policies this week to succinctly, and clearly, reflect best practices for the use of force concerns we have heard from the community – related to the 2016 Campaign Zero national policy survey. This includes the City’s current ban on chokeholds, firing a weapon at a moving vehicle, and exhausting all other options before using force. This will further restrict the use of excessive and deadly force.
- Durkan supports an independent prosecutor at the state level for investigation and prosecutions of any police officers or other state actor who commits deadly force. This is in addition to the investigations conducted currently through I-940 and our accountability system.
- Protesting and demonstrating are not crimes, and Durkan has been clear from the outset that no one should be arrested or have charges filed against them for peacefully protesting or for violating the temporary curfew when we had it imposed. City and county prosecutors can ensure this is the case.
In the wake of demonstrations and out of concern that the large gatherings may represent a mass COVID-19 exposure event, Durkan announced that the free Citywide testing initiative will expand testing criteria to include those who have participated in demonstrations that began on May 30. Those concerned, can be tested without having symptoms at the two drive-up sites in north and south Seattle. Individuals are strongly urged to pre-register, to help keep testing to 10 minutes or less.
