By RayJaun Stelly, The Seattle Medium
Last week, the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight (OLEO) in King County presented its annual report for 2022 to the King County Council’s Law, Justice, Health, and Human Services Committee. The report covered various issues related to law enforcement and oversight, including misconduct complaints, policies, practices, critical use of force incidents, and community engagement.
OLEO’s core focus involves investigations, policy analysis, and community engagement. The office monitors and provides recommendations on misconduct complaint investigations conducted by the sheriff’s office. This ranges from the initial classification to the final findings of employee conduct, determining whether policy standards were violated.
In addition, OLEO has the authority to conduct its own investigations into individual misconduct, use of force incidents, and systemic practices.
In the report, complaints are categorized into three types: Inquiry, Non-Investigative Matter (NIM), and Supervisor Action Log (SAL). In 2021, there were 170 internal complaints (73 inquiries, 14 NIM, 83 SAL) and 258 external complaints (180 inquiries, 45 NIM, 33 SAL). These figures decreased in 2022, with internal complaints dropping from 170 to 98, and external complaints decreasing from 258 to 238.
Out of the total 334 complaints in 2022, 29% of misconduct complaints received by the Internal Investigation Unit originated from sheriff’s office employees, while the remaining 71% were from the community. This marks a notable improvement compared to 2021: a 44% reduction in complaints from the sheriff’s office, a 22% decrease in overall complaints, and an 8% drop in community complaints.
“Overall, in 2022, 71% of sworn deputies were not the subject of any community complaints, while 34 individual sworn deputies were the subject of at least three community allegations each,” said OLEO Director Tamer Abouzeid. “Those deputies represent approximately 5% of the sworn force but accounted for approximately 40% of all allegations. We look forward to presenting these and other findings and updates to the Council.”
While many of these statistics seem promising, there are some notable points in the report. For instance, in 2021, bias-based policing complaints decreased from 21 to 9, but excessive force complaints increased from 58 to 73. Violations of directives decreased from 72 to 32, but instances of subpar performance nearly doubled from 27 to 51.
In 2022, 70% of all allegations resulted in a sheriff’s office employee being exonerated or the allegation being unfounded, with seven types of allegations (conduct unbecoming, violation of directives, subpar performance, discourtesy, false statements, abuse of authority, and excessive force) being made 20 times or more; the sustained rates varied from 0 to 37%.
When comparing 2021 to 2022 regarding the seven most common inquiries, conduct unbecoming increased by 10 percent (27% to 37%), violation of directives increased from 21% to 24%, and discourtesy increased from 5% to 7%. Subpar performance decreased by 15 percent (24% to 9%), false statements decreased from 22% to 7%, abuse of authority decreased from 13% to 5%, and excessive force decreased by 11%.
OLEO’s focused efforts helped secure funding to expand the office and advocate for fewer limitations in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. They also strengthened their policies, improved procedures, and solidified a positive work culture. However, there were significant findings as well.
OLEO reviewed every misconduct complaint against the King County Sheriff’s Office (Sheriff’s Office), whether it came in through the Internal Investigations Unit or OLEO. Complaints from within the Sheriff’s Office dropped by almost half (44%), while complaints from community members dropped by 8%. Only 5% of the Sheriff’s Office’s sworn force accounted for approximately 40% of Inquiry allegations against sworn members; over 70% of sworn members received no allegations of misconduct in 2022.
Among the most common allegations in misconduct complaint investigations closed in 2022, a sustained finding resulted in corrective action (discipline, verbal reprimand, corrective counseling, or training) 100% of the time, except where a Sheriff’s Office employee resigned, retired, or died before discipline could be or was imposed. This occurred for eight allegations out of the total of 38 sustained.
“This year, we are also excited to present a new feature accessible to the public that maps complaint allegations and allows users to filter results by allegation, disposition, and jurisdiction, among other things. We believe this makes our data more accessible, and we will update it regularly,” said Abouzeid. “Presentations like these are not only about answers; they also intend to raise questions about what we can do better as a county, whether in the field of law enforcement or beyond it.”
