By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
The Seattle Office of Police Accountability (OPA) recently released its 2022 Annual Report, highlighting the office’s data trends and police accountability work from the previous year. The report includes a summary of OPA’s complaint, investigation, and discipline data, as well as information about its policy work.
Seattle’s Police Accountability System comprises a three-pronged police oversight system, consisting of OPA, the Office of Inspector General for Public Safety (OIG), and the Community Police Commission (CPC). Together, all three entities are charged with working to build public trust in SPD and uphold a culture of accountability and adherence to policy and constitutional law.
According to the OPA, which is an independent civilian-led agency that investigates misconduct allegations against Seattle Police Department (SPD) employees, 2022 was a transition year for the organization. The office saw major changes in leadership and capacity, with three directors within a year, operational vacancies, increased workloads, and roughly two-thirds of staff having less than a year on the job.
Despite these challenges, OPA achieved notable wins in 2022, including:
• Raising awareness about OPA and police accountability throughout Seattle’s BIPOC and other marginalized communities.
• Hiring a complaint navigator to educate complainants about OPA’s processes, provide case updates, and guide complainants through the complaint process.
• Completing over 95% of investigations within the statutory and bargained 180-day timeline.
• Expanding OPA’s leadership to include a general counsel and assistant general counsel to increase OPA’s capacity and efficiency for Director Certification Memo processing.
• Issuing a Management Action Recommendation for Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) response to subjects with edged weapons, which SPD fully implemented.
According to the report, OPA issued findings for 857 allegations in 290 investigations in 2022. Thirteen percent of completed investigations contained one or more sustained findings, down from 26% in 2021. In addition, none of the OPA director’s recommended findings were overturned by the chief of police.
In 2022, OPA’s community engagement specialists hosted or attended 33 events aimed at increasing awareness about Seattle’s police accountability system within marginalized communities.
“I am fully committed to making OPA the national standard for police accountability,” says Gino Betts Jr., Director of the Office of Police Accountability, earning public confidence in our work.”
“With bold leadership and an engaged community, there is no place better than Seattle to demonstrate excellent policing and meaningful police accountability,” Betts proclaims. “Together, as One Seattle, I am convinced we will reimagine policing and improve police oversight.”
