Black Lawyers to Challenge Police Brutality in 25 Cities

The reason Seattle is not on the list is because the DOJ started a civil rights investigation of them for “excessive use of force” in 2011. They released a report and the Dim Mayor at the time negotiated an agreement with them.
The US Attorney for the Western District of WA State, Jennifer Durkan, was involved in this case, was appointed by Obama in 2009 and announced last week that she would be stepping down.

From the article below:
“Talks between Seattle officials and the Justice Department had been hung up after city officials initially balked at some federal proposals for reform.

The settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, requires the Seattle Police Department to revise use of force policies and enhance training, reporting, investigation and supervision for situations involving use force. Police also would have to change policies and training concerning “bias-free” policing and stops, and create a Community Police Commission, which would be a civilian oversight body.

Court oversight would continue for five years, but the city could ask to end the scrutiny earlier if it has complied with the agreements for two years.”

snip

“Since the beginning of 2010, the Justice Department’s civil rights division has previously reached settlements to reform police practices in New Orleans and in Warren, Ohio.

It has sued the Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff’s office and the East Haven, Conn., police department for a pattern and practice of discrimination against Latinos and Hispanics. It is also investigating the Newark, N.J., police department for a pattern and practice of excessive force and unconstitutional stops, searches, arrests and seizures, and discriminatory policing; the Miami, Fla., police department and the Portland, Ore., Police Bureau over patterns of excessive deadly force; and Missoula, Mont., police over handling of sexual assault cases.”

As you know, Seattle is a liberal city, I was actually surprised by a few of the comments to this article - here are 2:

“Citizen#3457899654 Jul 28, 2012
And the activists and media choose to completely ignore the citizens of all races in Seattle who have been engaged in constructive dialog and seeking ways to live side by side better in the communities of Seattle with SPD. It is a work in progress that is roundly ignored but that is where things are happening. But I guess when your career depends on the perception of perpetual racism in all things (be you activist, college professor, or media worker) you can’t afford to tell the whole story. The cops still respond to 400,000 calls a year and people are still meeting with them in constructive dialog outside the media or shouting activist spotlights. But you, fellow KOMO readers, won’t be told a thing about any of this.”

“jpimus Jul 28, 2012
How about cops construct journalism reforms for the biased and closet racist media?”
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/SPD-Dept-of-Justice-reach-agreement-on-police-reform-164074046.html

When I did a search on bing.com for the DOJ and Seattle PD, this also came up:DOJ Reaches Agreement For Oversight Of Albuquerque PD (July 2014)
http://m.kuow.org/?utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Ddoj%2Boversight%2Bof%2Bseattle%2Bpolice%2Bdepartment%26src%3DIE-TopResult%26FORM%3DIE11TR%26conversationid%3D#mobile/38888

BTW - John Diaz, who was Chief of Police in Seattle through the investigation, retired in 2013. I can’t find it right now, but I remember hearing on the radio a month or 2 ago that arrests were down because SPD officers wanted to be extra careful because of the settlement agreement.

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