A task force of community leaders today demanded inclusion into negotiations among the mayor’s office, the US Department of Justice, and the Seattle Police Department, which are currently hammering out a court settlement behind closed doors to resolve a pattern of excessive force by Seattle police.
This task force is called the “Minority Executive Directors Coalition of King County Multi-Racial Task Force on Police Accountability.” I’ll just use MEDCKCMRTFPA for short.
The MEDCKCMRTFPA, made up of 34 community groups, highlighted four of its 95 recommendations for the city: report all instances in which an officer uses force, de-prioritize low-level arrests, expand civilian oversight of the police department, and include community members in the current negotiations.
Citing disproportionate arrests of people of color, El Centro de la Raza director Estela Ortega—who is also co-chair of the MEDCKCMRTFPA—said that if the city wants to build trust, “the only way forward is for the community to be at negotiations.” While she acknowledged that there haven’t been any cases of community groups at negotiations to form consent decrees in similar cases, they are (for some reason) hopeful of inclusion.
Another key complaint of the coalition is that the “SPD 20/20 Plan: A Vision for the Future“—which is Mayor Mike McGinn’s outline for police reform in the next 18 months—lacks enforceability mechanisms. The MEDCKCMRTFPA says the city should integrate more reforms into a legally-binding contract, such as the court settlement with the DOJ.
Chris Stearns, chair of the Seattle Human Rights Commission and another co-chair of the MEDCKCMRTFPA, oddly said the group “has faith that there will be changes,” yet he skated around a question of if Mayor McGinn was capable of implementing them, saying that the changes would be dependent on whatever consent decree the Department of Justice hands down.