An executive order signed today establishes a new inquest process that will focus on whether police officers followed their training and protocol. It will not focus on whether the officer thought a situation necessitated use of deadly force, as it has been in the past.
King County has finally announced its revision of inquests into the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers. The hearings—there are currently nine pending inquests, among these is Tommy Le's case—have been put on hold since December 2017 when King County Executive Dow Constantine announced an overhaul of the process.
For the last almost-year, Constantine reviewed the current inquest process. He also enlisted a civilian committee to offer recommendations. Among that committee was Che Taylor's sister, DeVitta Briscoe. Taylor was fatally shot by police officers in 2016.
The decades-old inquest process was largely seen as a fact-finding process for these cases. However, there were constant complaints because the inquests would typically err on the side of the police officer. That will change with this new process, partly because the new inquests will allow the families of victims to call their own witnesses to testify, but mostly because the inquests will focus on how the incident could have been avoided.
"If police did not follow their training or departmental policies we need to know why so we can make changes in the future," Constantine said at a press conference today. "If police did follow training and protocol we need to determine if there are improvements to be made."
The point, Constantine elaborated, is not to put an individual officer on trial. It is to make sure the right questions are being asked and appropriate action is being taken.
In the past, each inquest used to lead to the conclusion that the officer feared for their life and then that would be translated as the shooting being justified. Inquests were never meant to do that, Constantine said.
"We want to get to facts that are actionable to reduce the number of tragedies," Constantine said. "It is about neither convicting nor exonerating the officer."
Besides shifting the focus from whether or not the officer feared for his or her life, the new inquests will allow the families of victims to call their own witnesses to testify. There are more changes outlined here.
The civilian committee looked to Ontario and Toronto for ways to improve King County's system. Within the U.S., there wasn't really a system that reflected King County because King County is the only place that has public inquest hearings.
