A citizen's review of police shootings (.pdf) in 2008 and 2009 criticizes current trends for firearm discharge in the Seattle Police Department, urging stricter enforcement of departmental policy and more public oversight.

The report of the Firearms Review Board, the internal SPD group that investigates shootings by police, was released in July and was supposed to be reviewed by the City Council's Public Safety and Education Committee last Wednesday, but was canceled by Council Member Tim Burgess because the primary citizen observer Rebecca J. Roe wasn't present to report the findings at the meeting.

The report scrutinizes incidents where Seattle police officers shot civilians. It also asseses the mechanism used by SPD to investigate these shootings, providing recommendations that could alter how the department carries out these assessments in the future.

In her report, Roe specifically questions officers’ shooting at moving vehicles, which is against departmental policy expect in limited situations, and cites a violation.

Roe said in her report that the FRB seemed less likely to scrutinize officers’ reasons for shooting or ask them if they had considered other alternatives. She said that panel members were not checking to see if officer shootings were in compliance with policy.

Roe, a former senior deputy prosecutor in the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, also writes that although the “camaraderie” between officers was understandable, it could destroy effective oversight by the FRB. Roe called for additional citizen observers to be present during FRB meetings to ensure that the FRB simply doesn't "rubber stamp officers' actions."

The review is particularly relevant in light of the fatal police shooting of Native American wood carver John T. Williams, which led to community members demanding a review of SPD’s firearms discharge policy. Protestors at the meeting told council members that they were “shocked, appalled, and dismayed” by the way an officer had gunned down a man who, they said, could have hardly posed a threat. Williams’s niece asked the committee why he had been killed “over a piece of wood and a 3-inch knife.” “You killed someone sitting in a corner carving a piece of culture,” she said. “Will you do the same to me?”

In an August 30 letter, Police Chief John Diaz agreed with Roe’s procedural recommendations, but added that they are subject to approval by the Seattle Police Officers Guild.