SEATTLE — The Seattle Police Department this week released a short list of changes to its crowd management policies, nearly a year after widespread demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism began, sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Since May 2020, Seattle's police response at protests has been subject to dozens of internal investigations, outcry from community activists and scrutiny from the City Council, including the department's frequent use of "crowd control weapons," like tear gas and blast balls, on large crowds last summer.
On Monday, the police department published a news release identifying five changes to its protest tactics, including:
- Recognizing the visible presence and appearance of officers at a demonstration can impact interactions with a crowd, and reducing the department's presence, when safe and feasible
- Taking additional measures to provide media, legal observers, and protest medics safe avenues to carry out their important roles
- Working to de-escalate whenever it is safe and feasible
- Improving means of conveying public safety messages to large crowds
- New strategies to address individuals taking unlawful actions in otherwise lawful crowds.
"Over the past 10 months, our department has been listening to the concerns of the community and has undertaken significant changes to our practices regarding demonstrations," SPD wrote. "These changes are based on feedback from our accountability partners in the Office of Inspector General, Office of Police Accountability, and Community Police Commission – but also community voices we have heard loud and clear."
Despite the nod to accountability partners from SPD, the Community Police Commission said on Tuesday that it was unaware of the department's news release before publication, and the policy changes included fell short of community-based recommendations.
"The CPC remains concerned that the Seattle Police Department's use of force and crowd control policies do not do enough to keep protesters and other members of the community safe. Since 2017, we have recommended dozens of changes to these policies, including banning tear gas and blast balls, creating protections for protest medics, and instituting higher standards for when police can declare protests to be unlawful. Just this January, we gathered feedback from the community and held a town hall that helped the CPC make 15 additional, community-based recommendations in this area. Many of these recommendations remain unimplemented. We were not aware of SPD's press release. However, if they are interested in better protecting our community by instituting changes to their crowd management policies – we remain ready to work with them to immediately implement the CPC's recommendations."
The 15 community recommendations assembled by the CPC included specific requests for modifications to use of force and crowd management policies, which were not addressed in the department's release.
The police department on Monday said there was more work to do and pledged to "continue to listen and work with our community to ensure constitutional, fair and effective policing in Seattle."
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