OPA Says Seattle Police Violated Policies and Should Adopt New Ones (From Old Lessons)

The Seattle Office of Police Accountability released its latest batch of completed investigations on Friday, finding that SPD officers violated department policy in multiple instances during George Floyd/BLM protests last May and June. Violations include improper deployment of blast balls, using blast balls directly on individuals who posed no threat to public safety, and using blast balls without sufficient justification. Basically, officers cannot lob less lethal weapons (i.e. classified as lethal force) at innocent people. Makes sense right?

The OPA also recommends policy changes to avoid use of less lethal force and arrests when doing unnecessarily escalates conflict with protesters. One formal recommendation specifies that officers cannot deploy blast balls into a crowd simply for failure to disperse, but rather, for a direct threat to officers.

Another formal recommendation directs SPD to balance the need to make arrests for minor misdemeanor offenses with the likely escalation of conflict with a large group of protesters.

The OPA’s sustained violations, as well as the recommendations for policy changes, are all lessons SPD has learned before, at least as far back as the WTO riots more than 20 years ago. In other words, this is not cutting edge stuff OPA is recommending. Rather, SPD needs to go back and re-learn its old lessons.