Mayor Nickels strategy to enhance police accountability
and improve police-community relations
Action
Implement a comprehensive set of initiatives to ensure police accountability, improve police-community relations and address concerns about racial profiling and racially-biased policing.
Goals
1. Ensure accountability.
2. Increase trust and understanding between police and the community.
Key Features
- Policy - SPD has revised its policy directive on racially biased policing based upon a national model developed by the Police Executive Research Forum.
- Accountability - All traffic stops will be documented by police officers. All reports will continue to be reviewed by sergeants and will be subject to regular internal SPD audits. Consent forms will be revised to include additional information about discretionary searches. Digital video cameras will be installed in all patrols vehicles.
- Community Outreach - A comprehensive survey will be conducted of city residents designed to assess, track and monitor community attitudes towards the police department. Quarterly community forums will be held in each precinct to discuss issues of local concern. In addition, there will be focused discussions with community groups and SPD advisory councils to specifically discuss race-related issues. The ride-along program will be expanded for both citizens and professionals to promote citizen understanding of police activities.
- Training - SPD will continue and update training about racially biased policing and best practices for police-community engagement. The department will incorporate data and information obtained from surveys, observations and reports into the training curriculum, supervisory protocols and community forums.
- Data collection - The city will expand and enhance efforts to collect both quantitative and qualitative information on traffic stops, in order to identify areas that need more attention and focus. Stops that do not result in a citation or an arrest will be recorded on a new form that provides the same data (driver information, officer name and detailed information about the stop) as citations. An independent consultant will analyze the data.
The mayor's strategy enhances police accountability.
- Relies on multiple sources of information about police activity that can be interrelated and examined for consistency and context.
- Creates new sources of information and level of documentation for traffic stops not resulting in citations or arrests. New and detailed information collected on consent searches.
- Uses existing records systems and reporting formats for ease of officer use, and to facilitate internal auditing and ongoing data analysis. This will allow officers to remain on the street rather than spending additional time on paperwork.
- Applies geographic information system mapping techniques to better understand and interpret the data.
- Pursues data collection as means of enhancing police responsibility for actions taken and not as an end in itself.
- Provides an official report that can be referenced if a complaint is filed or if any other issues or concerns are raised about the traffic stop.
- Enhances the Office of Professional Accountability. The office will record and analyze complaints of racially-biased policing.
The mayor's strategy promotes public involvement and assessment of police interactions.
- Includes a valid and reliable survey of Seattle residents about their opinions and interactions with Seattle Police officers. Covers all types of contacts (police and citizen-initiated) as well as public attitudes and opinions of the police department. Modeled on national Police-Public Contact Survey developed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
- Provides for ongoing review of citizen complaints and requests for service, for example, citizen traffic complaints, in context of police actions.
- Uses Minority Community Engagement Initiative, funded by federal COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) program, as a vehicle for public interaction and communication of concerns and issues and for educating the community about specific local public safety problems.
- Solicits public comments through quarterly forums organized and held within each precinct.
- Adds a community member to the selection panel for new police officers.
- Adds a community member to the selection panel for the data analysis consultant.
The mayor's strategy improves training.
- Provides for review and update of the current training on racial sensitivity, cultural competency and understanding as well as ethics for all recruits.
- Continues segments on police engagement and disengagement and on best practices for stops and other public interactions in annual 40-hour in-service training courses for all officers.
- Emphasizes accountability, best practices, current case law and supervision techniques in a new 40-hour course for sergeants.
- The department will incorporate data and information obtained from surveys, observations and reports into the training curriculum, supervisory protocols and community forums.
The mayor's strategy provides ongoing data collection and analysis.
- Compiles data from SPD records and existing record management and computer aided dispatch systems.
- Hires an independent consultant through a competitive selection process to analyze all data and to advise on sampling, data gathering and survey procedures.
- Reports regularly on the results of the data analysis.
- Obtains qualitative data through a citizen survey and studies to better assess and explain the quantitative data.
- Uses geographic information system to provide a basis for providing better understanding for interpreting the data.
Implementation timeline
July 2002
SPD policy on bias based policing
Street Skills Training - ongoing
Supervisor Training - ongoing
September 2002
Consent search forms - ongoing
October 2002
Traffic stop contact forms - ongoing
Precinct-level community forums - ongoing quarterly
November 2002
Hire independent consultant
January-March 2003
Citizen Survey - biannually
December 2003
Annual report - annually
Budget: approximately $200,000.
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