Greg Nickels, Mayor  SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT R. Gil Kerlikowske, Chief of Police

May 21, 2003

Remarks given by Chief Gil Kerlikowske
at Washington Association of
Sheriff and Police Chiefs Conference

WASPC Conference held in Spokane, Washington.

Good afternoon. Thank you to Larry Erickson, our executive director, Chief Don Lane, our president, those on the dais, and members of the WASPC conference committee. Thank you again for the invitation to speak at your annual gathering. It is an honor to be among so many friends and colleagues. Some from over many years in this profession.

I would like to applaud your great work in making these conferences educational and valuable. You have an excellent conference going on, and I know that Seattle Police personnel, who have attended, return excited and inspired to our department with new ideas and information.

You might remember that I was not able to join you last year, because one of our veteran detectives had passed away unexpectedly. I wanted to be with his family in their time of grief.

Two weeks ago, like many of you, the Seattle Police Department paid tribute to our fallen officers who died in the line of duty, and celebrated many courageous moments with their loved ones. We also held the dedication of our Memorial Wall in our new police headquarters to honor those Seattle officers.

Understanding the importance of our fallen heroes, and partnering with Concerns of Police Survivors, I want to update you on the Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial, a $1 million project started in the early nineties, is now almost 80 percent funded. It is to be located on the State Capitol Campus in Olympia.

As soon as the remaining $200,000 is collected from individuals and professional organizations, the plans to build the Memorial will begin to fall in place. The Memorial Foundation is hopeful that it will break ground next year.

The Seattle Police Department is very proud of our association with WASPC. We are honored that we are able to contribute to this organization on issues such as racial profiling, legislative bills, ICAC, Homeland Security, and many others.

This afternoon, I want to talk about the importance of our profession to homeland security and emergency preparedness, as well as the terrorism exercise called Topoff2 we have just completed.

I want to also highlight some key projects we are working on: Accreditation. Amber Alert. And a new performance appraisal system.

We have entered a new paradigm of policing. Increasing crime, reduced resources, and dealing with terrorist threats or attacks are what make up this new paradigm, and will be with us for some time.

Regarding the creation of the Homeland Security, President George Bush writes: "Since September 11, 2001, our nation has taken great strides to improve homeland security. Citizens, industry and government leaders from across the political spectrum have cooperated to a degree rarely

seen in American history.

"We have strengthened our aviation security and tightened our borders. We have stockpiled medicines to defend against bio-terrorism and improved our ability to combat weapons of mass destruction. We have improved information sharing among our intelligence agencies, and we have taken important steps to protect our critical infrastructure."

As we are the first responders in any natural disaster or terrorist attack that takes place in our communities, we know quite well that the role of law enforcement is key to the nation's homeland security.

This is what we have been trained to do. We take steps to improve our community's safety. We handle crises. We deal with emergencies. We reduce vulnerability to known threats and hazards. We provide oversight of police training to deal with unusual circumstances. And we coordinate with other emergency management and law enforcement agencies. This is the core of our profession.

Still, we recognize that a great deal of work remains.

Consistent with the Homeland Security, the critical areas that we need to be working on as law enforcement officials, and within our jurisdictions as it applies, include:

With that said, we recognize that prevention lies in intelligence gathering - its analysis and forecasting. The operations in planning and execution of effective deterrent strategies and tactics. And the investigative responsibilities in incident and crime scene follow-up are key functions and critical areas that can only be filled by law enforcement agencies, in cooperation and collaboration with local, state and federal offices.

FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Charles Mandigo already touched on the importance of cooperation and collaboration this morning, in which we have built an excellent working relationship with their office.

In addition to the areas that can only be filled by our profession to protect our homeland, we must also place emphasis in:

And we can't put 911 on hold while we do all this.

Because we know very well, that in times of crises - along with our elected officials, we assume highly visible leadership roles as sheriffs and police chiefs - in our cities and counties, throughout our region and state, including the nation and worldwide.

Real or not - a prime example of this is the recent emergency preparedness in weapons of mass destruction, which was a simulated radiological explosion exercise, called Topoff 2. Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer is here today and would certainly be glad to answer questions about this. He was the lead official from SPD on this project. Mandated by Congress. And which many of you took part in or observed. Coverage of this exercise came as far as countries like Germany and Japan, and as near as cities like Portland and Renton. It was important to see international attention on our city that was not related to WTO.

Because in times of real crises, people look for leadership and comfort in their police chiefs and people in charge. We are the ones who have to explain security measures to a skeptical and fearful public.

As successful as this exercise was, we were also exposed to gaps. Some we were already aware of. And others that came as a surprise.

Knowing what these primary and secondary colors and threat warnings mean is critical. In the coming months, the national alert system must be improved so we, as law enforcement officials really understand what the different levels mean to our jurisdictions. There must be context, specificity and clarity in this system.

It was comforting to hear Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge say last week at the completion of Topoff 2: "This will work effectively only if we understand that the federal government has no first responders. We're never going to be in control." He goes on to say, "This exercise will show that larger cities and states need to develop a compatible system of response and protective measures. But we can't force them to do it."

I have believed this all along - and without being facetious - we all knew that. We just needed to see it. In a controlled environment and without lives at stake, because, maybe, it is easier to accept and understand ...

As uncomfortable as it may sound, you know that our region, specifically the city of Seattle, has been considered as one of the nation's top potential targets. So as a result, the greater Seattle-area has been awarded $26 million in homeland security grants.

Together, we must continue to work on protecting our community's safety and our nation's security. We have initiated a combined program involving our Crime Prevention Coordinators and our Emergency Operations personnel to do neighborhood training that combines crime prevention, disaster readiness, and preventing terrorist incidents and being prepared for a terrorist attack.

I'd like to now move on to some key projects we're working on.

Accreditation. The Seattle Police Department voluntarily applied for the accreditation program with CALEA (the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies) in June 2001. It has been a department-wide endeavor. It is one more step to further SPD's commitment to high, quality public safety services.

We have been preparing forms and developing "proofs of compliance" for 443 CALEA standards in organization, management and administration, training, personnel structure and process, operations and operational support, including responsibilities and relationships with communities and other agencies. We're near completion of the accreditation process, and expect to receive the certificate of accreditation in the next two-to-three months.

Other police departments in the state such as Washington State Patrol, Clark County Sheriff's Office, Auburn PD, Snohomish PD, and five others have already been accredited. Those seeking accreditation also include Bellevue, Medina and Tacoma PDs.

It has been quite a process, but well worth it for the department. Some of the benefits of accreditation are the controlled liability costs and stronger defense against lawsuits and citizen complaints. Accredited agencies are better able to defend themselves against lawsuits and citizen complaints because they can show that they use "best practices" from across the country, which have been endorsed by professional organizations.

Amber Alert. With recent child abduction cases in our country, this is one program I can safely say is a community expectation. In partnership with 39 police agencies, we launched the King County Regional Amber Alert Program last year on October 22, under the leadership of Captain Greg Ayco. This program has already proven instrumental results in the safe return of dozens of children nationwide.

Another project we are working on is the department's Performance Appraisal System. All organizations, whether it's law enforcement, a trucking company or a successful donut shop like "Krispy Kreme," need a system that defines expectations for its employees and provides feedback on how they are doing.

We have had our share of resistance with performance appraisal. I am pleased to say that we have overcome that moment, and are now tackling head on a new and improved pilot performance appraisal software package we bought several years ago.

Performance appraisal is especially important for the police profession. The risk of being injured and complexity of the job require much attention to each incident. We know that these encounters or call-for-service is vital for all of us.

So from homeland security to becoming prepared, to programs in accreditation, public service for missing children, and a system to measure work performance, I hope you are able to take back with you some useful ideas. We are honored to share our successes and our mistakes with our colleagues. That is how we all learn and improve our organizations.

Above all this, and equally important is what I would like to conclude with … public trust. We are all familiar with the horrific tragedy of the Tacoma Police Chief and his wife. It is also no secret to us that in past years, we have seen some high profile cases involving officer misconduct or allegations of misconduct in all levels of law enforcement.

While these incidents have dangerously questioned our integrity, credibility and honesty, I still believe public trust and support for this profession remains high. We must understand and re-commit ourselves as police chiefs and sheriffs, the commanders of our organizations, to obtain and uphold the publics' trust.

The fact is that we, as law enforcement officials, are, and will be held to a higher standard than that of the general public and we willingly accept that responsibility.

Sometimes, in the pressure of doing what we have to do and running a tight ship in our agencies and making decisions on tough issues, and when we believe that all of our leads have been covered, we sometimes forget that - it is, after all - the public we serve and that we do care how police officers, this profession, is perceived. Let us continually ask ourselves: "Do our actions at every level match what we are saying?"

Thank you,

Chief R.Gil Kerlikowske