• Panel Membership & Biographical Information
• Area Under Review
• Panel 3 Priorities and Issues
• WTO Eyewitness Interviews
• Panel 3 Final Report
• Panel 3 Staff Reports

Councilmember Jim Compton, Lead

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The operations panel will examine all city activities during the week of WTO aimed at crowd control, protection of venues and delegates, dispersal of crowds, implementation of the Declaration of Civil Emergency, use of regional law enforcement agencies under mutual aid agreements or in other ways, the command structure employed in operations, how and what orders were issued, and the rules under which police operated. Operations of police outside the WTO meeting area, particularly on Capitol Hill, will be examined. The panel will work to determine the following:

1. Identities and functions of the various individuals making operational decisions for the city, and the identities of any county, state, or federal officials with whom they communicated during WTO operations.
2. City, county, and state resources employed, including but not limited to cars, riot control equipment, radios, special clothing and "riot gear" barricades and loudspeaker devices. This inventory will establish what tear gas, pepper gas, "beanbags", rubber bullets, and all similar riot control devices were employed, and the locations where they were employed. It will establish the dollar cost of resources used.
3. A basic timeline and narrative accounts that establish, to the extent possible, what happened in each of the encounters of police with protestors, or with other citizens.
4. Tactical assessments and decisions made by police in the field. The identity of officials making each decision, in the field and in the city's central command operations.
5. The nature and content of consultations, communications, and contacts with federal officials, including but not limited to FBI, ATF, and Secret Service, during city operations.
6. Relevant police action protocols and "rules of engagement" that were used, whether police guidelines were followed, and whether police guidelines were adequate to the situations that occurred.
7. The rationale for the apparent decision to ignore some incidents of property damage or destruction.
8. The efforts made to honor previous agreements with demonstrators, and efforts made to protect the rights to assembly and speech
9. Communications, intelligence, and reports from the field received by city officials.
10. The version of street disturbances as seen from the eyes of citizens, protestors, residents, law enforcement personnel, and businesspersons, in the affected neighborhoods.
11. How decisions were reached to arrest persons, and on what basis, what protocols were used, and how those arrested were processed, transported, and housed by police and others.
12. The role played by the Seattle City Attorney’s office, including but not limited to, arrest of persons and their processing.
13. The treatment received by arrested persons.
14. The extent to which policy, training, staffing levels and supervision helped or hindered law enforcement personnel in maintaining an environment in which peaceful protest could occur.
15. The nature of any threats or warning of terrorist attack, including but not limited to the use of incendiary devices, on which operational decisions were based.
16. Reasons or rationale for all decisions to control or block citizen movement, to issue warnings to disperse, and to take measures including marching, tear gas, pepper gas, and other techniques, to disperse crowds.
17. The extent and nature of injuries to persons and property, including law enforcement personnel, during police operations, and the effect of disturbances and police operations on business in affected neighborhoods.