Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess has a plan to improve trust in police, but some activists doubt the 11 recommendations go far enough.
Burgess, along with fellow Public Safety and Education Committee members Sally Bagshaw and Sally Clark, put forward the recommendations in a Feb. 25 letter to the mayor, the police department and its union representatives.
They include rotating police officers and detectives, training in de-escalation, offering special training for military combat veterans, testing for drugs -- including steroids -- after deadly force incidents, and hiring college-educated officers.
The recommendations will "strengthen public trust and confidence in our police officers," Burgess said in the letter.
Lisa Daugaard, an attorney with The Defenders Association, said Burgess's recommendations seem to offer SPD commanders the tools they need to address calls for reform.
But Jay Hollingsworth, a member of a police reform group created in response to the August police killing of John T. Williams, said the recommendations lack teeth.
Rotating officers would make it hard for officers to get to know people in an area, working against Police Chief John Diaz's stated efforts to improve such relations, he said.
Hollingsworth also believes any changes should include anger management training for officers who have been involved in shootings or incidents.
"Anger should not play a part in [officers'] actions," Hollingsworth said.
The ideas still fail to give the citizens panel that works with SPD's Office of Professional Accountability any real power or authority, he said.
Harriett Walden, founder of Mothers for Police Accountability, was also unimpressed with the recommendations, and since each of the proposals must be agreed upon by the Seattle Police Officers' Guild, she doubts they'll take effect.
Therein lies the problem: "My suggestion to the city," Walden said, "is to take back the power they've given the guild over the past 25 years."
Burgess's 11 points to improve trust in the Seattle Police Department
1 Create a countywide team to investigate officer-involved deaths. Ensure outside commanders are in charge
?2 Allow the civilian on the Firearms Review Board to attend all meetings
?3 Improve hiring standards and training. Prioritize de-escalation for misdemeanor stops
4 Identify names of disciplined officers in monthly Office of Professional Accountability report
?5 Refer cases to King County and city prosecutors at the same time
?6 Use in-car video for officer training
?7 Drug-test officers after deadly force incidents. Test for steroids
?8 Rotate officers and detectives on a schedule
?9 Keep records of misconduct complaints while the officer is on the force, plus seven years (currently kept three years)
10 Hire officers with college education
11 Adopt special training for combat veterans