The Seattle Police Department’s new use-of-force policy, first implemented in early 2014 after approval by the federal court overseeing the consent decree between the City and the U.S. Department of Justice, has been a critical component in transforming policing for the residents of Seattle. It is because SPD officers have followed that policy that the court-appointed monitor overseeing the Consent Decree found a 60 percent decline in incidents in which SPD officers have used force.
Today the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal, in a case filed just as SPD began implementing the new policy, that claimed that the use-of-force policy unconstitutionally limited SPD officers’ ability to act in self-defense. It acknowledged that the policy served the “City of Seattle’s important government interest in ensuring the safety of both the public and its police officers.”
“On behalf of the City, I welcome this confirmation that constitutional policing and officer safety go hand-in-hand,” said City Attorney Pete Holmes, whose Civil Division attorneys defended SPD from U.S. District Court to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.