The City of Seattle today asked U.S. District Judge James L. Robart to declare that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) has reached “full and effective compliance” under the consent decree under which the department has been operating since 2012. “Full and effective compliance” status does not mark the end of the police reform process or consent decree supervision; it is an intermediate step to a period in which SPD still must demonstrate two years of sustained compliance before seeking termination of the consent decree.
It has been five years since the beginning of the consent decree and federal court oversight of the City and SPD. After years of collaboration among the City, the U.S. Department of Justice and the court-appointed monitor in developing and implementing new policies and practices for SPD, the monitor embarked on a series of 10 assessments over the last two years to consider SPD’s compliance. The last of those assessments came in June, and the monitor’s compliance status report followed.
“Seattle has made significant progress on reforming its police department since this process began, but we still have a great deal of work to do,” City Attorney Pete Holmes said. “We will continue to work, through the consent decree and under continued oversight from the Monitor and Court, to sustain the important reforms that have already taken place, build upon them, and implement the City’s recent police accountability ordinance to ensure that reform will continue long after the end of federal oversight.”
Mayor Tim Burgess said, “Today’s filing by City Attorney Holmes is a clear signal that we’ve made major improvements in how we police Seattle. This is a significant milestone, and I’m very proud of the women and men of the Seattle Police Department who have worked hard to meet higher expectations. While we welcome this good news, we will not stop in our efforts to assure that all Seattleites feel safe and secure and have a relationship of trust with their police.”