New training coming for SPD supervisors
SEATTLE -- Mayor Mike Mcginn and Interim Police Chief Jim Pugel are announcing new training protocols for Seattle Police Department supervisors. This includes all sergeants, lieutenants, captains and chiefs within the department. T
The announcement will be Tuesday 2 p.m. at the Seattle Police Department headquarters.
SPD has begun implementing changes directed by the Department of Justice settlement and Merrick Bob's monitoring team.
Pugel took over the police department when John Diaz retired in May. One his first day on the job, Pugel said, “We’ve been working with the monitoring team and the Department of Justice as well as our audit and professional responsibility section under Mike Sanford in crafting new Terry stop policy and procedure, stop and frisk policy procedure and biased policing.”
The Community Police Commission, stipulated by the DOJ settlement, will have a strong say in what goes into the new policies on those so-called Terry stops, where police detain people briefly on reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. The goal is to make sure everyone is treated fairly.
The DOJ’s allegations stem from an uptick in reported excessive force used by the SPD — the culminating incident that prompted the community and eventually the ACLU to petition the DOJ was the Aug. 30, 2010, fatal shooting of Native American woodcarver John Williams by a Seattle police officer.
In December 2011, the DOJ said they had believed that excessive force had been used by the SPD in a number of incidents and called for reforms within the police department.