Those red boxes are the result of a new SPD effort to take a more data-driven, Moneyball approach to policing using a new piece of software called PredPol.

“PredPol looks at crime patterns and helps SPD put officers in the right place at the right time to prevent crime,” says Sgt. Christi Robbin, who oversees the Predictive Policing program as part of the department’s 20/20 Initiative.  “The forecasts are location and time based. We’re not targeting people. This is about predictive policing and the crime itself.”

Now, officers at each of SPD’s five precincts will begin receiving those forecasts at the beginning of each shift and will spend spend at least two hours of their shifts patrolling those forecasted areas, in addition to responding to their regular workload of 911 calls.

While officers typically know the busy spots in their patrol beats, the Predictive Policing system is another tool to help officers keep better track and share information across different shifts about where crime is happening.

“As an officer, I may know a particular spot in a neighborhood has had some burglaries, but I might not intuitively know they’re regularly happening at 6pm on a Tuesday,” Sgt. Robbin says. “PredPol doesn’t replace intuition. It enhances intuition.”

Currently, the department has only tasked the Predictive Policing system—also used by police in other cities like Los Angeles and Tacoma—to forecast potential areas where property crimes like burglary, car prowling and theft might occur, but the program could be expanded to project forecasts for violent crimes as well.

While this new Predictive Policing program should be a helpful tool in SPD’s crimefighting efforts, the system is only as good as the numbers it has to crunch. That means it’s more important than ever for Seattle residents call 911 to report crimes or suspicious behavior in their neighborhoods. “The more 911 call data we have, the more accurate the program will be,” Sgt. Robbin says.

Mayor McGinn speaks to the changes on recruiting policy at El Centro de la Raza on May 6, 2013

This news release is from the Office of Mayor Mike McGinn

New outreach strategy and hiring standards will target diverse candidates representative of Seattle community

SEATTLE – Mayor Mike McGinn today announced that as part of SPD 20/20:

A Vision for the Future, new recruitment policies and outreach strategies have been adopted to encourage more diversity among Seattle Police Department officers.

“When we announced SPD 20/20, we promised to do everything possible to make sure we’re recruiting new officers for our police force who reflect the diversity and values of the community they serve” said Mayor McGinn. “We project that in the next 5 years we will hire more than 300 police officers to replace officers who will be completing their careers. We are determined to make the most of this opportunity to shape the police department of the future.”

The mayor also announced the next round of testing for new officers – the test will be conducted on July 13th, with enrollment opening May 6th. Interested applicants can attend a workshop tonight at the Filipino Community of Seattle from 5:30-7:30. More information can be found on community workshops at SPD’s new recruitment website seattlepolicejobs.com.

“SPD is in a period of transition. It is essential that as we move forward with implementing the Settlement Agreement and charting a new path for SPD’s future, we recruit candidates who are ready and willing to make that transition with us” said Assistant Chief Dick Reed. “We’re looking for men and women who are committed to serving their community, and we’ll do everything we can to support their success in the application process.”

Policy changes and initiatives affecting recruitment include:

• Elimination of $25 application fee
• Partnerships with community-based organizations including Atlantic Street Center, Filipino Community of Seattle and El Centro De La Raza
• Community based workshops to prepare candidates for testing
• New advertising and recruitment materials based on community input
• Changes to the minimum hiring standards policy including:
  • Marijuana policy has been updated to require that new hires have not used marijuana in the past year, rather than fewer than 25 times overall
  • Elimination of some clauses under Traffic Record that may have unnecessarily disqualified applicants
  • Changes in Professional Appearances standards regarding tattoos, scarification, and elimination of the policy regarding dental ornamentation. Tattoos and scarification will now be reviewed on a case by case basis.
  • Additional context included for applicants: during the background investigation process SPD is interested in learning greater detail about challenges applicants may have faced, as well as the lessons the applicant has learned and the changes the applicant has made as a result. This context will be included in the review process
• Strategic ethnic media advertising plan in partnership with the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs
• Full redesign of website designed to make application process more accessible
• Recruitment outreach through social media

“I’m proud to have been a part of this effort” said community leader Kip Tokuda. “SPD needs diverse perspectives to be able to police effectively and build bridges with the community. These changes will bring more diversity and connection with the communities they serve to the SPD.”

Application  for the July 13th entry-level police exam opened today. Find out more at seattlepolicejobs.com

Today Mayor Mike McGinn and the Seattle Police Department’s 20/20 team provided an update to the public on the progress of 20/20 implementation. The mayor also announced new civilian appointments to the Firearms Review Board, which reviews each discharge of a firearm by a Seattle police officer and makes disciplinary recommendations.

“We are about half way through our timeline for reforming the Seattle Police Department in 20 months, and significant progress has been made. I encourage the public to visit seattle.gov/spd2020 to learn more about our changes to recruitment, training, transparency, community outreach, use of data in policing and much more,” said McGinn

The mayor also released a report, available at seattle.gov/spd2020 outlining in detail the current status of each item committed to in the 20/20 plan. Highlights include:

• Review of uses of force: SPD now has a Force Review Board, designed on the model of the Firearms Review Board. It meets each week to review every use of force by every Seattle Police officer and draw conclusions about whether the use of force was handled correctly. We have also recruited and trained a Force Investigation Team to respond and investigate at the scene of a use of force incident.

• Data-driven policing: SPD has piloted and tested evidence-based “hot spot” policing (the “Koper Curve” model) at the micro level to address location-based crime and disorder problems in each of the five precincts. Additionally, statistical tools are used to measure the effectiveness of the tactics employed. This has created a significant shift in the culture of policing within the Department, away from random patrol to addressing disorder closer to the origins of its cause. The purchase of “PredPol” (a predictive policing, algorithm based software using forensic anthropology) has enabled us to leverage existing mapping software to utilize predictive analytics in the tactical deployment of officers.

• Training: SPD now has a full time Race and Social Justice Initiative program coordinator. By the end of 2013 all sworn and civilian officers will take part in the RSJI training, “Race: The Power of an Illusion”. SPD is working with Tribes across Washington including the Lummi Nation and Tulalip Tribes to develop specific training for officers on issues affecting our Native American population. Street skills training has been expanded to address the difficult problem of low level offenses from escalating. By the end of 2013 in all SPD officers will be trained in Crisis Intervention Team tactics, which focus on de-escalating interactions with people in mental health crisis.

• Transparency: SPD last year launched Tweets by Beat, an interactive 9-1-1 crime map with real time updates, and precinct specific webpages are coming soon.

• Community Outreach: In 2012 we launched our Safe Communities outreach initiative, talking to thousands of residents and building better relationships between our officers and our community. We have appointed our Community Police Commission, who will provide civilian oversight to the implementation of 20/20, the Settlement Agreement and the Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Justice.

• Recruitment: SPD will eliminate the $25 fee application fee for all those interested in applying, made plans to increase the number of opportunities for testing throughout the year, and worked with community-based organizations to recruit potential candidates from various communities that reflect our diverse city.

All Mayor’s Office press conferences, town halls and general public meetings are archived by Seattle Channel.

American policing is at a crossroads and in need of a fundamental re-examination of its objectives and approaches, and the Consortium can provide a powerful vehicle to carry US law enforcement through the transformation necessary to ensure its vitality and strength in the 21st century.

This Consortium was an opportunity to address the thorniest of policing issues and problems for modern American law enforcement agencies in a highly visible, collaborative and transparent manner. This meeting of academics, police and community members ensures policing strategies and innovations not only attract scientific scrutiny and rigorous assessment, but also achieve community acceptance and support.

“Seattle community leaders joined policing experts from across the country to identify how our police force can best serve the public. We hope that the work done here will not only provide clear direction to the Seattle Police Department but will benefit police agencies across the country,” says Mayor Mike McGinn.

“The development and study of best practices in policing by practitioners and scientists is nothing new. In a world of increased competition for fewer research dollars, this Consortium model focuses on multi-city collaboration and shared data to reach the same goal,” says Seattle Police Chief John Diaz.

In all, over 40 community leaders, academic scholars and police practitioners were on hand to deliberate over use of force, bias free policing and police accountability.

The Consortium’s discussions identified these issues and others for further review and study, and ultimately identified police and community trust as the premier issue.

Consortium participants will now begin reviewing issues surrounding community and police partnerships to validate or change current police practices. The Consortium will then craft a white paper outlining the best law enforcement practices for the future.

Even with all that information available online, we still get a lot of questions on Twitter from neighbors about sirens in their neighborhoods, and police cars parked at the end of their block. So we’ve come up with a simple way for you to get answers. 


Today, as part of SPD’s 20/20 policing plan, we’re launching Tweets By Beat, allowing you to view police dispatches in each of Seattle’s 51 police beats.

Tweets By Beat works a lot like a police scanner, giving you information about what type of crimes officers are responding to, and where those crimes are happening.

To use Tweets By Beat, visit our website to lookup your police beat and go directly to the beat’s Twitter page. Even if you aren’t a regular Twitter user, you can still view the page and check it as often as you’d like.

There are a few caveats: in order to protect crime victims, officers, and the integrity of crime scenes, calls will appear on the Twitter feeds one hour after a dispatcher sends the call to an officer. The feeds also do not include information about domestic violence calls, sexual assaults, and other certain types of crimes.

Once you’ve spent some time following Tweets By Beat, we want to hear from you.

Tweet us at @SeattlePD or email us at SPDNews@Seattle.gov and let us know what you think.

Entry Level Police Officer Exam: November 10, 2012 and March 16, 2013

Online Application Filing Period for the November 10th exam is : August 9th – October 23th, 2012. For more information on the hiring process, pretest workshops and to apply visit www.seattlepolicejobs.com

WORKSHOPS:

We have free pre-test workshops available to help you prepare for the test.  You must pre-register with the Recruiting Unit in order to attend.   

Please e-mail Officer Andre Sinn at andre.sinn@seattle.gov to register, or if you have questions or need additional information.   You will receive a confirmation e-mail with the location, directions, and more information about the workshop.  If you are serious about becoming a Seattle Police Officer, we strongly recommend you attend one of these workshops, which will provide an in depth overview of the testing and hiring process from start to finish.

Today Mayor Mike McGinn and Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez announced court approved and enforceable agreements to address community concerns and build a greater police force in Seattle. These agreements include partnerships with the community to ensure that reforms are successful and lasting. Based on concerns heard from the public, Mayor McGinn had the following criteria during negotiaions: that reforms would be effective, meet public safety needs, and work within the City’s budget. The agreements negotiated with the Department of Justice meet those criteria. Further, reforms detailed in the agreements with the Department of Justice (DOJ) were informed by the policies outlined by the City’s broader reform agenda, SPD 20/20: Vision for the Future.

“The City and the Department of Justice are moving forward together to implement specific and important reforms in our police department, while ensuring that we are supporting the highest possible level of public safety,” said McGinn. “My office has had many meetings with the Department of Justice, community leaders, public safety professionals, police officers and others to ensure that we could forge a reform plan that works. In our work with the Department of Justice, we placed a high priority on implementing an agreement that would continue to engage the public as the police department works with a federal monitor to adopt the court-enforceable reforms detailed by the settlement agreement. The City will continue to implement the reforms outlined in our SPD 20/20 plan, an effort that is broader in scope than our work with the Department of Justice and is in response to what we have heard from the community.”

“I thank Assistant  Attorney General Thomas Perez, Chief of Special Litigation Jonathan Smith, the U.S. Attorney and our mediator for their good-faith commitment to working with my office to craft an agreement with the Department of Justice that recognizes Seattle’s unique challenges and that follows our values,” McGinn continued. “With their support, we negotiated in good faith to ensure that our agreement protected public safety, responded to community concerns, aligned with Seattle values and addressed the unique challenges in our city. Today’s agreement is significantly different from either party’s opening proposals, reflecting the hard work to negotiate a thoughtful agreement.”

“This agreement provides a blueprint for reform with innovative methods for ensuring community engagement and sustainability,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with the city, Mayor McGinn, the Seattle Police Department and the community to ensure that effective and constitutional policing takes place in Seattle.”

The Mayor’s Office and the Police Deparment will continue to implement the reforms outlined in SPD 20/20: A Vision for the Future. That work will include input from the Community Police Commision and the specific reforms detailed in the settlement agreement.

Timeline moving forward, beginning upon the adoption of the agreements by the court:

• 60 days: Monitor chosen jointly by City and DOJ
• 60 days: SPD develops a schedule to prioritize development and implementation of policies
• 90 days: Mayor issues Executive Order to create Community Policing Commission
• Three years: Expected term of the Memorandum of Understanding,
• Five years: Expected term of Settlement Agreement, although the City may petition the court to end agreement earlier if there have been two years of compliance.

The City and the DOJ anticipate that SPD will be in full compliance with the agreement within five years. The City may ask the court to terminate the agreement prior to that date if the City and SPD have been in full and effective compliance with the agreement for two years.

The agreements will be made available at http://www.seattle.gov/media

All Mayor’s Office press conferences, town halls and general public meetings are archived by Seattle Channel. Many town halls and press conferences are also broadcast live to the web. 

Meet the Team that will Transform the Seattle Police Department

Today Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle Police Chief John Diaz introduced to the public a new team of Seattle police officers who will lead the implementation of our SPD 20/20 Plan: A Vision for the Future.

The new team consists of 34 members, led by Assistant Police Chief Mike Sanford, and is broken up by initiative, with individual officers taking on leadership on each of the 20 initiatives that make up SPD 20/20.

“We have put in place a cohesive team of leaders who live by Seattle’s values every day, and demonstrate excellence to their peers” said Assistant Police Chief Mike Sanford. “The team members charged with implementing the 20 initiatives come from every unit and every precinct in SPD. Their experience and established relationships in the department will enable them to lead this effort from the ground up.”

“This is an unprecedented commitment to reform,” said Mayor Mike McGinn. “To transform a large organization, you need leadership from within and by example. These officers are some of the best and brightest that SPD has to offer, and their values of customer service, respect for individual rights and collaboration with the community will lead the way to a new era for SPD.”

The mayor also announced a new website that will enable the public to track the implementation of the 20/20 Plan. The website, found at http://seattle.gov/spd2020, will be updated weekly with new information, and includes a tool that shows our progress on each individual initiative and milestone, as well as our progress overall.

The mayor also outlined our other transparency efforts, including a weekly email bulletin updating the public on our progress (sign up at http://seattle.gov/spd2020) and the SPD 20/20 Speaker’s Bureau.

The Speaker’s Bureau is a team of experts drawn from SPD officers and the mayor’s office who are available upon request to deliver presentations on 20/20 progress to community groups. The presentation will be constantly updated as new information on 20/20 implementation becomes available.

“We encourage the public to hold us accountable for our progress” said Mayor McGinn. “Keep an eye on our 20/20 tracking website, sign up for our weekly bulletin on 20/20 progress, and if you have questions, sign up for our Speaker’s Bureau so we can come out to your community group to answer questions and address concerns face-to-face.”

For coverage of the event see the link below:

Following a harsh review by the Department of Justice—which called SPD out for a pattern of excessive force and intimated there were signs of biased policing in the department—city leaders and SPD’s top brass are looking at a very real, and very costly  takeover by the DOJ.

The department agrees that change needs to happen, but believes the most meaningful and lasting changes will come from within Seattle. That’s why today Mayor Mike McGinn, SPD Chief John Diaz and Assistant Chief Mike Sanford set a self-imposed deadline to finally make the reforms Seattle has been flirting with for decades.

“Don’t let a good crisis go to waste, that’s how we’re viewing this,” Mayor McGinn said, noting that the threat of a federal lawsuit and consent decree has “lent a sense of urgency” to the department’s reform efforts. “There’s opportunity in here, and we’re looking to seize that,” he said.

Rather than waiting for the DOJ to deliver a list of demands in the form of a legally enforceable consent decree, the police department has drawn up a far-reaching list of 20 reforms to police practices, policies, and procedures to be put in place over the next 20 months.

A number of high-profile incidents over the last few years have done a great deal of damage to the public’s trust of SPD. That has to be earned back through transparency, by improving public perception and bringing the police department into the 21st century.

That’s why the 20/20 plan’s extensive overhaul is all about smarter, more efficient, more accessible, and equitable policing.

“I’m committed to a police force that protects public safety, fights crime and treats every individual with dignity and respect,” Mayor McGinn said Thursday.

Under the 20/20 plan, officers will receive training emphasizing things like communication skills, as well as deescalation training so they’re better prepared for tough interactions out on the street, whether they’re dealing with a hostile crowd of protesters or individuals with mental illness and substance abuse issues.

The department will also take a data-driven and technology-based approach to public safety, allowing the department to better monitor, respond to, and proactively address crime before neighbors feel unsafe in their own homes.

Technical innovation will also allow the department to better track officers’ use of force, to make sure officers are properly using the authority the public has entrusted them with, and it will make public records and data even more accessible to the public.

The department is also making efforts to become more accessible to Seattle residents, both by giving officers more opportunities to meet and interact with neighbors in the precincts they patrol, and by engaging with the public on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Seattle deserves to be able to see and understand how and why the police department operates the way it does.

To make sure the community supports these reform efforts, the department has engaged with the Minority Executive Director’s Coalition (MEDC), which made 90 recommendations to SPD, many of which were incorporated into the 20/20 plan.

After standing at the side of Mayor McGinn and Chief Diaz as they unveiled the 20/20 plan Thursday, MEDC Board Member Estela Ortega called the interaction between the MEDC and SPD “historic.”

“Never have we had a mayor’s office and police department this committed to working with the community,” Ortega said, calling the SPD’s plan “a positive first step.” However, she cautioned, “we all know the devil is in the details.”

Mayor McGinn says he wants a department that “looks like Seattle,” and Chief Diaz says he wants “lasting and sustainable” changes. This is their chance to prove it, and these implementations are coming with or without the DOJ.

“At times we’ve fallen short,” Chief Diaz said Thursday. “The DOJ did bring up some issues we need to be better at, but many of these things are initiatives that we’ve been moving forward on because it’s the right thing to do. I want us to be at the forefront of all these issues. I’m hoping people see there’s a lot of weight behind this.”

Click here to view the full 20/20 plan, and watch the video below to see Mayor Mike McGinn, Chief Diaz and Assistant Chief Sanford discussing the reforms:

http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=1061216

The people of Seattle deserve a police force that fights crime in a way that is fair and equitable. We deserve a police force that is well trained and accountable for its actions. We deserve a police force that is respectful and professional in all areas, and worthy of the community’s trust. Meeting these demands requires a police department that is continually learning and improving, willing and able to implement reforms.

That means we must listen to criticism from everyone with a stake in the success of the Seattle Police Department. We have heard from the public and now the federal government that more must be done. We agree. Let us be very clear: we are committed to reform.

This process of change cannot wait. This morning, I ordered Chief John Diaz to begin implementation of reforms outlined in the Department of Justice’s report. We will also convene a public review panel to oversee the implementation of these reforms.

Additionally, based on our ongoing collaboration with the Department of Justice, we have also adopted the following reforms:

• On January 4, we will implement a system of consistent supervision of patrol officers which, as the Department of Justice recognized, should improve accountability of our officers.
• We have created a new Professional Standards Section.
• We have implemented improvements to the way we investigate use of force incidents, including a new Force Review Board and a Force Investigative team.
• We are undertaking a top-to-bottom review and rewrite of the department’s Policies and Procedures.
• We are in the process of revising and simplifying the Office of Professional Accountability’s classification system.

Chief Diaz and I expect our police force to be a national model of professionalism and accountability – that earns the respect of the people as it protects our communities from crime. We stand ready to work with the community and the Department of Justice to ensure Seattle has that department.