Today, the Seattle Police Department took another step forward in our efforts to provide effective, humane and constitutional policing to our city.
Federal Judge James Robart has approved an extensive overhaul of how our officers are trained to use force, making clear our department’s commitment to tactics like de-escalation and confrontation avoidance whenever possible.
The department’s new use of force policy was created with input from the Department of Justice, the Seattle City Attorney, the Community Police Commission and the Seattle Police Department.
Our department’s training staff can now move forward in working with the monitoring team and the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission to ensure our officers understand and embrace these new policies.