As part of the National Police Foundation Initiative, the Seattle Police Department is publishing our crisis contact data to highlight transparency around our policy, process, and training with regards to police responses and investigations involving individuals in crisis.
Working to maintain public trust is one of our core principles. Our officers answer hundreds of thousands of calls annually; a vast majority are calls for service, with very few resulting in any use of force. As outlined in this report, over a two-year period our officers reported using force of any level at a rate of less than half of one percent (0.05%). Under policies and procedures developed in collaboration with the Department of Justice and implemented in January 2014, all use of force incidents are thoroughly investigated.
The department is providing this data with the hope of providing greater transparency of our practices and, in turn, creating more opportunities for us to work collaboratively with our communities. SPD has taken great care to ensure that the need for transparency is appropriately balanced with the privacy interests of the individuals involved. Consistent with the City’s Open Data and Privacy Policies, all datasets posted to the City’s Open Data Portal are subject to a thorough three-part privacy review.
For more information on our crisis intervention policy visit:
Our crisis contact dataset is available here.