The hours after Seattle Police abandoned the East Precinct and the CHOP occupied protest zone was formed on June 8th, 2020 were chaotic — and dangerous.

In the midst of that chaos, SPD leadership including an assistant chief signed off on a deliberate hoax that capitalized on the widespread availability of services broadcasting police radio transmissions to spread rumors of a group of 20 to 30 armed right wing extremists roaming the streets of city and headed to Capitol Hill for a fight.

These findings of the department’s Office of Police Accountability after its year-long investigation into the “inappropriate ruse” comes likely too late to bring punishment to those directly involved. In its findings, the investigation lays the blame for the misinformation disinformation effort with two supervisors including the assistant chief. Both supervisors have since left the department, according to the report.

UPDATE: A researcher working to study disinformation points out that the OPA’s use of the word “misinformation” is incorrect. Misinformation implies the spreading of incorrect reports and observations regardless of intent. Disniformation, on the other hand, implies deliberate acts to mislead as is the case in the findings from this investigation. We have updated our report throughout.

UPDATE x2: Mayor Bruce Harrell has issued a statement on the report saying he plans to meet with Chief Diaz and push for new legislation “to ensure this does not happen again.”

Misinformation, especially of this inflammatory nature, is totally unacceptable from our Seattle police officers, from whom we must expect — and demand — the highest standard of truth. While I’m glad the officers who originated this deception are no longer with the force, this kind of tactic never should have been considered, condoned, or carried out in the first place. The path to de-escalation is never through the threat, real or fake, of further agitation.

The damage done to public trust by an incident like this is immeasurable. It is a clear breakdown in leadership. We simply cannot have a chief or command staff claim that they are unaware of such critical tactical decisions, whether in this instance or abandoning the East Precinct.

When I talk about changing the culture of the Seattle Police Department, this is exactly the kind of conduct I’m thinking of — this cannot happen again, period. We will be meeting with Chief Diaz and command staff to ensure this does not happen again. We will also be conferring with Public Safety Chair Lisa Herbold to consider recommendations the City Council may have in this regard.

Harrell also thanked journalist Omari Salisbury for his work bringing the violations to light.

#Breaking @SeattleOPA sustained allegations against two former senior @SeattlePD Officers who organized a hoax on June 8, 2020. Officers said on police radios that an armed group of Proud Boys were heading to Cal Anderson to confront protesters. Everything in below audio is fake. pic.twitter.com/mQ915fhQ6S

— Omari Salisbury (@Omarisal) January 5, 2022

The Seattle Times has identified the former SPD Assistant Chief as Bryan Grenon, a one-time commander of the East Precinct, who the report says told investigators he came up with the plan to take advantage of people monitoring police radio transmissions to give the impression SPD “had more officers out there doing regular stuff.”

According to the report, Chief Carmen Best was not aware of the scheme and Assistant Chief Tom Mahaffey told the investigation the purpose was to attempt to draw the protest away from 12th and Pine so officers could re-take the East Precinct.

Allegations of policy violations against the four officers identified as participating in the police radio report ruse were not sustained. The investigation ruled the officers were not adequately supervised:

While Named Employees #3 through #6 carried out the ruse and improperly used the Proud Boys during their transmissions, OPA finds that this was predominantly attributable to the lack of supervision and guidance provided to them by NE#1 and NE#2. For this reason, OPA recommends that the allegations be Sustained against the supervisory employees and the allegations against the officers be removed. However, OPA reiterates its belief that the officers exercised poor judgment in choosing to reference the Proud Boys independent of the clear lack of command supervision.

The execution of the hoax came amid a chaotic night of SPD radio updates as the protest zone on Capitol Hill grew and at a point when use of the department’s digitally encrypted radio channels was less frequent.

That Monday night with the East Precinct boarded-up and protesters filling the streets around 12th and Pine, reports began being broadcast detailing a group of armed Proud Boys seemingly tangling for a fight. The group was first reported by police to have formed in Volunteer Park but were later reported marching near downtown and then approaching Cal Anderson.

“… the Proud Boys Group… they’re not very happy with their response from the audience down here,” went one officer’s transmision from the evening. “They may be looking for somewhere else for confrontation.”

On social media, reports of the armed mob spread along with reports from the ground countering what police said they were seeing. Still, the information had its impact.

“There were a handful of people out last night with rifles because of persistent reports on the police scanner that there was a group of 20-30 armed Proud Boys coming up the hill looking for a fight,” one person involved in the protest wrote in a comment on CHS’s coverage of the CHOP. “They did not show up, everything stayed peaceful, nobody threatened anyone.”

The presence of armed campers and security volunteers and the shooting deaths of two teenagers eventually led to the July 1st order from then Mayor Jenny Durkan for police to raid and sweep the protest zone and clear the camp from Cal Anderson and the surrounding streets.

The perpetuation of the hoax that first night of CHOP continued until last fall when journalist Omari Salisbury of Converge Media request body camera video from officers who were reportedly tailing the Proud Boys group on June 8th. The search for video came up empty and the investigation was launched.

It is also not clear — and unlikely — the efforts were restricted to the night of June 8th. Later in June, CHS reported on this Broadway crash in which radio reports and updates of a “Don’t Tread on Me” sticker, baseball bat beatings, and shots fired differed wildly from the scene SPD eventually documented.

Meanwhile, this kind of ruse wouldn’t be effective under SPD radio practices in use now a year and a half later. In the months following CHOP, crowd response policies moved most communications during responses to events like large protests onto the department’s digitally encrypted channels, securing tactical information for officers, and making any similar disinformation campaign effort likely to stand out.

In its findings, the OPA report says the June 8th disinformation effort included some instances of “officers discussing innocuous topics, such as movies or what they would eat the next day” that would have been “acceptable under policy and law to test the monitoring of communications.”

But it also included what the investigator says was a dangerous escalation.

“However, the use of the Proud Boys when it was known that the transmissions would be monitored took a volatile situation and made it even more so,” the report reads. “It was reasonably foreseeable to believe that the demonstrators would be afraid and concerned that the Proud Boys – some of whom were said to be open-carrying – would come to CHAZ/CHOP. It was also reasonably foreseeable to believe that this could cause demonstrators within the zone to take steps to arm and defend themselves.”

Some protesters were already seen on Facebook video gathered as part of the investigation attempting to arm themselves before the radio ruse, the SPD investigator reported, but the deliberate hoax “improperly added fuel to the fire and could have had dire results.”

SPD and interim Chief Adrian Diaz are now reviewing the findings. While no discipline has been recommended, the investigation’s results will be a test for just sworn-in Mayor Bruce Harrell who has said addressing the issues of equity and biased policing behind the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 is a priority for his new administration.

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