What July 25th, 2020 looked like on Capitol Hill
The Seattle City Council will hold a public hearing this week that officials hope will shape efforts to improve accountability from the captains and lieutenants who lead the Seattle Police Department.
Tuesday night’s hearing of the council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee is a key opportunity for community priorities to be heard before negotiations begin on a new contract with the Seattle Police Management Association, the union with fewer than 100 members representing SPD’s leadership positions. The committee’s chair Lisa Herbold says a new contract with the management union could bring critical changes to how SPD’s accountability systems work and that Tuesday’s hearing is a crucial public element in restarting the negotiation process that will move behind closed doors.
“It’s the point in time for the public to testify about what should be included in a new contract,” Herbold said. “Once negotiations begin, they are confidential and closed to the public until negotiations conclude.”
The SPMA contract is separate from the city’s agreement with the Seattle Police Officers Guild which remains under negotiation in a protracted labor battle that continues to flare publicly with disputes over how many sworn officers the city needs. SPOG has been operating without a contract since 2020. The impasse is not an entirely unusual situation for a major metropolitan force — agreements typically end up with retroactive wage increases given how long they can take to negotiate.
The unions are also typically better served by continuing to negotiate rather than turn the decision over to a third party. Cops — and their captains and lieutenants — can’t strike.
“Unlike many other employees, police cannot legally go on strike due to the nature of their jobs,” a city announcement of the negotiation process reads. “Instead, if a police union and the City can’t reach a deal, the negotiations can go to interest arbitration. In that process a neutral arbitrator would make binding decisions to resolve disagreements about the contract.”
While the SPOG battle smolders, the SPMA contract is beginning its new cycle after a 2022 agreement that carries the two sides through the end of this year.
Though the agreement was finalized last summer, it was shaped by a public process that happened in a much different Seattle. The public hearing for the previous SPMA contract was held in September 2019 — before the pandemic and the 2020 protests reshaped the city’s economics and politics.
Meanwhile, there is a better structure for addressing accountability issues in the next contract. In 2019, efforts to improve accountability priorities in the negotiations included adding a community representative from the Community Police Commission to the bargaining process.
Herbold says the stronger emphasis on accountability in the current contract grew out of the 2019 hearing represented a “sea change” and led to key changes including elimination of a 180-day limitation on Office of Police Accountability investigations and removing the requirement that intentionality must be proven in dishonesty charges.
Now, four years later, there is even greater public awareness for accountability reform amid findings from analysis of the SPD response to the 2020 protests that centered on a lack of accountability over ineffective and irresponsible crowd control strategies and communication failures by the department’s leaders.
You can learn more about the hearing and the public process around Seattle Police contracts here.
PUBLIC HEARING
On August 8th at 5:30 p.m., the Public Safety and Human Services Committee and the Select Labor Committee will jointly hold a Public Hearing on necessary changes to the City’s police accountability system that should be included in future negotiations with SPMA. Information about how to testify is included on the agenda. Opportunities for both in-person and virtual testimony will be provided. Sign-in for in-person testimony begins at 5 p.m.; virtual sign-in begins at 5:30 p.m.
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Blue flu may reveal the true stance on accountability.
How about holding the city accountable too to making sure there are enough responders for violence or events like that street racing that lead to a shooting (or if there are enough they take action). I saw the video they needed more as they were outnumbered.
You mean when SPD did a planned sick out that weekend?
so, it’s OK for teachers’ unions to do but not cops?
Cops are the only ones that shouldn’t have unions. Get serious.
Exactly. All these pro union people except when it comes to cops. It’s embarrassing level of ignorance.
Most people are capable of holding multiple opinions about unions, particularly depending on whom they represent. Do you understand how the situation is a bit different, as police officers hold a unique position of power over people, and often use it to their advantage?
https://bikeportland.org/2023/08/08/portland-police-bureau-officer-admits-no-traffic-enforcement-messaging-was-politically-motivated-377939/amp
Their contract with the city literally says it’s illegal for them to do a planned sick out….
They haven’t had a contract in years. Maybe the city should get their stuff together and get them under contract.
What does hearing do? Will council listen to us if we want to defund and push for alternatives to policing?
Hopefully no. Anyone with eyes can see that the pendulum swung too far to the left in Seattle over the last couple of years with disastrous results and that we need more and better policing to address crime and street disorder, not just magical thinking and performative dance for the activist minority from our elected officials.
There is nothing “left” about Seattle. Please. This town is hyper capitalistic and run by Amazon and Starbucks.
If you think Seattle isn’t to the left politically I’d sincerely suggest you take a road trip around Washington state to other towns and cities so that you can see outside of this bubble. Seattle is liberal, it’s just not liberal enough for you.
You need to provide the alternatives, see that they work, and then defund. We can’t just spin up new programs instantly.
But yes let’s keep the program rooted in racism that still has major profiling issues until we do, makes sense! /s
That’s not what they’re saying. You’re being deliberately obtuse.
Yes, alternatives to an armed police response to some 911 calls are needed, such as dedicated mental heath teams when there is minimal risk of violence. But this will require an INCREASED police budget, not a defunding.
It will require a budget for this alternative. Not for the current SPD to use.
They probably won’t because the “we” you’re referring to doesn’t even begin to represent majority opinion. The political will is not there.
Positive steps. If you have a problem with the cops like most of us, go and participate in a way that moves the needle in a productive direction. Don’t shout anyone down. Be respectful and allow our government to shift in equitable ways. Fit-throwing is a tired and ineffectual way to mold society. Don’t be a no-goodnik. Help us make a better city.
Over six years after Seattle’s 2017 police accountability legislation, and over 3 years after the police riots of 2020, the City plans to negotiate a new contract with the SPMA with the maximal demands that are still based on the failed 2017 legislation.
Most notable is that the City demands will still allow SPD sergeants to investigate fellow officers, still allow for arbitration to overturn discipline, and still allow the police chief to summarily overrule all discipline without real cause. Under current SPOG contract — which is all that matters — the one or two civilian investigators that OPA is allowed cannot investigate “potentially serious misconduct.”
The bottom line is that whereas dozens of US cities have learned from the summer of 2020 Seattle remains stuck in the failed experiment of 2017. We need civilians investigating & determining discipline of police.
And this is false: “there is a better structure for addressing accountability issues in the next contract. In 2019, efforts to improve accountability priorities in the negotiations included adding a community representative from the Community Police Commission to the bargaining process.” The CPC person was chosen via secret negotiation between Mayor Durkan and CPC co-chairs, resulting in commissioners voting on a fait accompli. That person does not sit at the negotiating table and, without CPC or public agreement, that person has signed a non-disclosure agreement (meaning that we can never find out why accountability measures were lost.