Police officials got an earful and expressed uncertainty about the future of the department’s involvement in liquor board enforcement at last week’s meeting of the Seattle Police Department’s LGBTQ Advisory Council.
The session held in a conference room of the 12th Ave Arts community and apartment building was the first meeting of the council since the Washington Liquor Control Board and SPD backed down from lewd conduct enforcement at Capitol Hill area gay bars after protest from owners and patrons.
Dorian Korieo, an assistant sergeant and LGBTQ+ liaison for the department, said last week the Joint Enforcement Team that SPD participates in with the liquor board will not evaporate but the department is looking for best ways to utilize it.
The liquor board said no citations would be issued in the lewd conduct enforcement cases and that enforcement would be suspended while board members work out new rules to address concerns around targeting and bias.
During last week’s meeting, Koreio provided new information about the raids, saying the inspection that took place at The Cuff was due to a complaint from an employee, who Korieo said was fired from the establishment a couple of days prior.
The SPD sergeant also told the council attendees that it was not fair to blame the department for the enforcement visits.
“I have had issues with WSLCB and have seen some locations targeted,” Korieo said. “They have been pretty targeted with some of the nudity that’s occurring, especially in The Cuff.”
According to Koreio, SPD’s role in JET is around providing security and assistance to inspectors from the liquor board, and other city departments including Seattle Fire, the Seattle Department of Transportation, the Department of Construction and Inspections, and even Finance and Administration Services for issues around taxes and fees.
“We need to be aware of how we’re showing up after those incidents and we need to use some common sense and have a historical lens we look through,” assistant chief Daniel Nelson said at least week’s meeting.
Despite the answers, there are still plenty of questions. During the council session, attendees asked for more information about about SPD’s involvement and specific part in the enforcement efforts. There were also questions about photographic evidence that was captured in the weekend inspections and what will be done with the material.
“The majority of the room is of the Seattle Police Department,” said one community member, noting how Nelson had been speaking as though the LGBTQ+ community wasn’t in the room. “I take offense to that personally.”
Korieo, meanwhile, said it remains unclear whether JET will experience a pause in operations, but he said that the mayor has made clear that the team is not going away.
The LGBTQ Advisory Council will hold their next meeting on March 6 with a speaker from the Seattle Police Foundation, and their April meeting will focus on the operations of the CARE team and the 911 call center.
Learn more at seattle.gov.
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🖤
Whoever was fired from The Cuff and thought it was a good idea to call the liquor board should be banned from all Queer establishments.
If Harrell wants to “make clear that the team is not going away” then we need to make clear that he will be going away
I see two problems..
First and foremost is the cops. They have eroded trust to the nub. They get no slack at all. Honest mistake or otherwise.
Second is the community. I look out my window morning, noon and night and see rainbow crosswalks and BLM murals. I see every kind of person. I live next to Pride Place.
I am a straight dude. USMC veteran and Dad of 5, 1 grand kid.
I like to look at my window and see every kind of person being free to do as they please w/o harming a soul.
I’ve never been to a local gay bar. But I also don’t care what goes on at them. I’m a newsie. I’ve never once in 59 years heard “That gay place down the street is where all the crime is”. Nope…They hate em’ cuz of who they are.
We need to handle people the right way. It was a bad idea. Let’s not repeat it.
A PHONE CALL would have been as effective. But the cops are not wired that way. Everything is a nail.
“The SPD sergeant also told the council attendees that it was not fair to blame the department for the enforcement visits.“
In other words, SPD isn’t responsible for anything they do. The biased enforcement just happened, no one knows how or why. What a peculiar mystery!
Oh, and the department is also too underfunded to solve murders and rapes and other violent crimes, until you give them more money, but don’t worry, they’ll always have ample resources to intimidate the LBGTQ+ community.
What a bitter viscous queen that employee must be. He should face charges for filing a false report.
The whole idea of going into queer bars with flashlights and cameras is so chilling. It’s just outrageous. Completely
Just FYI that “LCB” stands for Liquor and Cannabis Board, and that Liquor Control Board is pre-2012 :)