The Seattle Community Police Commission will hold a community meeting next week as it calls for holding strong on accountability measures in the city’s labor agreement with the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

“Stronger accountability standards create the conditions and opportunity to improve the relationship and trust between SPD officers and the community,” CPC chairs Rev. Patricia Hunter, Joel Merkel, and Rev. Harriett Walden wrote in a letter, below, on the negotiations. “Seattle deserves a police department that shares its values, and officers deserve the opportunity to earn the community’s trust and respect.”

The CPC says the city’s 2017 police accountability ordinance was gutted in the previous rounds of deals with the city’s police officer union.

CHS reported here on the limited information released so far on a set of deals including years the union has been working without a contact that would boost SPD salaries significantly. Other details of the retroactive agreement have not been released and will become public as the contract moves through the approval process including a final vote by the Seattle City Council. Officials will also need to finalize agreements on contractual details for 2024 and forward.

CHS reported here on efforts to preserve accountability priorities in the negotiations included adding a representative from the Community Police Commission to the bargaining process. Advocates have called for reform amid waves of Office of Police Accountability actions that have resulted in reprimands and training but few instances of demotions or terminations. Also powering the call for reform are 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.

The negotiations come as Seattle is preparing to cut back on investments and services as the city faces a looming $230 million budget hole as inflation has climbed and revenues haven’t fully recovered from the pandemic.

The CPC’s community meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 23rd from 5:30 to 7:45 PM at Van Asselt Community Center, 2820 S Myrtle.

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