SEATTLE _ The Department of Justice, which nearly six years ago stunned the Seattle Police Department with its finding that officers too often used excessive force, urged a federal judge on Friday to grant the city of Seattle's request to be found in "full and effective compliance" with court-ordered reforms.
The Justice Department's recommendation represents a major leap in the case. But its significance depends on whether U.S. District Judge James Robart finds the city in compliance or adopts the position of his court-appointed monitor, Merrick Bobb, that the department has yet to meet all of its requirements.
The Justice Department revealed its position in court papers filed with Robart, who has presided over the case since the Justice Department and the city entered into a consent decree in 2012 that required the Police Department to adopt sweeping reforms.
"We have not come to this conclusion lightly," Annette L. Hayes, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, said in a statement. "Career civil rights attorneys and police-practices experts have spent more than five years investigating SPD, overseeing the creation of new policies and training, and independently reviewing the relevant data and the results of assessments conducted by the Court-appointed Monitor that examined the implementation of the Consent Decree's requirements."
The consent decree also created the Community Police Commission (CPC), a citizen body that, in court papers filed Friday, concurred with the city that it has reached full compliance with the decree's benchmarks.
It is not known when Robart will issue a ruling.
If Robart finds the city in compliance, it would trigger a two-year period in which the city would have to show the reforms have been locked in place.
The city asked Robart on Sept. 29 to find the Police Department in full compliance, saying in court papers that it would give "police officers and other women and men serving SPD and the City the recognition for carrying out the hard day-to-day work of policing and reform."
The city disputed Bobb's conclusion, outlined in a Sept. 8 status report, that the Police Department had yet to comply with some elements of the consent decree, despite making a "great deal of progress."
The Justice Department sought the consent decree under President Barack Obama's nationwide police reform effort, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions, under President Donald Trump, has questioned such agreements.
In a December 2011 report, the Justice Department found that the Police Department had engaged in a "pattern or practice" of using excessive force and displayed troubling practices of biased policing. The consent decree sought to remedy the problems.
The report prompted then-Seattle Police Chief John Diaz to declare his department "is not broken."
The CPC, in its Friday filing, sought to allay any concern that the Justice Department had shifted course under Trump.
"It is important to call out our belief that the United States' position in this case at this juncture is fully consistent with the mandate and approach brought to bear from the outset" by the Justice Department's civil-rights division and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, the CPC said in the filing.
In its request to Robart to be found in compliance, the city cites its successful completion of 10 key assessments conducted by the monitor. Among other things, Bobb found the department had made dramatic improvements involving use of force, as well as dealing with people in crisis.
But Bobb noted that the assessments, while important, "nevertheless do not constitute all the requirements of the Consent Decree."
He cited questions stemming from the fatal shooting by two white officers of Charleena Lyles, a 30-year-old African-American mother of four, on June 18, and pointed to problems in the chain of command's ability to identify possible misuse of force and to incorporate "lessons learned" from internal reviews by the department's Force Review Board into training.
In addition, Bobb said his team and the court were awaiting the department's analysis of why blacks and Latinos are "stopped disproportionately and frisked disproportionately."
The city asserts Bobb is seeking more than is required, and that reform would continue during a two-year review.
It agreed the shooting of Lyles has raised questions about the consistent implementation of the department's crisis-intervention practices, calling them "valid and important questions" that can't be fully answered until a thorough investigation is complete.
The city also contends it has exceeded the consent decree's requirements by overhauling police-accountability procedures; giving citizens the right to sue for violations of the department's bias-free policing policy; bolstering oversight of off-duty employment; and creating a civilian inspector-general post with broad powers.
The CPC, in its filing, echoed the city's view, saying reform work that goes beyond the consent decree must continue.
The Justice Department concluded the city has met its obligations under the first phase of the consent decree based on the 10 assessments conducted by the monitor and its own independent review of the city's compliance.
"We know that real reforms can't just happen on paper," Hayes, the U.S. attorney, said. "They must be carried out in practice. That is why civil rights attorneys and police reform experts, along with the Monitor, took a hard look at the way officers are using force on the street _ whether there is a real commitment to de-escalation, whether new approaches to crisis situations are resulting in better outcomes, and whether internal supervision and independent civilian-led accountability systems are sufficient to address any shortcomings.
"This conclusion does not mean the police department is perfect, nor does it end the hard work required under the Decree. There is more to do and issues that need to be addressed. Rather, this milestone represents the end of one chapter and the beginning of another," her statement said.
