Seattle
Significant Room for Improvement
In 2017, 1,147 people were killed by the police,[1] and in the 100 largest cities between 2013 and 2017, Black people comprised 39 percent of those killed despite comprising only 21 percent of the population.[2] Police in the United States kill more people per day than other countries do in years.[3] Despite the pervasive use of force employed by police departments across the country, there is no national standard governing use-of-force policies,[5] which leads to significant subjectivity when prosecuting officers for excessive use of force.[6]
To achieve greater accountability, local elected officials can play an important role in advocating for strong use-of-force policies that prioritize the sanctity of life, put limits on the type of force officers can use and under what circumstances, and require robust data collection and reporting.
For policy background and further resources, see our toolkit page on use of force here.
City Data
- 688,245 Total Population
- 12.5% Poverty status in the past 12 months
- 1,444 No. of Police
Racial and Ethnic Demographics
- 6.5% Latinx
- 7.1% Black/African American
- 65.3% White, non-Hispanic
- 14.5% Asian
- 0.6% American Indian and Alaska Native
- 0.4% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
- 2.2% Some other race
- 6.6% 2 or more races
1Commitment to Life: Does the policy explicitly express a commitment to preserve lives/protect the sanctity of life?
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y
Does the policy explicitly express a commitment to preserve lives/protect the sanctity of life?
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2Force Continuum: Does use-of-force policy establish a use of force continuum that defines types of force or weapons that can be used to respond to different types of resistance?
3Limitations: Does use-of-force policy put the following limitations on officers: ban chokeholds and strangleholds; require verbal warnings; prohibit from shooting at moving vehicles; require officers to exhaust all reasonable alternatives before shooting?
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n
Does the policy explicitly prohibit chokeholds or strangleholds (and carotid restraints)?
Source » -
y
Does the policy explicitly require officers to give a verbal warning before using deadly force?
Source » -
n
Does the policy explicitly prohibit officers from discharging a firearm at or into a moving vehicle (unless the occupants are using deadly force, other than the vehicle itself, against the officer)?
Source » -
n
Does the policy state that officers may only use firearms in the defense of life or to prevent serious bodily injury (only after exhausting all other reasonable alternatives)?
4Officer Intervention: Does the policy explicitly state that officers must, when possible, intervene to stop the use of excessive force?
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y
Does the policy explicitly state that officers must, when possible, intervene to stop the use of excessive force?
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5Accountability: Does the policy include provisions regarding accountability, such as requiring an incident be reported to a supervisor?
6De-escalation Training: Does the policy require officers to participate in de-escalation training every year?
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n
Do officers have to participate in a de-escalation training every year?
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n
Does the curriculum include scenario-based training?
7Public Reporting: Does the policy have explicit, detailed, and regular public reporting requirements?
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Does the department report statistics on: i
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n
the type of force?
Source » -
n
the type and degree of injury to suspect and officer?
Source » -
n
date and time of incident?
Source » -
n
location of incident?
Source » -
n
officer’s unit, station, and assignment?
Source » -
n
number of officers that used force in the incident?
Source » -
n
officer’s activity when force was used?
Source » -
n
subject’s activity when force was used?
Source » -
n
demographic information of officer?
Source » -
n
demographic information of subject?
Source » -
n
outcome of any investigation?
Source » -
n
Are there opportunities for public hearings to report on and explain data?
Source » -
After an officer-involved shooting, is local law enforcement required to publicly report: i
-
n
the names of officers involved in the shooting?
Source » -
n
officers’ commands?
Source » -
n
officers’ tenure on the job?
Source » -
n
the type of firearm or weapon used?
Source » -
n
the number of shots fired?
Source » -
n
Is local law enforcement required to release this information within 48 hours of the incident?
Source » -
n
Is local law enforcement prohibited from releasing mugshots of victims to the public?
Source » -
y
Is the policy posted on a website for public viewing?
Source »
Use of Force Methodology
Center for Popular Democracy researchers evaluated each city based on a full set of policy criteria as developed in the Reform/Transform toolkit in collaboration with policy experts and advocates. Because the original tool is lengthy and the questions are numerous, we organized the full list of questions into a smaller number of thematic groupings. This process yielded seven broader buckets of questions (which encompassed all of the sub-questions from the original, full-length tool).
Finally, we developed a ranking system to differentiate cities’ performance based on how successfully their use of force policies fulfill these seven broad criteria. Because not all questions should be weighted equally (some criteria are more essential to giving a policy teeth than others), our ranking system reflects researchers’ judgements about what components are critical to real accountability based on research and previous conversations with policy experts. Read more »
