Recently, I attended a City Council Committee Meeting on public safety, civil rights, and technology. There were some 60 attendees in addition to Committee Chair, Bruce Harrell, council member, Jean Godden, and Chief of Police, Kathleen O’Toole.
Harrell began by addressing a group of middle school students in the audience, stating, “we have the Chief of Police here today, the highest ranking police official in the city, AND, she is a woman…We are very proud that gender doesn’t make a difference, at least not here in this city.”
What?
Last time I checked, gender makes a difference everywhere – even in a city as comparatively progressive and proactive as Seattle. Harrell, are you familiar with the host of LGBTQ hate crimes happening in and around The Hill these days? Unequal wage gaps? Apparently, you aren’t.
(I’ll revisit later on).
For now, allow me to debrief on a few of O’Toole’s main points on the SPD’s efforts to augment police accountability.
- So far in 2015, the SPD has not been involved in officer shootings and other violent disputes (phew).
- The SPD has implemented an Early Intervention System (EIS) to enhance officer accountability. O’Toole stated, “[the EIS] is a way to identify an officer’s abnormalities before he/she becomes problematic.” And yes, we’ve seen “problematic” from sea to shining sea.
- The SPD mandates de-escalation training as a part of its police academy, in efforts to “use deathly force [only] as a last resort so that officers have the tools to effectively de-escalate a dangerous situation.” While reminiscent of the “talk a man off the ledge” strategy, popularized in films and literary account of sorts, O’Toole argues that de-escalation has been largely successful to date.
- The SPD is going #Social #WorldWideWeb, via “trying to get better at telling [its] story,” says O’Toole. She is proud of the SPD’s new social media presence (FB, Twitter, etc.). Personally, I’d like to see an Instagram account titled, “TheCopCar98105,” but we’re not there yet.
- The SPD is working to align its statistical data with Seattle’s 57 distinct micro-communities. Each neighborhood has its own set of diverse challenges, that O’Toole and fellow officers believe should be uniquely addressed. Kudos!
- A new (mysterious ghost) IT man is working to develop “agile policing,” or the use of data from previous events to render new protocols. O’Toole says that this will help to “rapidly deploy resources through the use of technology” (like drones, but not).
- Community outreach is in. So is police recruitment. The SPD has the most “…diverse police explorer program in the state” for young people (like, 4th graders) to “…learn about policing… and to see if it’s right for them.” Forest Fire Fighting (yes, the FFF) was “right for me” when I was that age, but unfortunately, things change. Anyways, the program is diverse, and “targets historically underrepresented groups,” says O’Toole.
- O’Toole signed off (kind of) with these inspirational words, to soon be etched upon the back of a Pottery Barnes pillow – “I like to emphasize that prevention and intervention are always more important than enforcement.” #True.
Long live O’Toole!
This blog post was written by Natalie, a Public Policy major at Duke University and the Bus’ 2015 DukeEngage Intern.