Tag Archives: Office of Police Accountability

News

NEWS GLEAMS | New Director of the OPA Nominated by Harrell, 16th Annual Duwamish River Festival Aug. 6, & More

1 Comment

A round-up of news and announcements we don’t want to get lost in the fast-churning news cycle!

curated by Vee Hua 華婷婷

In anticipation of possible future Supreme Court decisions ahead, the House just passed legislation to protect marriage equality, but the fight is not quite over. Mayor Bruce Harrell has also nominated a new director for the Office of Police Accountability; plus, we offer a brief recap of his plans to bring more police to Seattle and City Council’s new legislation to strengthen police accountability.

On a brighter note, it has been some time since the Duwamish River has looked as sparkly as it does now. Don’t miss the free all-day festival that pays homage to the importance of clean water through art, activities, and community.

—Vee Hua 華婷婷, interim managing editor for the South Seattle Emerald

Continue reading NEWS GLEAMS | New Director of the OPA Nominated by Harrell, 16th Annual Duwamish River Festival Aug. 6, & More →
News

OPA May Have Misclassified These Complaints, Effectively Sweeping Them Under the Rug

by Carolyn Bick

The Emerald’s Watchdragon reporting seeks to increase accountability within our city’s institutions through in-depth investigative journalism.

Author’s Note: This article is one of two released today that discuss issues related to the Office of Police Accountability’s (OPA) contact log complaint classification. Complaints designated as “contact log” are not subject to investigation and are effectively “closed” according to the OPA manual.

This article addresses the OPA’s misclassifications of what appear to be serious, investigation-worthy allegations as contact log complaints. Documents obtained by the Emerald show that these allegations include retaliation and bias, as well as more than 40 complaints against Seattle Police Officer Guild (SPOG) President Mike Solan, grouped together as one complaint and classified as a contact log.

Continue reading OPA May Have Misclassified These Complaints, Effectively Sweeping Them Under the Rug →
News

Fed. Monitoring Team May Have Ignored Potential Source of SPD Sex Abuse Data

by Carolyn Bick

The Emerald’s Watchdragon reporting seeks to increase accountability within our city’s institutions through in-depth investigative journalism.

Author’s Note: This article is one of two released today that both discuss issues related to the Office of Police Accountability’s (OPA) contact log complaint classification. Complaints designated as “contact log” are not subject to investigation and are effectively “closed” according to the OPA manual.

This article addresses some of the content of a March 2022 meeting among the federal monitor, members of the monitoring team, and a local lawyer and her colleague attempting to shine light on sexual abuse allegations against Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers. Based on the available evidence, it appears that allegations regarding officer sexual misconduct may exist as “contact log” complaints. However, the federal monitor appears to have dismissed this potential source of sexual abuse data without looking at any of the available contact log complaints.

Continue reading Fed. Monitoring Team May Have Ignored Potential Source of SPD Sex Abuse Data →
News

CPC Lost or Destroyed SPD Sexual Abuse Data After Omitting It From Report

Member of Federal Monitoring Team Put Onus on Local Lawyer to Reproduce Data, Protect Complainants

by Carolyn Bick

The Emerald’s Watchdragon reporting seeks to increase accountability within our city’s institutions through in-depth investigative journalism.

The Emerald has learned that the Community Police Commission has apparently either lost or destroyed survey data pointing to allegations of sexual abuse by Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers.

Continue reading CPC Lost or Destroyed SPD Sexual Abuse Data After Omitting It From Report →
News

Fmr. OPA Dir. Subverted Agency’s Own Rules, City Ordinance by Withholding Information

City Refuses to Answer Essential Questions About Publicly Funded Investigation

by Carolyn Bick

The Emerald’s Watchdragon reporting seeks to increase accountability within our city’s institutions through in-depth investigative journalism.

The Emerald has obtained multiple documents that show that former Office of Police Accountability (OPA) Dir. Andrew Myerberg appears to have withheld key information from the Office of Inspector General — the OPA’s accountability partner agency tasked with certifying OPA investigations — by submitting a case for certification and later adding information to the case report. In doing so, and in drawing conclusions from said information, Myerberg appears to have subverted not only the OPA’s own rules and procedures but also the City’s 2017 Accountability Ordinance. 

Continue reading Fmr. OPA Dir. Subverted Agency’s Own Rules, City Ordinance by Withholding Information →
News

Reader Questions, Comments Ahead of Tonight’s OPA Dir. Candidate Forum

by Carolyn Bick

The Emerald’s Watchdragon reporting seeks to increase accountability within our city’s institutions through in-depth investigative journalism.

Despite the City bumping up the date for its public OPA director candidate forum several weeks from June 23 to today, June 8, at 6:30 p.m. with little notice to the public ahead of time, the Emerald received over the past several weeks — and yesterday, submitted — a host of questions and comments from readers in response to a public call for reader input a couple of months ago.

Continue reading Reader Questions, Comments Ahead of Tonight’s OPA Dir. Candidate Forum →
News

BREAKING: Texts Show Fmr. SPD Chief Best Involved in Plan to Abandon East Precinct

by Carolyn Bick

The Emerald’s Watchdragon reporting seeks to increase accountability within our city’s institutions through in-depth investigative journalism.

During interviews with the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) in 2021, after her retirement, former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best told investigators she was not involved in plans to abandon the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct on June 8, 2020. But text messages obtained by the Emerald tell another story.

According to texts between Best and Assistant Police Chief Lesley Cordner, it appears that Best was in contact with former Mayor Jenny Durkan about the Seattle Police Department (SPD) removing items from the East Precinct and that she was aware, on the morning of June 8, 2020, of a plan to remove firearms, ammunition, and evidence from the building by 5 p.m. that day. (Note: The Emerald has redacted phone numbers that appeared in the above-linked text log transcript.)

This is not what Best told OPA investigators, according to the OPA’s Case Closed Summary (CCS) on the matter, and not the story she continued to tell media almost a year after the incident.

Continue reading BREAKING: Texts Show Fmr. SPD Chief Best Involved in Plan to Abandon East Precinct →
News

BREAKING: SCAO Tells Human Rights Commission Not to Seek Amicus Status

by Carolyn Bick

The Emerald’s Watchdragon reporting seeks to increase accountability within our city’s institutions through in-depth investigative journalism.

The Emerald has today received confirmation that the Seattle City Attorney’s Office (SCAO) told the Seattle Human Rights Commission (SHRC) not to seek amicus curiae status shortly after the commission’s vote to do so at its public meeting on April 7, 2022. It is immediately unclear exactly who in the SCAO told the commission this and why.

Continue reading BREAKING: SCAO Tells Human Rights Commission Not to Seek Amicus Status →
News

OPA Interviews Suggest Former OPA Dir. Retroactively OK’d Out-of-Policy Force Tactic

by Carolyn Bick

The Emerald’s Watchdragon reporting seeks to increase accountability within our city’s institutions through in-depth investigative journalism.

Content Warning: This article contains images of acts of violence.

In late September 2021, the Emerald published an article detailing serious discrepancies and what appears to have been a false narrative about the events of the 2020 Labor Day protest in front of the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG). 

This false narrative, detailed in the Office of Police Accountability’s (OPA) Director’s Certification Memo (DCM), was based on interviews with some Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers who had been at the protest, as well as other supplemental documentation, such as body worn video (BWV).

Continue reading OPA Interviews Suggest Former OPA Dir. Retroactively OK’d Out-of-Policy Force Tactic →
News

POLL: Emerald Readers’ Ps and Qs for OPA Director Candidates

Seattle is on the hunt for a new Office of Police Accountability director following the departure of Andrew Myerberg, recently appointed by Mayor Bruce Harrell to a newly created Public Safety director position. Announced at a recent meeting of Seattle City Council’s Public Safety Committee, a public forum will take place on June 23, 2022, featuring the three finalists recommended by the search committee. 

Emerald readers, that’s where you come in. We want to know: What are your priorities when it comes to hiring Seattle’s new director? What questions would/will you ask the final three candidates? What do you want these OPA director candidates to know about the job and your expectations?

Continue reading POLL: Emerald Readers’ Ps and Qs for OPA Director Candidates →