Tag Archives: Seattle Police Department

News

South End Community Support Seattle Detective Who Filed Discrimination Claim Against City and Police Department

March 22, 2023 Editor

by Phil Manzano

Karen Wells stepped outside the meeting room, packed on a bright Saturday with children and parents, as an instructor spoke about chess moves and strategy. She has been bringing her two nieces to the Rainier Beach Community Center for about a year so they can participate in the Detective Cookie Chess Club.

News broke over the weekend that Seattle Police Department Detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin filed a $10 million claim against the City of Seattle, alleging a discriminatory and hostile workplace.

“It was very upsetting to me,” said Wells. “I really got angry, but I wasn’t surprised.”

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News

City Attorney Warns Human Rights Commissioners of Legal Action if SHRC Pursues Amicus Status — Fails to Cite Specifics

February 14, 2023 Editor

by Carolyn Bick

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

Seattle Human Rights Commissioners past and present say that since the commission announced its intention to seek amicus status with the federal court in the matter of the Consent Decree, they have faced repeated warnings from the Seattle City Attorney’s Office.

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News

Fmr. Mayor May Have Pushed OPA to Delay Investigations Into Fmr. Police Chief

February 1, 2023 Editor

City hired outside firm to investigate; OPA currently reviewing documents.

by Carolyn Bick

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

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Voices

OPINION | Diverse Voices Are Needed to Understand Public Safety and Security in Seattle

December 1, 2022 Editor

by Jacqueline B. Helfgott, Brandon N. Bledsoe, and Katie Kepler

The Seattle Public Safety Survey, now in its eighth year, is administered annually from Oct. 15 to Nov. 30. The survey is part of the Micro-Community Policing Plans (MCPP), a collaboration between Seattle University (SU) Crime and Justice Research Center and the Seattle Police Department (SPD), focused on police and community engagement at the neighborhood level.

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News

City Silent About Ongoing, Potentially Flawed Investigation Into Former OPA Director

November 29, 2022 Editor

Charging Thousands of Dollars Per Month, Outside Firm Waited Almost a Year to Interview Former OPA Director

by Carolyn Bick

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

Since the beginning of this year, the Emerald has been following and reporting on developments in the ongoing investigation into allegations of medical privacy violations against former Office of Police Accountability Dir. Andrew Myerberg and still-unnamed — and, possibly, still unknown — Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers.

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News

OPA May Have Broken City and State Records Laws By Not Retaining Emails

November 15, 2022 Editor

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 discovered that officials within the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) may have broken — indeed may be continuing to break — public records laws by either manually deleting or allowing certain emails to expire before the two-year mark prescribed by City and State records laws. At least one of these emails concerned an item of public interest. State law makes the intentional destruction of these records a felony offense, if any law enforcement agency should choose to investigate.

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News

OIG Fired Auditor for Alleged Misconduct, but Court Disagreed

November 4, 2022 Editor

Auditor Fired Shortly After Attempt to Open Misconduct Investigation into OPA

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 a copy of a 2019 termination letter that the Office of Inspector General (OIG)’s Inspector General Lisa Judge sent to former OIG staffer Sarah Lippek. The letter shows that the OIG fired Lippek for alleged misconduct, including, among other things, allegedly fully certifying a single Office of Police Accountability (OPA) case without accessing information beyond the initial intake.

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Features

Community Groups Say ShotSpotter in Proposed Mayoral Budget May Harm South End

October 18, 2022 Editor

by Lauryn Bray

On Sept. 27, 2022, Mayor Bruce Harrell delivered his budget proposal for 2023, which included a $10 million increase in funding for the Regional Homelessness Authority, a $1 million increase to the $6 million budget for projects designed to reduce traffic collisions in the Rainier Valley, and pay increases for homelessness service providers. The budget also outlines increased spending for police, using the JumpStart payroll tax for non-JumpStart programs, moving the City’s parking enforcement back to the Seattle Police Department, and installing ShotSpotters in Rainier Beach. As Bruce Harrell attempts to follow through with his campaign promise to address public safety concerns, he seeks to undo the abolition efforts of the 2020–2022 state of civil unrest.

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News

Harrell’s Budget Would Move Parking Enforcement Back to SPD and Use JumpStart to Backfill Budget

September 27, 2022 Editor

by Erica C. Barnett

(This article originally appeared on PubliCola and has been reprinted under an agreement.)

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s first budget proposal would use JumpStart payroll tax revenues to shore up spending for non-JumpStart programs, move the City’s parking enforcement officers back into the Seattle Police Department (SPD) from the Department of Transportation (SDOT), and provide pay increases to homeless service providers well below the rate of inflation.

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