SEATTLE — A federal judge has declined to approve Seattle’s police-accountability legislation until he is told what key items will require bargaining with the city’s police unions.
The Seattle Times reports (that U.S. District Judge James Robart on Tuesday said he wasn’t prepared to approve a work in progress.
Robart is presiding over a 2012 federal consent decree requiring the Seattle Police Department to address excessive force and biased policing. Robart said “the citizens of Seattle are not going to pay blackmail for constitutional policing.”
The legislation, passed by the City Council in May and signed by Mayor Ed Murray, includes provisions that would replace uniformed officers with civilians in the internal-investigations unit, make it harder for officers to successfully appeal firings and discipline, and create a civilian inspector-general position with broad authority to oversee the police department’s internal workings.
City Attorney Pete Holmes said city officials, Robart’s court-appointed monitor and U.S. Justice Department attorneys who obtained the consent decree will work to craft a list to be submitted to the judge as soon possible. He did not disclose what items may be subject to bargaining because labor talks with the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild, which represents officers and sergeants, and the Seattle Police Management Association, the union for captains and lieutenants, are confidential.
In demanding more details, Robart noted that Murray, in a separate matter, already had been forced on Monday to issue an executive order requiring SPD to equip patrol officers with body cameras in the face of resistance by the police union.
In a news conference after Tuesday’s hearing, Councilmember M. Lorena Gonz?lez, chair of the council public-safety committee that crafted the legislation, said the city was prepared to address the judge’s concerns.
