Justice Department Supports Seattle’s Motion to Terminate Police Department Consent Decree

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division today announced that it has filed a response in support of the City of Seattle’s Motion to Terminate the Consent Decree in United States v. City of Seattle. The decree required reforms in the Seattle Police Department’s practices regarding use of force, crisis intervention, stops and detentions, supervision and accountability. With support from the Justice Department, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) achieved sustained substantial compliance.

The Justice Department brought this case pursuant to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. The U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Civil Division and the Special Litigation Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division jointly investigated and found that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) had engaged in a pattern or practice of unnecessary or excessive force that violated the Constitution and federal law. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington entered the consent decree in 2012.

“We congratulate the Seattle Police Department on its achievement of sustained substantial compliance with this thirteen-year-old consent decree,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. “This Civil Rights Division will continue to work with police departments across the country to help make America’s communities safe again.”

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Washington, believes the district court should terminate the consent decree and monitorship, which have been in place for 13 years,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller for the Western District of Washington. “Seattle has been held up as an example of successful police reform and has done recent work on its crowd control policies and accountability systems. We trust it will continue to lead the way on constitutional policing.”