A federal judge has ended more than a decade of Justice Department oversight of the Seattle Police Department, marking the conclusion of a long-running consent decree that began after findings of excessive force and racial bias within the department. The 13-year oversight, ordered in 2012 following the fatal shooting of Indigenous wood-carver John T. Williams two years prior, prompted sweeping changes to police practices, including the adoption of body cameras, new use-of-force guidelines, and stronger accountability measures, reports the New York Times.
Seattle's push to lift the decree began in 2023, but the process was slowed by unresolved issues—particularly around crowd control after the 2020 protests. On Wednesday, US District Judge James Robart signaled that the city had met its obligations and officially lifted the federal mandate. Mayor Bruce Harrell called the current police force "a different department than it was in 2012," pledging ongoing reforms.
The Justice Department had once found that Seattle officers regularly escalated encounters with the public and used unconstitutional force in about 20% of incidents involving force. Federal investigators noted particular concern regarding use of force on people in crisis and on restrained subjects, per KUOW. The targets in many cases of cited police abuse were found to have been intoxicated, disabled, or suffering from some sort of mental health issue, reports the Seattle Times.
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Overall, worries arose about disparate impacts on minority communities. Since then, the city has overhauled its policies and training, though both officials and community advocates say work remains. Seattle stands out for achieving compliance at a time when the federal government has scaled back similar interventions elsewhere, closing or limiting civil rights investigations into police departments in cities like Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Louisville, Kentucky, per the New York Times.
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