Sentinel Event Review of Police Response to 2020 Protests in Seattle Wave 1: Downtown Protests May 29 – June 1
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Kelly Kline, Black Lives Matter Protest, Seattle WA, 2020. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Sentinel Event Review of Police Response to 2020 Protests in Seattle Wave 1: Downtown Protests May 29 – June 1 © T.C.T. July 22, 2021 PO Box 94764 Seattle, WA 98124-7064 [email protected] | (206) 684-3663 www.seattle.gov/oig SENTINEL EVENT REVIEW WAVE 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents Letter from the Inspector General…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1 Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2 I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 5 II. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 7 III. Panel Recommendations………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 19 General Events - May 29 Organized Property Damage in the International District and May 30 Protests and Escalation of Violence ..................................................................................................... 20 Review of Specific Incidents ................................................................................................................. 34 Incident #1: OC Spraying of Child, May 30..................................................................................... 34 Incident #2: Police Vehicles Set on Fire, SPD Rifles Stolen, May 30 .............................................. 41 Incident #3: Officer Placing Knee on Individual’s Neck During Arrest, May 30 ............................. 47 Incident #4: Bicycle officer altercation and arrest of pedestrian, May 31 .................................... 53 Incident #5: The “Pink Umbrella” Incident, June 1 ........................................................................ 60 IV. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 68 Appendix A. Dialogue Policing…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 69 Appendix B. SER Participants………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 73 Appendix C. Short Biographies of Panel Members ................................................................................... 74 Appendix D. SER Peacemaking Circle Group Norms ................................................................................. 78 Appendix E. Overall Description of Events May 29 and 30 ....................................................................... 79 May 29, 2020: Organized Property Damage in the International District ........................................... 79 May 30, 2020: Protests and Escalation of Violence ............................................................................. 82 Appendix F. In-Depth Description of Reviewed Incidents ........................................................................ 90 Incidents Reviewed .............................................................................................................................. 90 Incident #1: OC Spraying of Child, May 30..................................................................................... 90 Incident #2: Police Vehicles Set on Fire, SPD Rifles Stolen, May 30 .............................................. 92 Incident #3: Officer Placing Knee on Individual’s Neck During Arrest, May 30 ............................. 95 Incident #4: Bicycle officer altercation and arrest with pedestrian, May 31 ................................ 96 Incident #5: The “Pink Umbrella” Incident, June 1 ........................................................................ 99 Appendix G. List of Recommendations by Theme .................................................................................. 104 SENTINEL EVENT REVIEW WAVE 1 Letter from the Inspector General Letter from the Inspector General This report represents the work of a Sentinel Event Review Panel including community members and Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers, who dedicated an incredible amount of their time and energy to engage in open, honest, and difficult dialogue around SPD actions during the course of the 2020 police protests and how the City can do better. This report builds upon earlier work by my office on SPD use of less lethal weapons in protest response. At the outset, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) analyzed information gleaned from hundreds of Use of Force reports and hours of body-worn video, public commentary, complaints, and numerous other sources. That analysis identified five discernable “waves” of activity, each of which was punctuated by distinguishing moments that contributed to violent conflicts between and among protesters and SPD. This report presents the Panel’s recommendations related to the first of those waves. Subsequent reports addressing the remaining waves will be issued in the coming months. OIG is also producing an analysis of the collective events of 2020 from a crowd dynamics perspective with the assistance of Professor Clifford Stott, who has worked in the area of crowd psychology and policing in the global arena for decades. I hope this collective body of work leads to a fuller understanding of what took place last summer—and a deeper understanding of how we can collectively move forward. These recommendations, which represent the consensus views of community members and SPD officers of varying ranks, would not have been possible without a peace and reconciliation approach to dialoguing. It is hoped that the peacemaking process used by the panel may provide a roadmap for other critical conversations between community and police, including but not limited to future sentinel event reviews. I want to acknowledge and appreciate the deep commitment by the panelists who, in addition to their heavy emotional investment, met for more than 80 hours over the course of the first seven months, in addition to reviewing materials in preparation for those meetings. Another important contributor to this process was a planning group consisting of community and police representatives, who guided selection of the panel, facilitators, and incidents for review, to ensure that the process and attendant outcome was not determined by any one agency or voice. I also want to thank our facilitators, expert consultants, and my staff for their role in bringing together a product many months in the making. Panelists were not interested in participating in a process unless they believed it could result in meaningful change. That is an intention I share. During the course of this process, my office has been engaged in continuing conversation with SPD and other City stakeholders on the developing recommendations, and I will continue to use the authority vested with OIG to push for responsive and effective systemic reform. In partnership, Lisa Judge Inspector General for Public Safety Page 1 SENTINEL EVENT REVIEW WAVE 1 Executive Summary Executive Summary Background The murder of George Floyd had a monumental impact on this country and internationally, and engaged wide segments of America in public dialogue about the role of race in every aspect of society. The implications of this event are still being felt even as this report is released. Like other departments in cities around the country, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) faced a complex and difficult challenge in the days after Mr. Floyd’s murder. Namely, the City grappled with how to respond to ongoing community protests about the long history of abuse, excessive use of force, and deaths suffered by Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color at the hands of police. These protests also served as an urgent call for an examination of the institution of policing, to find a manner that would not further erode public trust, given these longstanding problems and concerns. Sentinel Event Review (SER) aims to identify the causes and contributing factors to undesired incidents with the goal of prevention (see principles and goals in Table 1 below).1 SER has been used extensively in aviation, health care, and manufacturing, among others, to identify root causes of tragedies and design improvements that will prevent their recurrence. The focus of SER is on fixing the system, not on assigning individual liability. Table 1. Principles and Goals of Sentinel Event Review Principles Goals Include SPD and community Focus on community perspectives and stakeholders concerns; define implementable recommendations for SPD change No assignation of individual blame Identify root causes of negative outcomes Learn from mistakes and best Improve systems to reduce or prevent practices in other jurisdictions future negative outcomes or harm to the community Support analysis with data and Increase legitimacy of government evidence agencies and departments Take action to correct identified Facilitate community healing and mutual issues understanding The SER Panel includes community members representing different lived experiences of Seattle and SPD officers at various command levels. The Panel was supported by the Inspector General, a team of Office of Inspector General (OIG) data analysts, and a group of experts in fields including crowd psychology, trauma stewardship, police crowd facilitation techniques, and civil rights law. The Panel was facilitated 1 These fundamentals are a blend of "just culture" models from SER panels used in the health care and aerospace industries and the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance Sentinel Event Initiative. See https://bja.ojp.gov/program/sentinel-events-initiative/sentinel-events. Additional reference materials regarding SER can be found on the OIG website at www.seattle.gov/oig/sentinel-event-review. Page 2 SENTINEL EVENT REVIEW WAVE 1