Vestal: Seattle PD lawsuit justifies reason for DOJ reforms

The Department of Justice went to Seattle and examined the police department.

It determined that the department had a pattern of using excessive force and biased tactics. It imposed a series of reforms, through a court-ordered agreement in 2012 with the city leadership, that limited and more clearly defined when officers could use physical force. It established more specific limits on when a cop can hit someone with a club or shoot them. The reformed policy says when officers use physical force, it must be because the circumstances are objectively threatening and the level of the force should be proportionate to the threat.

Who could argue with that? A lot of Seattle police officers.

More than 125 Seattle cops have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the reforms. Their arguments against the Seattle reforms are a chilling reminder that police oversight and reform, even when supported by the mayor and the police chief and the attorney general, can run into the biggest obstacles of all: the ones in the police cars. Read more. Shawn Vestal, SR

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