July 10, 2019
Alison Holcomb
Political Director, ACLU-WA
901 Fifth Ave
Suite #630
Seattle, WA 98164
RE: Community Letter Regarding Regaining Compliance with Consent Decree
Dear Community Members:
Thank you for your recent letter regarding our shared work to ensure the Seattle Police Department
(SPD) remains in compliance with the Consent Decree. From the decades of work that we’ve done
together to make progress on lasting reform, I am deeply appreciative of each and every one of you for
your commitment to ensuring the City realizes true, community policing.
The City has been working diligently with our partners to begin the process for complying with the
Court’s order to devise a methodology for assessing the accountability regime. Over the past several
weeks, I have met with the Community Police Commission (CPC), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and
the Monitor, Lisa Judge, the Inspector General, and Andrew Myerberg, Director of the Office of Police
Accountability, to discuss this methodology. Durable and meaningful reform requires that all of the
accountability partners play a strong role during all phases of this upcoming work to bring the City fully
into compliance as it relates to accountability.
Ongoing collaboration in designing the methodology for the assessment ordered by the Court, as well as
community input is absolutely crucial. To help ensure this methodology is based in community input, the
City filed an extension until August 15 to allow for a robust and inclusive process that incorporates a
series of community meetings.
As the City has done with previous methodology reviews, the City is looking to engage a series of subject
matter experts to help formulate the assessment. Both the original investigation of SPD and most of the
system assessments have been done with the assistance of national experts, with subject matter
expertise — whether it be use of force, biased policing or crisis intervention. These assessments,
together with input by CPC, the Monitor, and other stakeholders formed the basis of Court approved
plans to reform the Department. That’s why it makes sense that we work with national experts to assist
us using the same model, as we have throughout the Consent Decree process, to improve accountability
and discipline.

Office of the Mayor   600 Fourth Avenue, P.O. Box 94749, Seattle, WA 98124   206-684-4000   seattle.gov/mayor

 The City with input from its partners is engaging 21 CP Solutions, who are national leaders in police
reform efforts and served on President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The experts were
chosen for their deep and varied experience and have national reputations in policing and accountability
and recently led assessments in cities and states across the country.
I have asked both the experts and the City be able to present directly to the CPC and answer questions
about both the process going forward and the scope of work. There is much common ground for us to
create lasting reform and strengthen our accountability and discipline systems for years to come. The
CPC will meet with the national experts on July 17 to develop a framework for the methodology. The
following day, July 18, the experts, City of Seattle, DOJ, CPC, and the Monitor will participate in a halfday work session to work on the methodology and the scope-of-work for the Court’s order.
To be clear, this assessment will not start over the decades of work that Seattle, the Department and
our community has done towards accountability. Rather, these efforts are to comply with the Court’s
order and to continually improve our discipline and accountability systems. The exact scope and
methodology are what the City and DOJ will develop with the CPC and the Monitor’s assistance. The
Court, of course, has final say — and the Phase II scope of work will begin upon the Court’s review and
approval of the proposed methodology.
I believe our work on the Court-ordered methodology will realize our shared goals of robust community
participation and ensure the SPD remains in full and effective compliance with the goals of the Consent
Decree. Please let Michelle Chen, Mayor’s Office General Counsel, know if you have any additional
questions or feedback. Thank you for your commitment to these shared values of lasting reform.
Sincerely,

Jenny A. Durkan
Mayor of Seattle