Seattle Police Hit Record Lows in Use-of Force
The Seattle Police Monitor reports the SPD’s use of force declined 33 percent from 2015 to 2019 and by nearly 50 percent from 2015 to 2021.
Landwebs
The Seattle Police Department (SPD) had record lows in annual use-of-force incidents in 2019 and 2021, according to a new report from the Seattle Police Monitor. The figures also show usage of less-lethal gear skyrocketed to a record high in the city during the 2020 George Floyd protests, reports King 5. The monitor reported the SPD’s use of force declined 33 percent from 2015 to 2019 and nearly 50 percent from 2015 to 2021. The most serious types of use-of-force declined 60 percent from 2014 to 2019 through 2021.
This is parallel to the SPD’s use of tasers, which decreased month-to-month by 61 percent when comparing 2001-2010 and 2014-2021 data. However, 2020 resulted in “historic levels” of protest-related uses of force and misconduct complaints, with the monitor finding that while the most frequent subjects in force incidents were white, the most serious types of use-of-force incidents were most often focused on Black individuals.
