Seattle Community Police Commission seeks to regroup from internal turmoil, influence crowd control ordinance

Seattle’s Community Police Commission was created to amplify the voices of communities affected by policing and weigh in on police reform. But internal conflicts, vacancies, and turnover have frustrated that mission in recent years, according to an outside review.

Now members say they’re trying to move forward in time to influence the city’s latest ordinance governing crowd management and less-lethal weapons.

Seattle’s Community Police Commission was created as part of the city’s 2012 consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department, after federal officials found a pattern of unconstitutional excessive force by police.

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In a 2023 assessment, the federal monitoring team in charge of advising a U.S. District Court judge on Seattle’s progress described the Community Police Commission as conflict-ridden and “not fully functional.”

In an interview with KUOW, federal monitor Antonio Oftelie said the commission has been effective in the past, but lost its way in recent years.

“There have been I think times throughout the past few years where CPC’s had a really strong connection to community and a very strong voice in policy and practices changes, innovation, and public safety," he said. "And right now they have to rebuild that capacity."

The CPC was influential, for example, in flagging concerns about the city’s 2018 contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild, which led to a federal court ruling that the contract was out of compliance with the consent decree.

Oftelie said the existence of the commission itself is not required under the consent decree, if a better system can be found for channeling community voices.

“Bottom line is the court would want to see some rigorous, structured, and formal way that the city engages with community to generate ideas on improving public safety,” he said.

Last month the commission’s then-Executive Director Cali Ellis filed a tort claim with the city, alleging disability discrimination and retaliation. She declined KUOW's request for comment.

The Community Police Commission removed Ellis this month and appointed deputy director Eci Ameh as interim executive director. Ameh said she’s excited for the future, as the city seeks to emerge from the consent decree.

“I think we’re at a really critical point in Seattle with the possibility of the consent decree going away in the next year, looking at what does it look like to be in a post-consent decree world in Seattle, and what does the future of police oversight look like?” she said.

Donnitta Sinclair is a community member who said the Community Police Commission needs to rebuild public trust. She has asked the commission for help addressing the impacts of gun violence and other public safety concerns. Her 19-year-old son Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr. was shot and killed in the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone in 2020.

“There’s no trust, there’s no relationship, there’s no community-building,” she said. “What actual ties do they have to community, what relationship? This isn’t just about them having a job — they have to be out in the community and do something.”

On its website, nearly half the Community Police Commission’s seats are listed as vacant. Rev. Patricia Hunter, who served as co-chair of the commission, resigned last June saying in a letter, “The work of the CPC has been co-opted by those least impacted by policing….This is wrong!”

Seattle City Councilmember and Public Safety Committee Chair Bob Kettle said the CPC has been hindered by staffing issues and difficulty attracting new commissioners, but he’s seeing more progress in filling those positions.

“I think now we’re getting some on board, across the mayor, ourselves, and the CPC itself. So I think 2025 will be a step forward for the CPC,” he said.

The Public Safety Committee is reviewing new legislation that would limit police use of less-lethal weapons, such as blast balls and rubber bullets, for crowd management. If approved by the federal court, the legislation could lead to the consent decree being lifted.

SPD's use of less-lethal weapons during 2020 protests has been much analyzed and criticized. One woman survived going into cardiac arrest several times after being hit by a blast ball, while another suffered a serious eye injury from a rubber projectile. Thousands of complaints poured into the city's Office of Police Accountability following the circulation of a video showing a young child screaming in agony after reportedly being pepper sprayed during a rally.

As SPD's chief operating officer Brian Maxey told the CPC at its meeting last December, the policies SPD had on the books at that time "did not serve us well."

"We found ourselves in a completely different environment, ill-prepared to deal with direct attacks on police, and being ordered by the city to hold lines that probably never should have been held," Maxey said.

The Seattle City Council subsequently banned less-lethal weapons for crowd management in 2020 and again in 2021, but neither ordinance was implemented. Maxey said SPD has not used any blast balls since 2020.

Now Mayor Bruce Harrell has proposed legislation that does not ban blast balls and other less-lethal weapons but requires that "specific facts and circumstances are occurring or about to occur that create an imminent risk of physical injury to any person or significant property damage."

RELATED: Blastballs and projectiles: A fierce debate over Seattle Police use of force

Maxey said under SPD's proposed matrix, blast balls would only be deployed away from people, and in case of a "riot or immediate life safety event." State law now prohibits the use of tear gas for crowd control unless the mayor has proclaimed a civil emergency.

The Community Police Commission generally supports Harrell’s proposed crowd management legislation, but wants additional restrictions on the use of blast balls, including mandating that they be deployed away from people and launched from a minimum distance of ten yards away. Councilmember Cathy Moore said she will bring amendments in line with the commission’s concerns.

Commission co-chair Joel Merkel said that after a time of upheaval, his group is reclaiming its mission with these conversations.

“We believe we’ve turned the corner on a lot of those challenges, and again we are doing everything we can to elevate those voices in this crowd management discussion," he said.

Merkel added that the commission is expected to appoint two new co-chairs next month to join his leadership, both of whom currently work on central staff for the King County Council. Arlecier West is a senior human resources business partner at King County and new to the CPC; Erica Newman is a policy analyst with King County Council and a current commissioner.

Callie Craighead, a spokesperson for Mayor Bruce Harrell, suggested that the CPC is largely on track to fulfill its mission.

"The Mayor’s Office is constantly evaluating potential changes to improve our overall police accountability system, and we have been working closely with our Council partners to ensure we have one of the most robust systems in the country," she said in a statement.

She added, "We appreciate the CPC sharing their perspective on the crowd management ordinance and are reviewing their suggested amendments."