| Seattle Police Department | |
| Abbreviation | SPD |
| Patch of the Seattle Police Department. | |
| Logo of the Seattle Police Department. | |
| Motto | Service, Pride, Dedication |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1886 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | City of Seattle in the state of Washington, USA |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington |
| Police Officers | 1,820[1] |
| Agency executive | John Diaz, Chief of Police |
| Website | |
| Seattle Police Website | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
The Seattle Police Department (SPD) is the principal law enforcement agency of the city of Seattle, Washington, except for the campus of the University of Washington, for which responsibility falls to the University of Washington Police Department. It is nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.
The Seattle Police Department has various specialty units including SWAT, bike patrol, harbor patrol, motorcycles, and mounted patrols.[2]
Law enforcement in Seattle began with the appointment of William H. ("Uncle Joe") Surber as town marshal in 1861. The SPD was officially organized on June 2, 1886. As of 2011 it has a staff of around 1,800.[3] Since the establishment of the Seattle Police Department, 58 officers have died in the line of duty.[4]
Contents |
The chief of the Seattle Police Department is John Diaz.
| Title | Insignia |
|---|---|
| Chief of Police | |
| Deputy Chief | |
| Assistant Chief | |
| Captain | |
| Lieutenant | |
| Sergeant | |
| Detective | |
| Police Officer | |
| Source: Seattle Police Department: Policy and Procedure Manual, Title 9.050 (XI)(B), p.7–8[5] | |
On June 21, 1974, a Seattle Police helicopter on its way to a shooting collided with a Cessna near Boeing Field. Both officers on board and both civilians in the Cessna were killed.[6]
In 1987, the Seattle Police Department created the modern mountain bike patrol units, paving the way for cities across North America to follow.[7]
In 1999, Seattle hosted the World Trade Organization (WTO) Conference. The Seattle Police Department was criticized for failing to properly prepare for the over 100,000 protesters that disrupted the conference. While the majority of protestors were not violent, some assaulted delegates and police, and destroyed property. The protest soon devolved into a riot. In response, SPD used chemical agents and less-lethal weapons in an attempt to restore order. News footage of this response and of the rioting was broadcast worldwide. Amazingly, not a single protester or police officer was injured seriously enough during the riot to require hospitalization. Chief Norm Stamper resigned amid the scrutiny of police response to the event.[8]
In 2001, riots broke out downtown during the Mardi Gras celebrations. The riots resulted in one death, more than 70 hospitalizations, and 21 arrests. The Seattle Police Officers' Guild membership voted overwhelmingly "no confidence" in Chief Kerlikowske for his failure to take appropriate leadership action during the incident.
In August 2010 SPD officer Ian Birk shot and killed First Nations woodcarver John T. Williams.[9][10][11] Subsequent grand jury findings on the level of threat posed by Williams were inconclusive but an internal review of the shooting by the SPD's Firearms Review Commission found the shooting "unjustified" and cited Birk's tactical mishandling of the confrontation as being responsible for Williams' death.[12][13] Birk resigned from the Department, though prosecutor Dan Satterberg declined to file charges, prompting a protest by Williams' family and supporters.[14]
In 2010, detectives from SPD's Gang Unit ordered two Latino men suspected of committing a crime to lie on the ground, where they were kicked and verbally assaulted; the incident was captured on a bystander's cellphone video[15][16] The police let the men go soon afterwards; the video prompted protests over racial tensions and a police department internal investigation. Several officers were suspended without pay and/or demoted, but not criminally charged. A civil lawsuit by one of the two men has been filed.
In December of 2011 the SPD was subject to a Department of Justice investigation that found officers had violated the 14th Amendment and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The DOJ found that SPD officers engaged in a pattern of excessive use of force that violated the Constitution as well as Federal law. Furthermore, the regular invocation of the Garrity protection was found to have reduced the department's ability to supervise the use of force and hinder investigations. A spokesman for the SPD indicated they will fully comply with the DOJ inquiry to avoid a federal lawsuit.[17]
The Bike Unit is credited as the first mountain bike unit in the United States. [18]
In 2005 the department started testing the use of BlackBerry PDAs with bike patrol officers. These PDAs allowed officers on the streets access to police records when the use of regular mobile data computer is not available.[19]
The Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum is a museum in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1997, it is dedicated to the history of the Seattle Police Department and of law enforcement in the Seattle metropolitan area. It claims to be the largest police museum in the western United States.
On the American television sitcom Frasier, Frasier's father Martin Crane was a homicide detective in the Seattle Police Department. Detective Crane was forced to retire after he was shot in the hip.
Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez starred as Seattle Police detectives in the films Stakeout and its sequel Another Stakeout. The first film was actually filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia instead of Seattle while the second was filmed in Seattle.
John Wayne played a Seattle police detective in the 1974 film McQ.
In the 1987 film Harry and the Hendersons, members of the Seattle Police Department investigate various prowler incidents as well as taking plaster casts of Sasquatch footprints.
In the 1990 film Short Time, Dabney Coleman plays a Seattle police detective whose medical records are mixed up with those of a bus driver who has only a short time to live. In an effort to secure his family's financial security, he attempts to get killed in the line of duty but, in a turn of comedic events, becomes a hero cop instead. Interestingly, this film was also filmed in Vancouver, BC despite the Seattle setting.
In the film Assassins (1995) starring Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, and Antonio Banderas, Seattle Police chase the assassins through the city. One of the pursuing officers was played by an actual serving Seattle police officer.
The 2005 film Police Beat follows an immigrant turned Seattle bicycle cop. It was written by Charles Mudede, the police beat reporter for the publication The Stranger.
In 2007, Battle in Seattle was released starring Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson. It is a story about the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity. Harrelson plays a Seattle cop.
In the video game World in Conflict, the Seattle Police Department help the National Guard to fight back the Red Army's invasion of United States. Although not a playable unit, a number of SPD officers can be seen in the opening cutscene, engaging Red Army troopers and evacuating civilians.
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