Responding to a federal monitor’s report that the Seattle Police Department has yet to comply with court-ordered reforms, Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole has sent an email to her officers praising them for their “real, measurable success.”
O’Toole also attached a 47-page memorandum from two top aides that takes the position the department has met its obligations under a 2012 consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department to address excessive force and biased policing.
“I am requesting that the Mayor’s Office and City Attorney highlight these compelling arguments and conclusions in the City’s response to the Monitor’s filing,” O’Toole wrote Friday night in the departmentwide email.
The memo, written by Rebecca Boatright, the department’s chief legal officer, and Brian Maxey, the chief operating officer, says there “can be no dispute that Seattle Police Department has not only met … but exceeded and continues to exceed” the terms of the consent decree.