DOJ Finds Seattle Police Use Excessive Force 20% Of The Time!

I'm pretty shocked by this one. I have always dislike the SPD (though am usually a cop cheerleader) but this is frightening. One in five arrests excessive force? That's a very high number. It just screams that something needs to be changed, and soon. I learned in school that the older/larger the police department, the more likely it is to see corruption and abuse of power. This gives me a lot to think about. I am appalled at the numbers and wonder what rate other large departments are seeing in excessive force.

Why didn't they state that 80% of the time Seattle police did a good job and didn't use excessive force

reply to post by Basilisk


Because excessive force should be at 0%.

reply to post by Domo1


While i agree 100% that excessive force shouldn't happen at all, We are dealing with people here and no one is perfect. Not that i'm defending it at all but stating it in a way like that to me kinda undermines the good that the police forces around this country do daily.

reply to post by Basilisk


Because that number should be 100% and no less.

Originally posted by mus8472
reply to post by Basilisk

 

Because that number should be 100% and no less.

I have to agree with Basilisk, humans aren't perfect.

I think 99% is more appropriate.

They also stated that 63% of SPD officers, over 700 of them, never used any kind of force at all. Additionally, about 44 officers were responsible for the largest number of uses of excessive force, which they did from 5-14 times. Clearly these officers' lack restraint and adequate supervision, but to claim that all SPD officers are engaged in the excessive use of force "20%" of the time is a highly misleading statistic. The devil, as usual, is in the details.

The entire report is here, which, methinks, is reasonable to link to under these circumstances.

reply to post by schuyler


I appreciate you linking that. Good point you made.

Already A Thread On This

My bad

reply to post by Domo1


Explanation: S&F!

For those who want those exact numbers and data ...

Seattle Crime Rate [neighborhoodscout.com]

Seattle Crime statistics 2011 [seattle.gov]

And here is the wiki for the department itself...

Seattle Police Department [wiki]

Personal Disclosure: i hope this helps!

reply to post by mus8472


Yeah and wars shouldn't happen either but they do. All this article is doing is stating the obvious. No one wants bad things to happen in the world but these things happen. I mean really what can be done to stop this 100%? get rid of all the police? as long as humans are doing this job there are going to be mistakes and people are going to abuse their power.