Lately I've been trying to think of what more I could do to help reduce police misconduct and detainee abuses. So if anyone has any suggestions please feel free to let me know... as long as it doesn't involve public speaking (I don't talk well anymore because of my head injuries) or my coming into any contact with a member of the Seattle Police Department because I really don't know what they would do to me if they saw me.
In any case... I've been thinking getting a prepaid phone with voicemail and putting up flyers and posters in various neighborhood urging people to call my number to report instances of police misconduct. I'm thinking the citizens of Seattle would be more inclined to call someone who wasn't a police officer to report cases of police misconduct than they would to call the Seattle Police run Office of Professional Accountability. Trust me, when I called to report what happened to me at the hands of their fellow officers, they were none too polite... and with all the reports of brutality and corruption in the news, I'm sure a lot of people are too afraid to report incidents.
I've already been in contact with some city officials in an effort to discuss accountability issues and that's gone well so far I think, at least they seem to listen and have been trying to improve things. Unfortunately the police union really has the upper-hand against the city's efforts to improve accountability and oversight right now, and the police union is apparently fighting tooth and nail to kill those efforts.
Anyhow... Just let me know if anyone has any reasonable ideas about what I can do to help improve the terrifying police misconduct situation here in Seattle.
Thanks for reading.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
I Want To Do More
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2 comments:
Man, I'd love to be able to report the police to anyone that wasn't the police. What a dumb system that is. Doesn't the county, state, or federal government have a number for reporting city police? Seems like something the FBI should handle.
Given the SPD's behavior towards this blog, I can't imagine anything would happen to the phone other than the voice mail filling up with prank / fake / harassing calls from officers in the department.
Yes, it's clear that the current system is busted and the guild refuses to cooperate with the city to fix it. So we need an alternative that at least exposes abuses so the public can see what their police officers are doing to them.
I believe there are other reporting avenues, like the DOJ Civil Rights Division and there might be a section of the FBI you can report abuses to as well... but the last time the FBI tried to investigate police corruption in Seattle several SPD officers tipped each other off to the FBI agents and the FBI had to cut the investigation short.
The FBI gave a report to the chief and he only fired one officer, the ones that tipped each other off and coerced officers who cooperated with the FBI into shutting up with threats and intimidation got off with a slap on the wrist... Otherwise I'd imagine the investigation would have found deeper and more systemic problems.
Thanks for the support.
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