The Seattle Office of Police Accountability (OPA), the civilian-led organization with the power to investigate policy and legal violations by Seattle Police employees, released their 2018 Annual Report Friday.

It’s packed full of interesting information about Seattle’s police accountability system that can help inform people interested in police reform in our city and elsewhere.

Here’s an infographic the OPA created that gives you an at-a-glance look at what they consider to be some of their key findings.

But, the numbers go much deeper. Here are seven parts of the report that really stuck out to us, in no particular order.

1) There is a significant backlog in the appeals process.

Seattle Police employees have the right to appeal after the Chief decides to discipline them. But, we’re seeing major backlogs in that appeal process. 49 cases stretching all the way back to 2015 are pending appeal right now.

That includes cases like the Eastlake Police Shooting in 2017, where two officers were fired after they fired a barrage of bullets at a car that was driving away from them.

The CPC identified the appeals process as something that needed to be reformed years ago. It lets officers choose multiple routes of appeal and isn’t transparent to the public, which undermines the Chief ability to impose discipline on her officers.

We addressed many of these issues in the historic Police Accountability Ordinance which was unanimously passed by City Council and signed by the Mayor in 2017. But, many of those reforms were wiped out by the police contract that was passed last year.

2) Police officers with 4 or fewer years of experience get the most complaints.

OPA’s data clearly shows that officers with the least experience on the force are getting the most complaints. But, after about four years on the job, the number of complaints against officers decrease significantly.

But, new officers don’t get the most complaints in their first year. Officers in their second year are actually the most likely to receive a complaint by a large margin.

The OPA has a theory about this. In their report they say, “This might be explained by the steep learning curve experienced by new officers who are no longer under the guidance of a Field Training Officer, as they are during their probationary period (generally the first year of service).”

3) Complaints are increasingly coming from inside SPD as opposed to the public.

Overall, the number of complaints is down over the last two years. In 2016, there were 1,524 complaints compared to 1,172 in 2018.

The source of these complaints is changing too. Complaints from members of the public have seen a sharp decline. Meanwhile, complaints originating from inside the Seattle Police Department have increased.

The source of these complaints is changing too. Complaints filed directly by members of the public have seen a sharp decline. Meanwhile, complaints originating from inside the Seattle Police Department or being forwarded by SPD have increased.  In 2017, 67 percent of complaints were filed independently from SPD. In 2018, that was down to 55 percent.

The biggest drive of this change is the appears to be the department’s use of BlueTeam, an internal application used by SPD supervisors to forward formal complaints made in the field through the chain of command. As OPA’s report points out, BlueTeam accounted for 38% of all complaints received in 2018, compared to 25% in 2017.

4) People who are Black are making up a greater percentage of complaints than in past years

People who are White used to account for nearly two-thirds of all complaints filed with the OPA. Now, they make up about half.

Meanwhile, people who are Black now file 36 percent of complaints against SPD employees, despite making up less than 8 percent of Seattle’s resident population.

5) The top allegations against police officers was use of force

By a wide margin, the most common allegation against SPD employees had to do with use of force.These complaints were rarely sustained by the OPA’s investigation. In fact, the OPA sustained those complaints less than 4 percent of the time.

Here are the most common allegations against SPD officers:

1. Use of force
2. Biased policing
3. Professionalism

The most common allegations to be sustained by OPA are:

1. Professionalism
2. Stops, detentions & arrests
3. Use of force

All in all, 117 SPD employees were subject to at least one sustained allegation against them.

6) The Police Chief overturned the OPA Director’s recommended findings 3 times in 2018.

Chief Carmen Best has the right to overturn the OPA Director’s recommended findings, as long as she follows a set of procedures. She did so three times last year. Here are brief summaries of those cases.

• De-Escalation Case: OPA found the employee violated department de-escalation policy and acted contrary to training when he failed to engage in planning or discussion with fellow officers prior to rushing the subject and did not utilize de-escalation tools.
• Terry Stop Case: OPA found that a Terry stop was not supported by reasonable suspicion.
• Fraud Case: In a prior case, the employee admitted to engaging in insurance fraud when he falsely reported to his insurance company he was involved in a car accident when his nephew was the driver. While he admitted to filing a false insurance report, he denied that his nephew was intoxicated at the time he arrived on the scene. Based on the totality of the circumstances and the evidence of the case, OPA believed that the employee engaged in intentional and material dishonesty during his OPA interview.

More information on these cases can be found on page 25 of the annual report, along with the reason Chief Best gave for overturning the recommendation.

7) Twelve officers were forced to leave the department.

All in all, 12 officers were either fired or left SPD prior to being fired. In addition to that, 2 other officers resigned prior to receiving other types of discipline.