The Seattle Community Police Commission released the following statement after an appeals court upheld the firing of former Seattle Police Officer Adley Shepherd. Read more here.
We applaud the court’s decision, but know there is still more work to be done to address issues with the police contracts which allowed Adley Shepherd to be reinstated after the Chief had fired him.
Seattle’s current police contracts allow for a broken arbitration system through which officers can challenge disciplinary decisions in closed-door hearings. Currently, there are nearly 100 unresolved arbitration appeals, some dating back to 2015.
We encourage City leaders to follow the court’s lead and address the issues in the police contracts, and implement the reforms in the 2017 Accountability Ordinance to prevent this from happening again.
