Seattle faces deadline for responding to DOJ demand for police reforms, could face lawsuit

From [HERE] SEATTLE — Seattle’s mayor may soon have something in common with tough-talking Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The U.S. Justice Department has threatened to sue Mayor Mike McGinn over allegations that Seattle police officers regularly use excessive force. McGinn is due to respond this week to DOJ demands for reforms in the Police Department. If McGinn doesn’t agree to make changes that satisfy the DOJ and agree to the appointment of an outside monitor, he can expect a lawsuit from the U.S. attorney in Seattle as early as next month.

That’s the same ultimatum — standard in DOJ reviews of police departments — that drew an objection from Arpaio, who said he couldn’t stomach the idea of an independent monitor undermining his authority.

“I am not going to surrender my office to the federal government,” he said last week after the DOJ sued him over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos.

It was only the second time since the verdict in the Rodney King police brutality case and Los Angeles riots that the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against a law enforcement agency with which it was unable to reach an agreement.

On Monday, McGinn said for the first time that, in principle, he would agree to a monitor and a court-enforced settlement.

But speaking on public radio station KUOW, he also said the changes proposed by federal prosecutors — including increased training and the hiring of more sergeants to supervise street officers — could cost the city $41 million a year.

He said the changes could also jeopardize the department’s ability to respond to public safety emergencies, and the cost could require cuts to important city services.

The DOJ disputes those points, calling the cost projection “simply wrong” in a written statement. Prosecutors invited McGinn to bring any concerns to their attention and said they remain optimistic they can reach an agreement with the mayor.

“Constitutional policing does not inhibit or hamstring the police,” U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said. “The city of Seattle and the police who do their jobs can’t afford for us not to fix the problems. On every front, the cost is too high, for everybody.”

The city’s counterproposal to the DOJ would require no more than $5 million per year, according to a confidential city budget office memo obtained by The Associated Press.

Seattle is facing a projected budget deficit of $32 million over the next two years.

“We hear the concerns DOJ is raising,” McGinn said. “My hope is DOJ can hear the concerns we’re raising.”

The Justice Department launched its formal civil rights investigation early last year, following the fatal shooting of a homeless, Native American woodcarver and other incidents of force used against minority suspects.

Surveillance cameras and police-cruiser videos captured officers beating civilians, including stomping on a prone Latino man who was mistakenly thought to be a robbery suspect, and an officer kicking a non-resisting black youth in a convenience store.

In December, a DOJ report found officers are too quick to reach for weapons, such as batons and flashlights, even when arresting people for minor offenses.