The mission of the Seattle Police Department is to prevent crime, enforce the law, and support quality public

safety by delivering respectful, professional and dependable police services... Delivering respectful police services means treating people the way you want to be treated. Professionalism is our hallmark and it means knowledgeable, competent, and ethical policing. Dependable means that we keep our promises and serve with courage and dedication1. If every Seattle Police Officer is suppose to follow this mission statement to the letter and abide by these basic rules of thumb, why does such a wonderful city like Seattle have so many horrible high profile unethical interactions between their officers and the public, specifically minorities? A 20.5 year old with a high school diploma taught the basics of criminal law, criminal and arrest procedures and to shoot to kill with no training or education in social norms, communications, ethics, and or anything equivalent is expected to do honest and competent policing? With other agencies around the Puget Sound having very similar mission statements and minimum requirements along with questionable public situations, a strong point can be made that the training of our peace officers are insufficient and lacking in proper procedure for interaction with the common public that they have sworn to protect and serve. How can a peace officer properly protect and serve the public interest and citizens if they are not taught how to interact with the general American public? According to the Seattle police departments website about their hiring process, Upon graduation from the Basic Law Enforcement Academy you will become a Student Officer. You will spend approximately 4 weeks at the Seattle Police Department Advanced Training Unit. You will

Seattle Police Department Policies and Procedures Section 1.000 Chapter Department Mission Statement and Priorities Title Administration 07/22/2002

learn the laws specific to the City of Seattle, department policy and procedures and services specific to Seattle. After completing advanced training, you will enter the Field Training Program, with an experienced officer who will evaluate your performance in the patrol division. You will be a probationary police officer for the first year following your graduation from the academy. Once passing probation, you will become a permanent member of the Seattle Police Department.2 What exactly is taught after graduating the 4.5 months long Seattle police departments academy during the field training? Research so far for specifically the Seattle Police academy has shown nothing specific, but according to the University of Washington Tacomas criminal justice degree program and multiple other agencies around the county; the curriculum intels mainly police patrol techniques, investigative procedures, law, and communication; which only includes writing and one class on conflict resolution. One section that was relieving but yet disappointing was an area in the curriculum called professional demeanor. Eight credits went to stress management, police ethics, and the history and principles of policing, while only two credits was used for cultural diversity and sexual harassment policies. With Americans being made up of multiple races, religions, colors, creeds, and so on, you would think more culturally conscious and interpersonal communication classes would be taught to new recruits in the academy and or students who seek a Criminal Justice Degree. Would this not increase the awareness of social problems and injustices plaguing certain areas, cultures, and maybe even status and disability classes? It is definitely worth a try and I am sure Joey Wilson shares a similar belief.

Seattle Police Department Entry level Hiring Process, online, http://www.seattle.gov/police/jobs/hiring/entry.htm

According to a King 5 News story that posted online on August 18, 2010, a family filed a police brutality suit against the Seattle Police Department3. According to the story, a seventeen year old Joey Wilson, by permission of the officer, called a neighbor for help soon after a police officer stopped him for j walking across a Queen Anne street. When the neighbor arrived, he thought the situation was getting out of control, and quickly went back for his camera another witness says that first things seemed fairly calm almost as if Joey and the officer knew each other but so how the simple j walking stop escalated to much more3. Joey suffered a broken nose and a concussion after the five officers tried to arrest the mentally ill kid for j walking. The video shot by the neighbor of the latter half of the incident is provided on the King 5 News web site and also on YouTube. Normally majority would say the officer was in the right and since the kid was uncooperative, he got what he deserved; but when you read the Seattle Police Departments written statement, it is clearly only trying to protect the officer and its agency from the negatives of the situation. According to the police statement, the suspect was uncooperative, refused to identify himself or move out of the roadway, and vehicular traffic was blocked. The officer called for assistance.4 If Joey was being uncooperative how is it that he was able to make a call to have someone help him out? Joey called someone in aid because he didnt understand what was going on. Did Joeys friend not identify Joey by name, place of residence and or as a U.S citizen? What could have happened verbally to cause the officer to require assistance and beat the kid up and say he was resisting arrest? If the first officer out of the five that it took to take Joey down had equal the amount of training and or education in people and communication that he has in tactics and criminal law, maybe he would have had a better hold on the situation. Everything cannot be solved by making an arrest or physical force.

3 4

KING 5 News online article. http://www.king5.com/news/local/Family-files-police-brutality-suit-against-Seattle-Police-Dept-101002044.html http://images.bimedia.net/documents/SPD+Statement+8-18-10.pdf

Before an officer is selected to be an officer he has to graduate a police academy. Before candidates are selected for the police academy, they have an intensive process to go through. Potential candidates are screened for numerous things such as any mental illnesses or aggressive tendencies. It is understandable that some candidates with issues slip through the cracks, but what happens when it is discovered in the academy that a future officer has violent tendencies? According to an article in the Seattle Weekly News by Nina Shapiro, Consider the case of Frank Sloan, who for the last few months has been on leave from the Carnation Police Department during investigations by the FBI, the King County Sheriff's Department, and the Association of Washington Cities, the city's insurer. Everybody has kept the precise nature of their investigations hush-hush a number of allegations" against Sloan that are "very serious," according to a city administrator Randy Suko. 5 Officer Sloan, who currently goes by Mr. Sloan, has serious anger issues, and in March of 1996, during his time in the States Basic Law Enforcement Academy in Burien describes just that. One report in his file read, "Recruit needs improvement in the areas of interpersonal skills and use of force," the evaluation reads. "Recruit Sloan has good officer presence. In fact sometimes he may have too much. Sloan always seeks to control and sometimes may try and over control a person or situation.5" Other evaluation states, "For Recruit Sloan to become a good officer he must be able to control himself before he can control the streets.5 Recruit Sloan was ranked 25 out of 26. Around this time, Sloan was a 32 year old, college graduate of mixed heritage with Marine Corp experience6, so maybe his outlook as a police officer looked promising to his future department so they kept him on. Shapiro writes in her article that "apparently, the academy isn't structured to sift out recruits on the basis of bullying, despite the allegations of brutality that have dogged police
5

http://www.seattleweekly.com/1998-04-08/news/police-academy-follies/ http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+COP+WHO+GETS+KIDS+INVOLVED+MEET+FRANK+SLOAN+OF+CARNATION+POLICE...-a065034450

nationwide for years. Academy Commander Mike Painter explains that the academy grades recruits mainly on academic tests in such subjects as criminal law and patrol procedure. Use of force is an academic subject too, requiring the study of relevant law. But when recruits demonstrate how they would behave in mock street scenes, their use of force isn't a criterion in their grade5. People like Sloan who seems to have a well equip background to be a great person in society and as a peace officer should be taught how to deal with stress and being under pressure in better ways while in the academy other than bursts of anger. With the recent reports and claims about police brutality in the Puget Sound Area, I hope it is clear that a promising outlook should not outweigh negative facts of any peace officer candidate. Safety of the general public should be instilled in every public safety employee. It is crucial that police officers receive ample training and education on how to truly keep peace. Just busting someone upside the head does not establish respect for authority; it establishes fear, and for some hate. Just like when officers are faced with the reality that you dont know what kind of individual you are dealing with when interacting with civilians; in turn we as civilians dont know what kind of cop we are getting when we interact with them whether as a victim or accused criminal. Its imperative that officers become more equip with intellectual offences and defenses, and learn how to cope with the known and unknown stresses of having the responsibilities of protecting and serving the public and its people as a peace officer.